Readings for today: Joshua 19-20, Luke 19:28-48, Psalms 88, Proverbs 13:12-14
“And when Jesus 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. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)
In the midst of all the celebration and praise and palm branches waving, Jesus looks up and in his mind’s eye, sees a city in flames. He sees the Roman soldiers slaughtering His people. He sees the Temple being razed to the ground. He sees the siege engines and legions going street by street destroying everything in their path. All because the people of God refuse to choose peace. All because they refuse to follow the way of Jesus. They persist in their rebellion and the Romans will execute a terrible vengeance in 70 AD as a result. All this Jesus sees laid out before Him and He weeps. He knows they will cry out to Him. He knows they will ask Him why? Why will You not save? Why will You not deliver? Why will You not protect Your people, God?
Thankfully, God is faithful. He does not distance Himself from our pain. He is committed to join us in our suffering. He draws near the broken-hearted and those crushed in spirit. Over the centuries, He has reached out to us in so many ways, through so many people. Adam and Eve. Noah. Abraham and Sarah. Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob and Leah and Rachel. Moses. David. John. Mary and Joseph. It’s like their names are embedded in some sort of psychic or genetic memory that we cannot escape. All them called and set apart to show the world a different way. To show the world God’s way. And all of this was preamble, of course, to the greatest miracle the world has ever seen. And that brings us to the events of this Holy Week. Palm Sunday. Maundy Thursday. Good Friday. Easter Sunday. Billions the world over will gather in soaring cathedrals, beautiful sanctuaries, auditoriums like our own, or even on the dusty, drought-ridden plains of southern Ethiopia.
One of the mistakes we can make when we approach the events of this week is to think that somehow Jesus is being swept along by circumstances outside His control. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just a few chapters back in the gospel, Luke says, “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.” The idea there is Jesus is steeling His will for what’s to come. He’s preparing His heart and mind to suffer. He knows what will happen should He show up in Jerusalem at Passover. He knows the Father’s will is for Him to die. He knows His war with sin and death and evil and the devil is about to reach its final, dramatic conclusion on the Cross. All the fear and anxiety that will erupt from Him in Gethsemane as He cries out to the Father to let the cup pass is beginning to build. And one might think He would be tempted to turn aside. But rather than run from His fate, Jesus keeps His eyes focused on His mission. To draw near the broken-hearted and crushed in spirit. To save those who are afflicted and oppressed. One of my favorite authors puts it this way. “The Cross is not anyone’s failure. It is not the giving up of anything, not even of life. It is the achievement of something. Not a fate heroically endured, but a mission deliberately undertaken. A task finished. The issue of it, far from being tragic, is a shout! Christ does not sink into death. He mounts it…(like He mounted the donkey that first Palm Sunday)…and reaches His hand out for a scepter. He is not being blown about like a scrap of paper by the winds of circumstance and caught fast on a gallows; He is changing the whole face of the earth. This is no dismal route; it is an incredible conquest.” The triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem sets in motion the events of the most important week in world history. It is God’s definitive answer to humanity’s deepest question. What is God doing about all the sin and evil in our world? He is – according to Colossians 2:14-15 – wiping out the charges that were against us...He took them away and nailed them to the cross. There Christ defeated all the powers and forces arrayed against Him. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory. Friends, the suffering and death of Jesus is God’s “Yes” to this world’s “No.” It is God’s declaration to the world that there are no lengths to which He will not go. There are no heights to which He will not climb. There are no depths to which He will not plunge in order to save us. And on Palm Sunday, Jesus stands on the brink. You can almost see Him rein that donkey in for just a moment. Pausing before heading up the hill to Jerusalem. Tortured by the knowledge of what’s to come. And then a deep breath. A lifting of His head. His eyes rising above the hills to the One from whom His help will come. The maker of heaven and earth. Then He kicks his heels and rides forward. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" But some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. And cry out the stones did! In the silence of Good Friday. As Jesus, from the Cross, gathers into His arms all the agony of a ruined creation. As He bears the full weight of humanity’s sin. Past. Present. Future. Literally laid upon His shoulders. As He suffers and struggles under the weight of that eternal burden, Jesus gives up His spirit. The earth quakes. The ground shakes. The rocks split apart. Creation itself cries out for her Creator.
What thoughts run through your head as you gaze at the Cross? What do you feel in your heart as you watch your Savior suffer? It’s tempting to turn away. Tempting to avoid. Tempting to do a flyover from Palm Sunday to Easter without pausing to reflect on why Jesus had to die. My encouragement for you today - on this Good Friday - is to ask the Lord for the courage to spend time at His feet. Ask Him to give you the strength to grieve at the foot of the Cross. This is not about guilt and shame but about the honest acknowledgement that it is my sin. Your sin. Our sin that put Him there. Take some time today and marvel at the great love of God!
Readings for tomorrow: Joshua 21:1-22:20, Luke 20:1-26, Psalms 89:1-13, Proverbs 13:15-16