Weeping for Wretches

Luke 19:41-42, And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."

The crowds during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem celebrated the earthly peace they believed would come through the Messiah. However, Jesus wept that Israel did not know the true meaning of peace. Rather, in their continual warfare against God, they were about to commit the greatest atrocity known in history: the creature would strike down God. How could they know the peace they clamored for when they were not willing to accept the vineyard Owner’s own Son (Luke 20:13-14)?

Though knowing the fickleness of this mob, their hearts of rebellion, and what crimes they would commit against Him in Jerusalem, far from ripping into Jerusalem with righteous anger, Jesus wept for this people. Knowing His own imminent death at the hands of these miscreants, the Savior nonetheless grieved for them and the suffering they brought upon their own heads by rejecting Him. What a blessed mystery You are, Lord! How far short of Your example we fall who too often respond to wretches with wrath and not weeping.