As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it
Jesus did not celebrate the fact that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed in 70 AD. He was not the type of messiah who would simply regard that destruction as just punishment for failing to recognize or to welcome him. He came not to destroy but to save, and lamented when the hardness of human hearts prevented him from doing so.
If this day you only knew what makes for peace–
but now it is hidden from your eyes.
Most people assumed that the only peace worthy of the name would require military might and conquest. Those hoping that a messiah would bring peace assumed he would bring it by means of the sword. No one suspected that it was through humility, obedience, and patient endurance of suffering that the possibility of true peace would be won.
Do we know what makes for peace? Or do we perhaps only see peace as the ascendance of our ideas and opinions about how things should be? Or do we know only what makes for temporary compromises that are unsustainable in the long term? There have been many apparently good ideas in the history of the world designed to avoid violence and conflict. There have been a variety of plans designed to lead to the construction of peaceful utopias. But the key and fundamental fact is that no system is so perfect that it can survive implementation by sinful and imperfect people such as ourselves. Our pride, our greed, our lust for pleasure and for power always corrupt such efforts before they get too far off the ground.
They will smash you to the ground and your children within you,
and they will not leave one stone upon another within you
because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.
We don't necessarily need a theocracy in order to fully realize the promise of Kingdom peace. But if Jesus does not reign in the hearts of individual women and men we will never attain it. If he does reign then it isn't too much of an exaggeration to say that any form of government will suffice. This should lead us to question whether Jesus fully reigns within us. And to with the qualifier fully we must admit the answer is always no. We always need more. This means that we need to continue to watch for his coming, for his visitation, when he comes to more fully claim his kingship within us. We must be watchful, because there are competing tendencies and desires in us that would hide his coming from our eyes. It may look much more humble than we would like. It may not seem successful or strong enough to be practical. But if we do learn to recognize his coming and he does reign in us more and more we can be sure that he promise of peace will be realized.
because of the tender mercy of our God
by which the daybreak from on high will visit us
to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow,
to guide our feet into the path of peace (see Luke 1:78-79).
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