Wept

Luke 19:28-44
Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem 
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2019%3A28-44&version=NRSVUE
 
The traditional reading for this upcoming Sunday stops at verse 40, in which Jesus told some of the Pharisees that there’s no stopping his movement of peace and love. No one will remain silent about Jesus. If they would remain silent, “the stones would shout out” (v.40). The moment had come when God’s reign could not be squashed. Creation will sing God’s praises if the people can’t. That typically sounds like a great end to the story, but the Spirit nudged me to keep reading this week.
 
The next four verses were like a gut punch. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem did not end with cheering and celebrating. There was more to the story. According to the gospel of Luke, after Jesus’ processional, Jesus wept. Jesus wept over Jerusalem – again. This is the second time Luke shows us how emotional Jesus was. He lamented over Jerusalem in Luke 13 when some of the Pharisees were not willing to see Jesus for who he was. Now, Jesus wept when Jerusalem would not recognize “the things that make for peace” (v.42). He knew that within a generation, the city would be destroyed. Rome’s army would surround Jerusalem and destroy it in AD 70, and the people would be lost. This brings Jesus to tears.
 
The gospel of John adds to Luke’s depiction by telling us that Jesus wept over the death of his friend, Lazarus (John 11:35). Jesus was not afraid to show his emotions and wept over the loss of his people, which is opposite of the image depicted in the fundamentalist “bro culture.” Young men are attracted to this idea that manhood is a strong arm that rules by force and violence, so they can reclaim positions of power in the name of Jesus. This depiction does not represent who Jesus was. Perhaps the “colonizer Jesus” was made into that image, but the gospels do not show us a “king” who ruled by force. The gospels show us a deeply emotional, loving man who resisted with nonviolence and protested their harmful discriminatory purity laws by healing the sick, welcoming the outcast, and eating with sinners. 
 
Some men in power prefer the “King Jesus” image they created because they get to rule over the people by force in the name of religion. If we truly read the gospels, we would see that the Roman tyrants fit closer to this image, not Jesus. This image describes Herod who oppressed the people and occupied Jerusalem. Jesus tried to show them a different way, than fighting violence with violence, but they did not recognize Jesus’ way of peace. Jesus even said that perhaps things could have been different if they recognized “the time of [their] visitation from God” (v.44).
 
If the people had been willing to see that God was present among them in the person of Jesus, perhaps the story would have a different ending. If the people could have embraced the vision of the kingdom Jesus offered, perhaps they would receive God’s peace instead of destruction. If the people had been willing to change their minds about their understanding of God, and open themselves to a God of love and peace, then perhaps we’d be telling a different story of the gospel.
 
But they didn’t, and that grieved Jesus. He wept over the loss of the people. He wept over people’s stubbornness that caused their demise. He wept over their unwillingness to see that God is always doing a new thing that is rooted in love. He wept when the people tried to force their own way instead of embracing God’s way.
 
I think it’s important for us to see that there’s always more to the story. Tears behind the crowd’s cheers show us the real Jesus. We see the One who wept because he will not be able to save them from Rome. We see the One who cared deeply for their loss and destruction and who was not afraid to show his emotions. We see the One who showed us that manhood brings peace not force. His tears do not make him weak. His tears bear God’s heart for his people.
  
Reflection Questions:
What is your image of Jesus? Is it rooted in your own image or the gospels?
What do the tears of Jesus mean to you?
Are you willing to embrace Jesus’ kingdom of peace? What does that look like in your life?
How do you see the end of the story?
 
Pray:
May your way of peace, O God, usher us into your dream for our world.
 
Act:
Allow your tears to fall like Jesus'. Weep for those who do not see Jesus’ way of peace.
 
 
*New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.