Jesus Weeps

When we think of Jesus weeping our minds immediately go to John 11:35. Lazarus dies, his family is distraught, and Jesus weeps.

There is another scene in the life of Jesus portraying his emotional side.

The Triumphal Entry is not what you'd expect.
Kings ride on stallions and in chariots. They wear crowns and robes. They stand over people.

Jesus rode into town on a colt.

Kings ride into cities, stand on platforms, stretch out their arms, and say, "I am somebody."

Jesus rides a colt into Jerusalem, gets off the colt, and he weeps.

We'd never expect this.

Luke 19:41, “As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it”

Over the past few weeks this verse will not let me go. Jesus came into Jerusalem having received a warm welcome from those who loved him and the first thing he does when he gets into the city…HE WEEPS.
This is more than a lump in the throat that comes from watching a chick-flick. (So I hear. I wouldn't know from personal experience. :))
This is more than the tears that slowly work themselves down the cheeks during Special Olympics commercials or a high school graduation.

This weeping means that His heart was moved to a point of brokenness.

Jerusalem was a successful city. It was the vacation-spot of the Judean countryside. Buildings were mesmerizing, and to cap it off, there was the Temple—the anointed place they had been working on over 45 years. King Herod was one of the greatest architects this world has ever known. Architects of the 21st century are still baffled by how they were able to build the way they did. It was utterly fascinating.

There was so much to enjoy in Jerusalem. You walked into the city with a sense of awe, like driving into Yellowstone or Washington DC.

But Jesus wept over the city, because Jesus sees through buildings, and he saw all forms of injustice and oppression. He saw a system that was crippling people…a system that was stripping them of the image of God that was in them from their birth.

This wasn’t pity.

In the movie Hotel Rwanda, there is the scene of an American journalist who went into the streets of Rwanda to capture horrific images of the genocide that took over 1,000,000 lives in 3 months. He came back with footage and he said, “Look, if we can put this on the news all of powers of the West will see this atrocity for what it really is and they will quickly come and help us.” The Hotel Manager, played by Don Cheadle responded, “No they won’t. They will see the footage and feel pity. And then they will turn around and finish their meal.”

Here’s the unfathomable love of Jesus. He wept over a city and then he died for it so that it could live. His weeping was followed by the cleansing of the Temple, but more than that, his weeping was the embodiment of the compassion of God. “I cry over all of the injustice, brokenness, and misery that is right before my eyes…and now I am going to take this to the cross to redeem it.”

In this moment, Jesus wept for humanity, especially those living in Jerusalem.

The question that has haunted me for days is this, “What happens when we learn to weep over a city like Jesus wept over Jerusalem, only to then lay our lives and resources down for a city in order to redeem it?”