Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says about Luke 19:41-44 “As Jesus came near and saw the city he wept over it saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” I love this verse. Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem. In an earlier lament following the death of John the Baptist, Jesus describes Herod, John’s executioner, as a fox and himself as a mother hen. (Luke 13:31-35) Now the hen has deliberately come into the fox’s lair and again he laments over the city of Jerusalem. Most scholars believe this passage was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, 35 years or so after Jesus’ death. It is written in such a way as to indicate that Jesus knew ahead of time what was going to happen. That is possible I suppose. An astute political observer might have predicted that the unrest in Palestine would ultimately result in an outbreak of violence, and it wouldn’t require a prophet to predict that Rome would ruthlessly crush them. So, perhaps Jesus is making that kind of observation as he lament’s Jerusalem’s future. Or maybe Luke is reporting that Jesus was a prophet who could predict the future. Regardless of the context, though, what I think is worth treasuring in this passage is that, right from the start, Jesus lamented that people of faith don’t recognize the things that make for peace. Two questions leap from that statement: Why don’t we, and what are they? Both of those are questions too large for a 400-word devotion. Both are questions worthy of our prayerful contemplation: • Why is it that our faith doesn’t call/compel us to be the world’s peacemakers? Why is it that in the United States the more often you attend church the more likely you were to support the war in Iraq? Today Jesus would be lamenting over the Church that has bastardized his name. • What are the things that make for peace? And why, as people of faith, don’t we readily know the answer to that question? Pity the Christ who has spent the last 2,000 years lamenting over us."
Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says about Luke 19:41-44 “As Jesus came near and saw the city he wept over it saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!”
ReplyDeleteI love this verse. Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem. In an earlier lament following the death of John the Baptist, Jesus describes Herod, John’s executioner, as a fox and himself as a mother hen. (Luke 13:31-35) Now the hen has deliberately come into the fox’s lair and again he laments over the city of Jerusalem.
Most scholars believe this passage was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, 35 years or so after Jesus’ death. It is written in such a way as to indicate that Jesus knew ahead of time what was going to happen. That is possible I suppose. An astute political observer might have predicted that the unrest in Palestine would ultimately result in an outbreak of violence, and it wouldn’t require a prophet to predict that Rome would ruthlessly crush them. So, perhaps Jesus is making that kind of observation as he lament’s Jerusalem’s future. Or maybe Luke is reporting that Jesus was a prophet who could predict the future.
Regardless of the context, though, what I think is worth treasuring in this passage is that, right from the start, Jesus lamented that people of faith don’t recognize the things that make for peace. Two questions leap from that statement: Why don’t we, and what are they?
Both of those are questions too large for a 400-word devotion. Both are questions worthy of our prayerful contemplation:
• Why is it that our faith doesn’t call/compel us to be the world’s peacemakers? Why is it that in the United States the more often you attend church the more likely you were to support the war in Iraq? Today Jesus would be lamenting over the Church that has bastardized his name.
• What are the things that make for peace? And why, as people of faith, don’t we readily know the answer to that question?
Pity the Christ who has spent the last 2,000 years lamenting over us."