Luke 19:41 "And Jesus Wept"

When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, it caused quite a stir- in fact, it broke into an impromptu parade, with people lining the streets cheering. Some laid their cloaks and garments on the ground in front of Jesus –some waved palm branches –most sang and shouted and cheered. Jerusalem was welcoming Jesus as their long awaited Messiah –the Deliverer promised to them by God. Jerusalem was ready to make Jesus their King.

If the disciples had been reluctant and a little fearful about coming to Jerusalem, that all changed. Now, it was clear that the time was right. Now was the time for the Messiah to reveal Himself, and raise an army and liberate Israel from Rome’s iron fist. Now, Jesus was finally coming into His own –and, of course, when Jesus assumed power, His 12 faithful companions would, naturally, be recognized and honored and given positions of authority in the new kingdom. I can imagine what these 12 guys were thinking. Remember who they were and where they came from? They were an unlikely lot of commercial fishermen and tax-collectors and other unnotable people. These were not the kind of people that normally had any possibility of entering the ranks of nobility –but Jesus had hand selected them, and personally trained them for three years –and now, the time had arrived, and people were cheering, and it seemed like it was really going to happen.

But with all of the cheering and carrying on, and all of the excitement, and each disciple lost in his own thoughts and daydreams, almost nobody noticed what Jesus was doing –in Luke 19:41, we read, “As they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry.”

The exact word used here for cry is the same word used to describe Mary, Martha’s sister at the tomb of their brother Lazarus –and it’s the same word used later to describe Peter when he realized that he had betrayed and denied Jesus –and it’s the same word used later yet to describe Mary the Magdalene at the Tomb of Jesus. We’re not talking about a little tear trickling down Jesus’ cheek. What the Bible says is that when Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem ahead –while everybody was cheering and hailing Him as King, Jesus was wracked with grief and sobbed uncontrollably. And the Bible goes on to explain that Jesus was grieving, not for Himself –not because of the torment and pain He was about to suffer –but for Jerusalem –for the people –for these very people that were hailing Him as King –He knew that before the week was through they would shouting –“Crucify” instead of “Hosanna.” And He knew what was going to happen, spiritually to these people as a result of crucifying their Messiah –and He knew what was in store for the Jewish people in the years ahead. He wept for these people because they didn’t get it. They didn’t understand. The problem was that even though people longed for a Messiah, even though they accepted Jesus as the Messiah and praised God and worshiped and sang and danced and shouted and cheered, they actually had no idea, no clue about what God’s plan for the Messiah was. They were so focused on their own wishes and desires and hopes and dreams and agendas, that God’s agenda was ignored.

I wonder if maybe we are guilty of the same basic sin that they were. How often do we get caught up in the emotion of worship on Sunday, and then get anxious or depressed or angry or filled with fears and doubts if God doesn’t behave like we want, or if He doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we want during the week? How often do we come to church on Sunday and sing the songs and pray the prayers and worship God, and then during the week go about trying to make our own agendas and plans succeed? You know what –I don’t actually wonder if we are guilty of this at all, I know that we are. We all are.

And that is part of why what Jesus did later in the week as He and the disciples were eating their Passover meal so important. Because we are so prone to try and make God fit into our little box, and try to make the Kingdom fit into our agendas –because we are so quick to forget what is truly important, Jesus, during that final meal on the night He was betrayed –just before He was arrested and falsely accused, and unfairly sentenced, and brutally tortured and executed, Jesus took a piece of bread and held it up for His disciples to see and He broke it and gave some to each one of the disciples and said to them, “Take this and eat it –this is my body given for you –as you eat it, remember me.” And later in the same meal, Jesus took a cup of wine and held it up for the disciples to see –the He passed to each of them and told them to drink, and He told them, “This cup is a new covenant in my blood which is poured out for the forgiveness of many.”

And before the next day, what Jesus said happened. He was arrested. His body was tortured and torn –for us. His blood was shed establishing a new covenant, a new agreement between God and man. The agreement is this –If we confess our sins, and don’t try to cover them up or hide them, and we admit that our sins have separated us from God and caused us to turn away from God –and if we accept the tortured body and shed blood of Jesus as the punishment that we deserve, God will forgive our sins. This isn’t the agreement that we came up with trying somehow to appease God –this was God’s agreement with us.

This is why the Bible teaches that we “can't be saved by believing in anyone else. God has given us no other name under heaven that will save us." (Acts 4:12) This is why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father accept through me.” (John 14:6) This is why the Bible asks, “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3) This is why the Scriptures tell us, “The one who turns away from this teaching does not turn away from man, but from God.” (1Thess. 4:8)

This is God’s new agreement with us –our sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus. That’s what this week is all about –beginning on Palm Sunday –and continuing through the week with Christ’s arrest, the mockery of a trial, and His brutal execution -then ending up on Easter Sunday morning as we celebrate His resurrection from the dead as He proved that our sins are, indeed, forgiven.