“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 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. 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. 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.’” (Luke 19:41–44, NIV84)
What causes God to weep? In our verses for today we find Jesus weeping for the people of Jerusalem. Why would God ever weep? What would cause an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present God to cry? Rejection! In His very essence God is perfect love. His character is defined by His heart. His heart is visible to us in Jesus. And in our verses for today, Jesus wept over the people of Jerusalem because they had rejected His love for them. He had tried to show it any and every way He could, but they still rejected Him. Jesus said in verse 44 that they did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them. In Jesus Christ, God had come to them with all of His love and grace so that He might bring them back into His kingdom. But they refused. And God’s heart broke.
If you’re reading this devotion today as a Christian, please spend a moment to praise God that His moment of coming to you was not in vain. Between Him and the Holy Spirit, you stand before God as a recipient of His grace and a believer in His saving work on the cross. But know and remember often in your prayers that there are still so many more out there who need to hear the message of God’s love. We need to constantly be in prayer that the moments of grace we have shared with Jesus are multiplied to a world out there dying because they don’t know that love. We have to be willing to be used by God as instruments to share that love with people God brings into our lives.
If you are reading this devotion as a non-Christian, then know for certain that today is the day of God’s coming into your life. Open your eyes and your heart to receive His love and grace. See Jesus dying on the cross to redeem you, to save you, and to bring you home to be with Him. Don’t miss the day of His coming!
Peace!
Pastor Tom
www.firmlyrooted.church