Even You... Especially Now!

 

I would run into the verse when I needed it the most.
Just as my mouth had said the words out loud, “I feel like Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.”

And I search for the language within the pages of His Word that reminds me, once again, of the realness of the Savior and the reality of the separateness.

“As He came near and saw the city, He wept over it saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.  They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.'”  (Luke 19:41-44, NRSV)

And there’s simply some hard places in scripture that my mind can’t seem to stop dwelling on.  

This is one of them.

Because His heart broke.
His heart breaks.
And mine does too.
It must.

My commentary says the words I need to think on, “How can such a one (one looking upon the city that they love and how fevered and faithless and morally insensible seem the multitudes who live in it) look down on all of this and not weep?”

Jesus wept because of the willful ignorance of the people He lovingly served.  He wept because there was no peace among His people.  He wept because of the opportunity of receiving Him properly was neglected.  He wept because there was blindness, deafness, and hardened hearts.  And He wept because of the inevitable ruin that He could see ahead.

Oh what they might have become… those who knew Jesus and had Him in their very presence!  The long-awaited Messiah, who had come to save the world from their captivity of sin.

And yet they chose to remain in their mess.
They chose their burden over gift.
They chose their brokenness over restoration.
They chose their heavy yoke over easy exchange.

And His tears of pain are proof of His compassion.
And of His desire that He, like His Father, “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked would turn.”  (Ezekiel 18:23)

And sometimes I am tempted to believe the “wicked” is the other guy.
The one who has blatantly denied the Lord.
The one who has rejected His claims.
The one who has refused to accept His free gift of salvation.

But I see the text is aimed at this heart too.
The one that can be slow to learn and eager to do right, still choosing wrong.

“If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for peace!”

You.
Even you!
Especially now.
In this, your day.

It’s one thing to think callously about those who brazenly and flagrantly disobey, and mock and deny Jesus.
But it’s another thing to think that I, too, could be the one who grieves the Holy Spirit.

I, too, can deny Him with my doubt.
I, too, can reject His way of righteous living.
I, too, can refuse to accept while tight-fisting all I can’t seem to give up or surrender to.

The words pierce my heart too.

And I weep along with Jesus.

The ones who had Jesus with them the entire time, had now forfeited the inheritance.
And the One who would die, still, for them… wept over the destruction coming that didn’t have to.

Their failure to recognize Jesus upon His visitation is to serve as an alarm within my own spirit to awaken!
“Wake up, wake up, O Zion!  Clothe yourself with strength. Put on your beautiful clothes, O holy city of Jerusalem!  Rise from the dust, O Jerusalem!  Remove the heavy chains of slavery from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!”  (Is 52:1-2)

“Arise, Jerusalem!  Let your light shine for all to see.  For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.  Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.”  (Is 60:1-2)

“Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”  (Eph 5:14)

As I weep with Jesus… I pray for eyes to always see, ears to always hear, and a heart that beats to His rhythm.  To see the grace and pardon, and to seek the removal of anything that fails to bring Him ALL the honor and ALL the glory, until I see Him face to face.