The Story of Jesus

Lament Over Jerusalem

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.