Luke 19:41-48

Compassion, Coming, Clinging

Just a short passage, but it contains so much.  Three points jumped out at me as I read the verses:

1. Jesus wept over the city. Do we weep over the city in which we live?

2. The time of God’s coming. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what we today call Palm Sunday.  What did he find?  God’s house was being used as a market place.  No wonder he wept as he approached the city.  He knew what he would find there.  He also knew what awaited him 5 days later.

3. All the people hung on his words. (v 48) The other Gospel writers tell of how the people shouted out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” But 5 days later those same people cried, “Crucify him, crucify him!”

Let’s take a short glimpse at ourselves in these 3 points:

1. Jesus wept. - He had compassion on the people around him.  He knew their fickle hearts and the superficiality in their lives, but he showed us that it is all right for a man to cry, to go deeper into himself to find that hidden or buried compassion for others.  It is OK to be weak, because when we are weak then we are strong if we lean on his strength, not our own.

2. As I write this devotional, I am looking forward to the time of God’s coming into the world for the first time when he was born as a baby, but this devotional is being read on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem in preparation for the greatest event of all time–when he gave up his life voluntarily for our redemption. Many people back then didn’t realize who he was or what he did for us by his death and resurrection.  Because you did not fully recognize the time of God’s coming to you. Do we understand fully what these words mean?  Have our lives been changed by a deeper penetration of these words?

3. All the people hung on his words that day. As church-going people, many of us try to take time every day to read God’s Word.  I speak to myself here, but I also ask you to examine your hearts this Lenten season.  Do I hang on his words or do I just read them quickly so that I can say I have done my duty for today?  I am ashamed to confess that many days I walk away from my “quiet time” not feeling “quiet” in my heart at all.  In fact, not feeling anything.  Let us, like the people in the reading for today, “hang on his words” so that they penetrate deeply enough to show the things of this world as dim shadows in comparison.  From today on, let us persevere in clinging to his words which bring us peace, as we recognize this as a continuous time of God’s coming to us daily.