A Final Lamentation
There was once a great city built to be a light to the world, the salt of the earth, blessed to be a blessing to others, the center of all life. Yet, something went terribly wrong. The people of the great city forsook the source of their greatness. They became wretched and something the world could do without. There were righteous souls who tried to save the great city but to no avail. Jesus lamented for the great city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” (37a). The city became so evil that even the messengers sent by God for correction were executed, not to mention that the very incarnation of God would likewise be betrayed and crucified.
The religious leaders who were to lead the people of Jerusalem in the ways of God failed to do what they were telling others to do (vv. 2-4). They love to use their religion to gain places of honor, but they missed what it meant to be God’s servant (vv. 5-12).
Seven woes were spoken against the city’s religious leaders for shutting people from the kingdom of heaven (v. 13), for converting people near and far to their own sinful ways (v. 15), for making perverted oaths (vv. 16-22), for neglecting the weightier matters of the law (vv. 23-24), for have a superficial righteousness that continued in sins like robbery and self-indulgence (vv. 25-26), for being “whitewashed tombs” looking righteous be being spiritually dead (vv. 27-28) and for building tombs for honoring the great Old Testament prophets but failing to realize that if they lived in those days gone by, they would have been those bent upon killing the prophets, from the first to the last (vv. 29-36).
Christ’s words, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (37b) express a yearning to preserve the people of the great city. God never intended the city to fall into sin, but the people refused to repent. Note the profound implications of Jesus speaking of Himself as the God who sought to nurture and protect the wayward children of the great city.
“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! (v. 38). These words from the Christ are chilling, as they signified both the outward manifestation of Jerusalem’s destruction and but spiritually the departure of the very Glory of God from the temple, which was the very center of the city. The Lord’s words allude to dark days in the past, just prior to the Jewish exile to Babylon, when Ezekiel spoke of God’s glory departing from the temple built by Solomon before its destruction (cf. Ezek. 10:18-19; 11:22-23). Jesus foresaw the sinful unrepentant city along with its temple, the second temple in Jerusalem, would soon suffer the same fate.
The very last words spoken during Christ’s public ministry were this: “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ ” (v. 39). The Lord’s ministry within a few days would end. He was soon to be crucified, rise again, and ascend to heaven with the promise of returning again. Just as the crowds welcomed Him at the Triumphal Entry (cf. 21:9), with the words blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, sinners needed to repent and embrace Him as the long awaited Messiah. Would Israel someday in the future come to see Jesus as the Messiah? No such promise is made. Christ instead the condition to which the wayward people of the city would see their Messiah.
Far from seeing how the prophetic message fits so well with the hypocrisy among others, whether it be inside or outside the church, the real challenge is realizing that all people in some way fall short of God’s glory, and our own sinfulness can leave us with woe upon woe. The remedy is to repent and call upon God for salvation. It is them we can see Jesus and declare: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
~ WGN
The religious leaders who were to lead the people of Jerusalem in the ways of God failed to do what they were telling others to do (vv. 2-4). They love to use their religion to gain places of honor, but they missed what it meant to be God’s servant (vv. 5-12).
Seven woes were spoken against the city’s religious leaders for shutting people from the kingdom of heaven (v. 13), for converting people near and far to their own sinful ways (v. 15), for making perverted oaths (vv. 16-22), for neglecting the weightier matters of the law (vv. 23-24), for have a superficial righteousness that continued in sins like robbery and self-indulgence (vv. 25-26), for being “whitewashed tombs” looking righteous be being spiritually dead (vv. 27-28) and for building tombs for honoring the great Old Testament prophets but failing to realize that if they lived in those days gone by, they would have been those bent upon killing the prophets, from the first to the last (vv. 29-36).
Christ’s words, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (37b) express a yearning to preserve the people of the great city. God never intended the city to fall into sin, but the people refused to repent. Note the profound implications of Jesus speaking of Himself as the God who sought to nurture and protect the wayward children of the great city.
“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! (v. 38). These words from the Christ are chilling, as they signified both the outward manifestation of Jerusalem’s destruction and but spiritually the departure of the very Glory of God from the temple, which was the very center of the city. The Lord’s words allude to dark days in the past, just prior to the Jewish exile to Babylon, when Ezekiel spoke of God’s glory departing from the temple built by Solomon before its destruction (cf. Ezek. 10:18-19; 11:22-23). Jesus foresaw the sinful unrepentant city along with its temple, the second temple in Jerusalem, would soon suffer the same fate.
The very last words spoken during Christ’s public ministry were this: “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ ” (v. 39). The Lord’s ministry within a few days would end. He was soon to be crucified, rise again, and ascend to heaven with the promise of returning again. Just as the crowds welcomed Him at the Triumphal Entry (cf. 21:9), with the words blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, sinners needed to repent and embrace Him as the long awaited Messiah. Would Israel someday in the future come to see Jesus as the Messiah? No such promise is made. Christ instead the condition to which the wayward people of the city would see their Messiah.
Far from seeing how the prophetic message fits so well with the hypocrisy among others, whether it be inside or outside the church, the real challenge is realizing that all people in some way fall short of God’s glory, and our own sinfulness can leave us with woe upon woe. The remedy is to repent and call upon God for salvation. It is them we can see Jesus and declare: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
~ WGN
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