Yesterday, we were talking about the need to be broken over the eternal state of the lost. I want to conclude this first application with a story from personal experience.
Now I want to apply this in two ways. First of all, I want to apply it to those who are Christians, for whom the Lord Jesus Christ, weeping over Jerusalem on this occasion, is an example. I want to urge that example upon you. I want to ask it this way: Is there no one you know, lost in sin, for whom you ought to weep? Let me back up a point. I think sometimes I hear people talk about judgment coming, as if it's something to be desired. I suppose they are looking at injustice, and they want it to end. They want the Lord to come soon and deal with it, and with those who are responsible for it. But we should weep for them because of the tragic condition they are in.
The third thing is that not only is the Lord weeping because the people are precious to Him and because they didn't know God, He's also weeping because judgment is coming. The judgment He's talking about here is the judgment that would fall upon Jerusalem when it rebelled against Rome, bringing the armies under Titus to destroy it in A. D. 70. Jesus foresaw all this. The words here accurately depict what will come. And yet, I think, in view of everything He said during this final week, that it wasn't only the destruction of the city He had in mind. He saw that, of course. But He saw beyond that to a far greater destruction—a destruction that we normally describe as the final judgment.
There are two surprises in this triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The first, which I've just described, is the surprise the disciples had. They expected Jesus to be rejoicing; instead, they find Him crying. But there's another surprise as well, one that is more obvious to us because of the position we occupy in history.
There must have been many times during the three-year teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that there was weeping, even though we're not told about it. But whatever the case may have been earlier, there was certainly a great deal of weeping during the final week of ministry that began on what we call "Palm Sunday."
