Jesus Grieves Over Jerusalem

Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

31 At that time some Pharisees said to him, “Get away from here if you want to live! Herod Antipas wants to kill you!” 32 Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow; and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. 33 Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn’t do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem! 34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. 35 And now, look, your house is abandoned. And you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD!’” (Luke 13:31-35 NLT)

As Jesus neared Jerusalem and prepared for the final days of his ministry in and around the “Holy City”, he grieved over the city. Jesus had also wept with Martha and Mary at his friend Lazarus’ tomb in Bethany. Isaiah said Jesus would be “A man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.” (Isaiah 53:3-4 NLT)

Grief is sadness and pain over loss. Jesus loved his people. He loved the city that was intended to be the place where the light of God shone out to the whole world, but had become a place of self-serving religion and injustice—the place where he would be finally rejected and crucified soon. He loved this city he knew would be destroyed to the ground within a generation. He grieved over the pain his people would suffer, and the deaths—the loss—of hundreds of thousands of his people.

Grief is sadness and pain over loss. We grieve too! Grief is one of the costs of loving and caring. The only way to completely protect yourself from grief is to never love anyone or anything, but the cost of living a life without love is far greater than the cost of grief over loved ones or loved things lost!

I’m in a wonderful season of life, but it is also a season marked by griefs and losses. Friends and family members die. We grieve. We lose some of our freedoms to age and illness. We grieve. Relationships fail and love is lost. We grieve. But we do not grieve alone, ever! Jesus knows our grief, understands our grief, and Jesus bears our griefs and sorrows with us. We do not grieve alone, ever!

Prayer:

Father, Thank you that Jesus, our Savior and Lord, is a man of sorrows and acquainted with our deepest griefs! Please help us in our griefs and help us to bear with others in their seasons of grieving. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!