Occasions when Jesus wept

Luke chapter 19, commencing at verse 28. Jesus has been recounting the parable of the talents, and now he prepares for the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

As he approached Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it, and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it, tell him, the Lord needs it.

Those who were sent ahead went and found it, just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, his owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt, and put Jesus on it.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Let's pray. And to that passage which Phil read.

Let's read together from the 41st verse. This is Luke 19. If you've got the NIV version of the Bible, join me.

Luke 19, 41. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Amen.

Last Thursday in the afternoon, I spent most of my time in a little chapel called, if I translate it from the Latin, the Chapel of the Teardrop. It's built in commemoration, though it does not claim to be the exact place, where our Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he prepared to enter in through its golden gate. There's a lovely view of the city.

As opposed to most tourist spots, it's very quiet. And apart from some French pilgrims who came and behaved in a very spiritual and helpful fashion, my sojourn in that beautiful place was uninterrupted. I went outside and looked at the old city of Jerusalem and also modern Jerusalem towering away in the background.

And I was asking myself, Lord, I wonder to what degree you weep today. The reason for my question was basically twofold, although doubtless other reasons could also be added. A party of mainly Jews had got on the bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv a couple of days before.

There's a precipitous aspect to the road on part of the journey. And at one point, an Arab, as the bus was being driven fairly swiftly, went towards the driver's spot, grabbed hold of the wheel, shouted, Allah is great, and directed the bus straight over the precipice with the loss of several lives. I'm not quite sure how many.

I came from Tiberias through to Jerusalem and back to Ramallah on the Tuesday. Ramallah is on the West Bank and one of the centers of resistance to the Jewish rule of the West Bank. Not knowing when I arrived in Ramallah late at night, the place teeming with soldiers armed to the teeth, that four people had been shot, that almost in a fashion reminding one of the barbaric treatment of King Saul by the men of Beth-Shan, one of the bodies was hoisted on a jeep or a lorry and placarded around Ramallah, presumably as an indication on behalf of the army as to what would happen if there was any further trouble in terms of stone throwing or unrest in Ramallah.

And I thought to myself, Lord, the son of Abraham, Ishmael, and the son of Abraham, Isaac, are still quarreling. And surely if you were here, the tears that you shed when you approached Jerusalem and went through its golden gate would still be falling. And then I thought that my reasoning was not just emotional because I recalled that when Paul was unhorsed going from Jerusalem to Damascus, his mind intent on ridding the capital of Syria of any Christian presence, the Lord Jesus said to Paul, why do you persecute me? Identifying himself with the suffering of Christian people.

And then I recalled how the Lord Jesus said that if a cup of cold water is offered to anyone in my name, the person who does such will not lose his or her reward because as much as you did it to the unfortunate, to the one who is without this world's goods, you did it unto me. And it seems as though one has scriptural justification to believe that our Lord Jesus still empathizes today whether it's hurt, whether it's injury, whether it's harm, the tears still fall. And so I direct your attention back to this scripture this morning.

For folk who perhaps found the first twenty minutes of our gathering in the tab to be a little difficult because the stories or the choruses were so simplistic, the note of rejoicing was hit, and perhaps you felt, well, it wasn't that easy for you to simply rejoice because, well, your life is so complex. And I want to tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ has an emotional interest in your circumstances and understands your situation. So let me return you to the subject matter.

I want to speak to you on when Jesus wept because the Bible here tells me that the Lord Jesus wept as he came to the city of Jerusalem. When did Jesus weep? I'm going to answer it in three ways and bring together all the material in this passage of scripture. He wept, I argue, in the aftermath of an astonishing obedience, in the aftermath of an astonishing obedience.

Let's put that into its immediate context, but first of all into its broader context. If you go back in your Bible to Luke's Gospel in chapter 8, you'll discover there our Lord Jesus is recognized by his disciples as being the Son of God. Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, and I think it's verse 16.

No, it's not. So where am I? Chapter 9 and verse 18. Once when Jesus was praying in private, his disciples were with him.

He asked him, Who do the crowd say I am? And they replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. But what about you? He asked. Who do you say I am? And at Caesarea Philippi, one of the most northern spots in Palestine, Peter discloses what he has come to understand about Jesus, the Christ of God.

That's who you are. And from the moment that Jesus receives that disclosure, or as he agrees to it, he of course was already aware fully of his identity, our Lord starts out on his long journey from the north of Palestine towards Jerusalem. Go to verse 51 of chapter 9. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

And on the first stage of his journey, stay with that chapter, verse 52, he goes into a Samaritan village. And the obnoxious name of Jerusalem, as far as the Samaritans were concerned, as it is mentioned that Jesus was going there, that was his destination, it causes them to reject him. They do not welcome him.

Because he's heading for Jerusalem. But nonetheless, Jesus is not put off. He won't be put off by Peter when Peter tries to dissuade him from going to the holy city, for there he predicts he will die.

And throughout all the chapters that follow, from the 9th through to the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, right to our reading, which takes Jesus into Jerusalem, you discover that with great obedience to the will of the Father, he makes his way towards the place where he knows he's going to be, in a damnable fashion, done to death. Now when Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, in the immediate context, we discover he weeps when there has been an astonishing obedience shown to him on the part of some of his friends. Look at the 28th verse.

I'm now in chapter 19. Jesus has got to Jericho, been through Jericho, 20 miles from Jerusalem. He's moving towards Bethany, which is just 3 miles from Jerusalem.

And he comes to the outskirts, a little nearer the holy city, Bethphage, and there he sends a couple of his disciples, and he tells them to bring to him a colt, which they'll find tied there. And when they go and untie the animal, if anyone should interrupt you, says Jesus, and prevent you from bringing the colt to me, simply say to them, the Lord needs it, verse 34. The Lord needs it.

And in an astonishing fashion, exactly what our Lord Jesus predicted came about. The disciples go to Bethphage, they unleash the animal, and they bring it to the Savior, and when they are interrupted in unleashing the animal, they simply say to the people who ask them what they're doing, the Lord has need of it. It may be that in your understanding of the New Testament, you feel that our Lord Jesus only had 12 disciples.

In one sense you're right, in another sense you're wrong. You'll discover that in the seventh chapter, or rather the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, as he's picking his disciples, he makes his selection from many friends. Look at the sixth chapter in verses 12 and 13.

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him, and chose 12 of them. Did you get that? He called his disciples and chose 12.

There were more than 12 people who generally followed the Lord Jesus. But 12 were going to receive a specific call to come much nearer to him, and to follow him all the way down to Jerusalem. Now it seems to me that amongst the general company of disciples, there were at least a couple of people who lived in Bethphage.

And when they heard that the Lord had need of this particular animal, immediately they responded. It was an astonishing act of obedience to the needs of the Lord Jesus. Now you say, well why do you bring that into our thinking when you talk about the tears of Jesus? Well it seems to me that the obedience of those people in Bethphage contrasts to the crass disobedience of the people in Jerusalem.

Our Lord was the Prince of Jerusalem. Our Lord had come to bring to Jerusalem God's offer of salvation. What he wanted from the citizens of Jerusalem was obedience.

What he didn't receive was obedience. And here is this contrast in this historical narrative. It's in the aftermath of astonishing obedience the Lord has needs of the animal, let the animals go, that our Lord starts to weep.

That same obedience will not be shown in the holy city. That same obedience is not largely exhibited throughout our world today. And the first requirement, don't you see, in being a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be obedient.

Someone has said, obedience has no lead in its heels. In other words, you don't drag your feet. You do what the Lord says.

Now our Savior knows specifically what he wants. He wants a cult that has never been ridden on before. Why does he especially underline that as he makes his request in verse thirty? Well, those of you who are familiar with the Old Testament, you will know that the animal sacrifices that were brought by the people were animals that were perfectly pure.

When the ark of the covenant has been lost, you remember, by the Israelites, it's in the keeping of the Philistines. Eventually the ark is brought back into Israel. And we're told in 1 Samuel, and I think it's the sixth chapter, that the ark is to be conveyed back into Israel by carts that have never been ridden in.

They have never even been broken in. The thing as far as our Lord Jesus is concerned that he's underlining in sending for this particular cult is that this cult has been specially, specially tethered and left for him. It's utterly unused.

Our Savior was born into this world through a woman whose womb had been unused. Our Savior is brought into Jerusalem in his regal capacity on an unused cult. And eventually he will be placed in a tomb that is unused.

Our Savior makes the point for the disciples to understand because they know full well that he is actually indicating that he's fulfilling the Scriptures in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9 where the Old Testament prophet says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you righteous and having salvation, Gentle and riding on a donkey, On a cult the foal of a donkey. Jesus weeps over against the obedience shown in Bethphage is the utter disobedience of the citizens of Jerusalem. You remember how our Savior anticipates this earlier on in Luke's Gospel.

I turn you back to chapter 13 and halfway through the chapter our Lord Jesus speaks about Jerusalem. Verse 34, I think I said verse 18. Luke 13, verse 34, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

What I wanted to do, you wouldn't allow. You see the point? He wanted obedience. He didn't receive it.

And as a result, I suggest to you, he weeps. Our Lord wept in the aftermath of an astonishing obedience. He also, it seems to me, weeps in the atmosphere of abounding joy.

There was joy on the part of the pilgrims, not so on that special occasion. Drop back to chapter 19. Verse 35, they brought the cult to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the cult and put Jesus on it.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road comes down, the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. You see, there's a confluence, a convergence of pilgrims.

Jesus is not only known, I repeat, by the twelve, there are many other disciples. And they're coming into Jerusalem for this great feast. And as news is passed from one pilgrim to another, so large contingents from various villages, they realize that the rabbi, the unusual man from Nazareth, is actually coming towards Jerusalem and he's sitting on a cult.

He is sitting on an animal that's never been ridden on before. And the Old Testament scriptures are very much at the back of their mind. And there's already the ethos of rejoicing because they've been singing the Halal Psalms as they've gone towards the holy city.

And now, can it be true? It looks as though the Messiah of the holy city is actually moving towards the city itself. And they're full of rejoicing. As in the Hebrew language, they sing Hosanna.

Hosanna to the son of David, as Mark indicates. Luke drops the Hebrew and brings it in more for his Grecian readers in verse 38. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. You might well think that Jesus would identify with this joy. After all, the city is in front of him.

The city that was built in honor of his father. That marvelous temple with its marble stones and the golden crust of the roof. All the glories of Solomon must have come back into Jesus' mind, not so? He thinks of Jerusalem, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth.

All that's happened here. All the praises now of the pilgrims. Could not Jesus identify with this? And the answer is no.

No, he cannot identify. Why? Well, because he appreciates just what is in store for the citizens of Jerusalem. If only they'd shown the obedience of his two friends in Bethphage.

If only Jerusalem's citizens were thronging the ballast raids and peering down to welcome their Messiah. It seems, says William Barclay, that as Jesus makes his way into Jerusalem on that animal and goes through the golden gate, he is once more extending his arms in a last invitation to the citizens of Jerusalem to recognize he who is Messiah. But they don't do it.

And he knows they never will. And in an atmosphere of abounding joy, our Lord Jesus starts to weep. Verse 41.

And not just tears that bejewel his eyes, not just the weeping at Lazarus's grave, although that was sincere and deep enough. The word is terribly strong in the Hebrew, in the Greek. It's got the idea of a man weeping from the depth of his stomach, the whole of his body in convulsions.

Can you imagine this? The problem with us is that we read these scriptures so much that the freshness of it leaves us. The scene of great rejoicing and jubilation. Can you imagine the happiest wedding that you ever attended and then somebody starting to weep uncontrollably? How out of place it would be.

But that's the situation that confronts you here. Our Lord Jesus weeping in an atmosphere of great joy as he contemplates all that is in store for that holy city. Our Lord Jesus upset.

He seems oblivious almost of the occasion, of the thanksgiving that there should have been. The Son of God in tears. The wandering angels see.

Be thou astonished, O my soul. He shed those tears for thee. He weeps not only for the hardness of the hearts of the people in Jerusalem.

He weeps for the hardness of peoples everywhere down the whole of history. Those who desperately need him and who reject him. The Savior wept.

Over against the obedience of the people in Bethphage was the disobedience of the people in Jerusalem. Over against the rejoicing of the pilgrims is the sorrow in the heart of the Son of God because of the hardness of people in Jerusalem and around the world. Finally, he weeps in anticipation of the wholesale destruction of the city.

If you, verse 42, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it's hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another. Do you notice there's not one trace of reasoning that causes you to conclude that Jesus was weeping for himself? Now, well, he might have done. Within a week, that holy city will attest his death.

Within a week, his blood will have been spelt, will have been spilt as a consequence of going through one of the vilest means of death that man has invented. But you check through the small print and he doesn't weep for himself. You go on and you read of his ultimate execution and as he's taken up the hill called Calvary, there are those who will show compassion towards him.

Chapter 23, verse 27, a large number of women followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children.

Our Savior here as he anticipates Calvary has not one reserve of emotion directed towards himself and what's in front of him. He's concerned only about the Jewish people and the hardness of their heart. If you, even you, had only known it's the ignorance, the cause of the sorrow, you had known.

Ignorance is never bliss. Ignorance of the gospel is the worst ignorance in the world. To be told and not to respond, that leaves the Son of God in a dilemma.

He comes with compassion in his heart, but also with justice in his hand. He comes as the Son of God, knowing what is to befall Jerusalem. And in his humanity he weeps over the citizens of that holy place.

If only you had known, even you, it would be more excusable for Egypt, perhaps more excusable for Tyre and Sidon, that you, even you, if you Jerusalem had known, if you really appreciated who I am, when you look back in the eternities yet to come, how much remorse will be in your heart, that at the day when you were visited in such a remarkable fashion, more than any other city in the whole world, you turned a blind eye. You ignored what the prophets had said. Oh Jerusalem, if you, even you, had known the day of visitation, but you didn't.

You didn't react. And says our Lord Jesus, with His humanity and His deity interacting, for He knows what is going to happen, your future is beyond my ability. Because I am God, who has determined that sin shall be punished, and yet I am love, and make an opportunity for sin to be forgiven.

But when you have turned aside from my mercy, then you will fall under my judgment. And this is the holy dilemma of Jesus. The Old Testament, God says that He rejoices not in the death of a sinner.

And here is this close correspondence between the Father's heart and the Son's heart. For they are one. If you've seen the Father, you've seen the Son.

The Old Testament, you discover a picture of the Lord God, remorseful as to what is going to happen to the children of Israel. How can I give you up, oh Israel? How can I give you up Ephraim? The emotions of God are displayed by the Old Testament prophet, and here our Lord Jesus, true to the picture, shows exactly the same dilemma. If only you, even you, Jerusalem, had known on this day what would bring you peace.

But now, the most terrible words, it is hidden from your eyes. Darkness falls on the Jewish nation. And how deep was that darkness? It took them to AD 70, with the armies of Rome encircling the holy spot, with Titus the commander-in-chief seeing something of the awfulness of the scene.

As one Jew is thrown by another Jew over the embankment and into the valley below, who has been starved to death. And Titus lifts his hand to God and says he's not responsible for this. And down the ages, through the centuries, the hardness, the ignorance, has still been there, largely amongst Jewish people.

And so I suggest to you this morning the reasons why our Savior wept. He wept because of the disobedience of the Jews over against the obedience of some of his friends. He wept in contrast to the jubilation of the pilgrims, for he knew what was around the corner.

He wept because of the anticipated wholesale destruction of that city. And still I tell you, he weeps. He weeps over Arab and Jew caught at one another's throat.

He weeps over the situation in our world. But I cannot leave you in darkness, for here is a glorious shaft of light. The hope of the Jew, the hope of the Arab, the hope of the Gentile is still deposited in the gospel of Christ.

For when he died on the cross and was raised again for our salvation, he has been declared to be the Son of God. And the imprimatur of the gospel placed upon the gospel is not only his signature but his command. Take it to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

And realize that Zion is still being built, not a geographical place, a spiritual temple. And wherever there are those who confess me as Lord, they're being built, Jew and Gentile, into this mighty edifice to the glory of God. And one day, our Savior promises he will return and the ultimate government of our world will be placed upon his shoulder.

But until that time, our Savior weeps over unbelief but invites those of us who know him to take the gospel which alone can turn mourning into joy and sorrow into hope. To take that gospel to the Jew, to the Arab, to all the Gentiles. Let us endeavor so to do.

Let us pray. I spent time in Israel speaking to some Jews, individual Jews, about the gospel. One man who lived just north of Galilee, the area where Jesus was brought up as a lad, a Jewish rabbi who was by me in the plane, showed them the Old Testament scriptures, tried to prove to them that Jesus is Lord.

But there seemed a great amount of blindness. Let's pray that the blindness may be taken from the nation. Spoke to Arabs and tried to show them something of what Jesus has done for them.

Maybe in one sense they're more responsive than the Jews. But let's pray for all of Abraham's descendants and let's pray for our world. Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus.

He didn't shed tears for himself. He shed them for us. We thank you for the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief.

We ask that the agony of the cross may yet result in the conversion of many millions of people. Bring Jews to an understanding of who their Messiah is and Arabs likewise. And enable us as Gentiles who believe in the Savior to successfully commit the gospel to those who are ignorant of it.

Help us, Lord, to declare your word in power. For the Savior's sake. Amen.

O my holy and dear King O angel of strength O come to my house For Jesus' sake And my voice will be loud Saying yeah, very true Very true And I shall cry for thee And my heart shall rejoice For Jesus And the compassion Father, we thank you for the great gospel invitation. We thank you that Jesus came even knowing that Jerusalem often stoned its prophets. We thank you for the compassionate heart of the Savior who said, I would gather you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks.

Lord God, continue to be merciful to Jewish and Arab people. Continue your mercy to the Gentiles and bring into the innumerable company of those who must be saved, men and women from this generation, and help us sensitively ourselves to pray for the advance of the kingdom of God and to work for its penetration amongst societies that largely to this day disbelieve. Bless all your dear children here, whatever condition they are in.

We pray that you will suit a blessing according to their needs. Send us into the rest of this day thoughtful but rejoicing in the knowledge of the love of God, our Savior. Amen.