The Jewish leadership in Jerusalem say Jesus with
suspicious minds and with bitter hearts. They had already grown so hostile to Jesus that they had begun to plan how they might
put him to death.
They told themselves high sounding reasons why they should do so. They said that wherever he went, there
was
bound to be disturbance; and too much disturbance, with
the Romans as watchful as they always were, might bring some
punishment down upon the nation. "It is better," they said, "that one man should die rather than that the whole nation
perish."
All these things Jesus understood. The clear eyes of his spirit foresaw the future. Some time before, some of the
Pharisees had tried to dismay him by bringing the news that Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, was about to seize him. Jesus waved
their threat aside. They were to go and tell "that fox" that he would go forward with his work until it was finished; and he
added, "It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of
Jerusalem."
But then the deeper level of his emotions broke
through into words: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill
the prophets, and stone them that are sent to you, how often would I have gathered
your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, and you would
not have it!"
"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you,
you shall not see me, until the time comes when you shall say, 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.' "
He was coming now. He knew what might happen; but he knew also the greater victory which lay beyond. As his
Father's appointed Son, he would enter into the sacred city, to bring to men there the gospel of
salvation which they must either choose or reject; but which, whether they should choose it or reject it, would at last prevail.