Sunday
Sunday
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.
Luke 19:41
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem is recorded by all four evangelists, although each adds details that the others omit. Jesus had evidently made up his mind to fulfill what stood written of him in Zechariah 9, namely that a future king of Judah would ride into Jerusalem bringing salvation, yet not with swashbuckling bravado nor on a prancing warhorse, but humbly and meekly on the back (of all creatures!) of a donkey. Thus he would “proclaim peace to the nations” (Zech. 9:10).
This incident bears all the signs of having been prearranged and even stage managed. Probably on a previous visit Jesus had arranged with friends in Bethany to lend him their donkey, releasing it on the agreed password “The Master needs it.” Then the crowds entered into the drama, spreading their clothes on the donkey’s back and on the road and breaking into spontaneous cheering.
Having passed through the villages of Bethany and Bethphage, the cavalcade rounded the brow of the Mount of Olives, and suddenly Jerusalem came into view, with its glittering pinnacles and the spacious courts of the temple. Here, it seems, as the shouts of the crowd died down, to everybody’s astonishment and embarrassment Jesus burst into tears. Through his sobs he uttered a prophetic lament over the city, predicting its destruction because it did not recognize the time of God’s visitation.
It is surely remarkable that, at the very moment when Jesus warned the city of judgment, he was weeping over it in love. Divine judgment (which is the main theme throughout Holy Week) is a solemn, awesome reality. But the God who judges is the God who weeps. He is not willing that any should perish. And when in the end his judgment falls on anybody (as Jesus said it will), God’s eyes will be full of tears.
For further reading: Luke 19:41–44