Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 19:41-44 (New Living Translation)

⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus is heading for His crucifixion. He looks at Jerusalem – the City of Peace – from a distance and weeps. I think that means he broke down and cried tears.

His sorrow came because His people, those from Judah, did not realize that the peace that cannot be understood was right in front of them. Note the last phrase of verse 44, the people did not recognize God’s coming.

Excuses? Yes, the people had plenty of them. They had heard the promises of a Messiah and interpreted them to mean something that made great and perfect sense to them. They had interpreted poorly.

Today? Do we interpret any better? Are we looking for what God will bring? Will we recognize God’s coming? We like to think that the answers to these questions are a matter-of-fact yes. We won’t, we can’t, be mistaken like the people who lived in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. Or will we or can we? Of course we can. Will we? Let’s pray that we will be better than those who went before us.