Jerusalem

Sunday, February 24                                Luke 13:31-35

Keith Cole

            On a recent visit to Jerusalem the hotel in which I stayed was located just outside of the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the old city of Jerusalem.  Standing on the rooftop terrace of the hotel, one can look into the maze of the walled town and see vendors selling their wares, tourists plodding their way through narrow cobbled streets, church domes and spires, minarets of varying sizes.  What strikes me each time I explore the old city is that, despite modernization, much of the ancient quarters have remained unchanged since Jesus’ day.   Jews, Christians and Arabs compete for sacred spaces and power, all the while working and practicing their faiths side by side. 

            Today’s Gospel text is about Jesus’ prediction of his own death at the hands of his enemies.  Luke reports Jesus as lamenting over the city of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and those who are sent to it!” (34a).  One can picture Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives on his way up to the holy city, the center of the world as many believed it to be, and looking over the walls into the place where his future days would be determined.  I don’t think he was expressing sadness for his own future, but was doing so for those in the city and for Israel.  Historically, Jerusalem had become a symbol of a civilization that repeatedly rejected those whom God had sent to preach repentance against the sins and evils of the world.  As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Nothing that happens in Jerusalem is insignificant.  When Jerusalem obeys God, the world spins peacefully on its axis.  When Jerusalem ignores God, the whole planet wobbles.” (Christian Century Magazine).

            Jesus’ message of the coming of the Kingdom of God threatened the status quo: the political and religious norms administered by the Pharisees and Rome’s puppet, Herod.  How could one who ate with sinners, did good deeds on the Sabbath, and preached that we must love the least among us compete with kings and religious institutions?   This upside-down Kingdom message of Jesus was too much for most people to hear.  So, they decided to do as in past days and get rid of him.  Jesus knows this and, in an acknowledgement to future days when God will punish the city by its destruction at the hands of the Romans, cries over those who will not hear God’s message of a peaceable Kingdom.

Prayer:  Show us Your Spirit, brooding o’er each city, as You once wept above Jerusalem, seeking to gather all in love and pity, and healing those who touch Your garment’s hem. (Hymn 424, text by Bradford Gray Webster)

Daily Challenge:  Think about those things in your life that would be threatened by Jesus’ upside-down message.