Monday – (Jesus Weeping Over Jerusalem)
We trust that you will find these devotions helpful on your spiritual walk with Christ. Please meditate on the Scripture passages, understand the story in context, then reflect on how this story relates to your life today. May God bless you this Easter season.
SCRIPTURE: Read Luke 19:41-44
SUMMARY: As Jesus approaches Jerusalem and sees the city, he weeps over it, expressing deep sorrow and lamentation. He prophesies about the city’s future destruction, foretelling the coming days when Jerusalem will be surrounded by enemies who will lay siege to it, demolish its buildings, and not leave one stone upon another. Jesus laments that the city did not recognize the time of its visitation, meaning the opportunity it had to recognize and accept him as the Messiah.
This passage reflects Jesus’ profound compassion and sorrow over the impending judgment that Jerusalem will face due to its rejection of him as the Messiah.
STORY: Jesus wept over the city (Luke 19:41)
SELF-EXAMINATION: We, too, will shed tears over a lot of different things: an unrequited love, the birth of your children, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, perhaps even a public humiliation. But have you ever wept over your city or this nation? We will certainly complain about both of them. We opine about how far we have fallen from the good old days, about the school board ushering in woke policies that harm our children and go against our values, about the mistakes, scandals, and bad decisions of our political leaders, perhaps even how lobbyists have more influence over public policy than “we the people.” You can certainly come up with your own list…
But have you ever considered that we are also in a spiritual battle? The enemy of God and his kingdom is called the god of this world. This world is already in the devil’s pocket, and God’s people always get the short end of the stick. To put all this into perspective, this world is not our home, so put an end to our incessant desire for the people of the world to love us. That will not happen. Paul reminds Timothy that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). God’s people are ambassadors of another kingdom, a kingdom of light rather than a kingdom of darkness. This world is literally, not our home. But we have a task, as ambassadors of another kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:20), to share the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. May that be our overwhelming desire and focus of our life. Perhaps you will read Paul’s words in Acts 20:24 as your own personal life verse… “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”
SOUL-SEARCHING: What are we to do? Let’s weep over our city. Let’s pray for our nation. Let’s call for repentance, leading the way ourselves. Let us be the answer to that prayer.
Let’s pray like Daniel, “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; 10 nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets” (Daniel 9:8-10). Daniel, who was a righteous follower of God, did not just pray for THEM, Daniel prayed for US; he includes himself with all the people. Weep over our city, pray for our leadership, for our repentance, and for God to be glorified no matter what.