And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
At His triumphal entry as the lowly King bringing salvation, with hosannas at their height, He halted on Olivet overlooking the city in glory and suddenly broke into anguished weeping that silenced the triumph. His tears were not for His approaching betrayal, suffering and crucifixion lying before Him, but the irrepressible agony of a broken heart of deep love and pitying tenderness over a people He came to bless and could not easily give up. He grieved because Jerusalem rejected its Redeemer, scorned His love and miracles, and in spiritual blindness did not know in its day the things belonging to its peace and the time of its visitation. With omniscient eye He foresaw its certain doom by besieging armies, temple burned and nation scattered about forty years later, a ruin brought by the people upon themselves that foreshadowed the destruction of the impenitent world by fire at His second advent. His tears reach beyond the Jews to every age, warning that rejecting present light, mercy and entreaties hardens the heart until truth is hidden, and calling those who have received great light to share His sorrow and labor with tears to warn and reclaim the lost.
Setting and Occasion
The weeping belongs to the ride into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry of the promised King who comes lowly and bringing salvation in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy. It took place as He drew near the city while the shouting of hosannas was at its height, yet He felt no joy but deep emotion over the doom soon to involve thousands upon thousands. The multitude that poured out from Jerusalem to join His company fulfilled prophecy without knowing it. That crowd included those who had felt His healing power in their bodies, cripples made whole, blind whose eyes were opened, lepers cleansed, and dead raised to life, who spread their garments in the way and cried Hosanna to the Lord with new zeal for His mighty works.
He halted on the crest of Olivet, on the hill above the city, and beheld the devoted city in glory before Him. At sunset the western sun gilded its towers, and when that sun set the day of Jerusalem was ended. Kidron lay at the foot of Olivet and Calvary stood in sight, where the cross would be placed and He would be stretched upon it. He stopped there on the mount overlooking Jerusalem and looked upon what the city had become and what it might have been.
Amid the general acclamation of triumph and rejoicing He suddenly broke into tears and groans of irrepressible agony. The wail from His quivering lips and the rocking of His body silenced the multitude and interrupted the grand triumphal chorus, filling many with sympathetic tears. The celebrating crowd could not understand His grief or why He lamented in the hour of homage. His sorrow was unlike silent tears of gladness and unlike His grief at the grave of Lazarus, coming as a note of wailing amid praise.
Nature of His Weeping
His tears were not for Himself, though all that lay before Him was open to His sight — betrayal and trial and rejection, the horror of great darkness at Gethsemane, the sheep gate opening for Him as the great Antitype of the sacrificial offerings, and Calvary with its cross and approaching agony. They were no selfish sorrow and no fear of pain or of physical suffering and death, not weeping in anticipation of His own coming humiliation and shame and crucifixion. They were for the doomed people of the city, for the thousands facing destruction, for Jerusalem in its guilt and coming ruin, because in blindness and impenitence it did not know the time of its visitation and the things belonging to its peace.
His sorrow was intense grief and insuppressible, irrepressible agony from the depths of a broken heart, suddenly breaking forth in tears and groans amid triumphal shouting. A wail burst from His quivering lips and His body rocked to and fro like a tree before the tempest, silencing the multitude, an agony of pity that bedewed the palm branches strewn in the way. It was not silent tears of gladness, and unlike His God-like grief in harmony with the occasion at the grave of Lazarus, it came like a note of wailing in a grand triumphal chorus while all paid Him homage. That same human sorrow and suffering seen over Jerusalem was reflected afterward in Gethsemane.
His weeping reveals deep love and sympathy for a people who had received light and opportunities, pitying tenderness toward the city He loved, and fatherly yearning over the child of His care whom He had come to bless and save and could not easily give up. He grieved because they rejected Him as Redeemer and as the way, the truth, and the life, refusing the love that could shelter them and the teaching that could keep Jerusalem secure and make it a source of peace to all nations. Even as He fearlessly rebuked wrongdoing His truth was never cruel, for He regarded them as precious, fallen souls He came to save.
The tears show His mercy and love in coming to this world to die for sinful man so that he might not perish in his sins, God giving His only begotten Son because souls are very precious in His sight. Doing good to men was the joy of His soul, yet many times He sighed in spirit and was very sorrowful, with tears flowing from anguish of soul at the unbelief, ingratitude, and hatred of those He came to bless and save. That same grief continues in heaven over the insensibility of souls upon whom His richest favors are poured without effect, whom He made and endowed with wondrous faculties of mind and noble affections of heart which they use against the Giver, with ears not inclined to hear His voice and tongues not speaking His praise, even among His professed followers who daily receive His mercies yet keep hearts empty of His praise.
Cause of His Sorrow
He wept because Jerusalem rejected Him, its only hope, the Son of God and Redeemer and Saviour, the Way, Truth and Life, scorning His love, refusing the evidence of His miracles, refusing to come to Him for life and healing, and about to take His life and crucify its King. His tears were not for the physical suffering and death awaiting Him but for the guilt and coming ruin of the city and for the salvation and healing it could have received through Him. He grieved over what the city had become and what it might have been if it had accepted the One who could save it, and He could not easily give up the people He had come to save. He wished to free them from heathen rule and give them rest, freedom and happiness, but they rejected the only help that could release them from captivity, though they had received His blessings and invitation, and were about to seal their doom by putting Him to death.
They were spiritually blind, hardened and impenitent, ignorant of God and their Redeemer, and did not know in their day the things belonging to their peace and the time of their visitation, though Scripture had made His ministry plain, and those things were now hidden from their eyes. His tears were for the doomed people of the city and for the thousands facing destruction, whose blindness and impenitence kept them from recognizing the One who came to bless and save them. The city’s day was nearly ended and its coming judgment irrevocable, and applied to God’s people the same weeping warns that rejecting present blessings and warnings means missing the things that bring peace. The weeping also expresses righteous indignation against unholy mixture and bartering in the earthly temple, which then needed cleansing as does every place where dishonest practices are covered while claiming to be the temple of the Lord.
They did not realize their privilege in having the Majesty of heaven among them, did not appreciate God’s gift of His Son, and would not let Him gain entrance to their hearts when He saw their stubbornness. He had left His seat in glory to bring blessing and peace and to lift fallen humanity and give eternal life, yet few knew who was in their midst. They rejected Him because customs and practices had more weight with them than the precious gift He came to bring, leaving the things of peace hidden, and the same rejection is acted over today whenever light sent from heaven is refused instead of received. Jerusalem could have received the world’s Redeemer, been healed, and shared truth and peace with the nations despite the spiritual and temporal advantages it had received, but it put away the only One who could give peace, rest and victory because His purity pressed upon its sin.
All the history of ages lay distinctly before Him — centuries of grace resisted, privileges abused, opportunities slighted, warnings and reproofs unheeded, prophets put to death and servants abused, His vineyard trodden under foot, with ages of ingratitude, formalism, hypocritical insincerity, pharisaic pride, national apostasy and human traditions displacing honor for God’s law. He scanned Israel’s years of impenitence and murmuring, the murder of prophets sent to reprove sin and give truth, and His own long effort to turn them from their self-ruinous course, and His tears asked what more could have been done for His vineyard. He foresaw the city’s guilt reaching its climax in His coming crucifixion, the last act causing the nation’s downfall, and grieved over the doom that would follow, with the cloud of vengeance loading for a thousand years about to burst upon the city. He wept not for His betrayal, trial, rejection, delivery into enemies’ hands, nor the cruel death appointed though no fault was found in Him, but for those placing themselves beyond long-suffering mercy, pierced by the thought that all He would endure to win His people back would seem in vain. His forbearance is the pattern for meeting presumptuous, high-headed, hard-hearted souls who irritate and provoke, and His tears were not for Jerusalem alone, for in its fate He beheld the destruction of the world and wept for the sins of all time.
Their sin included desecrating the temple courts with unholy traffic and bartering for gain and the desecration of the temple for unlawful gain, which with refusal of His repeated invitations to repent and receive the only One who could give life would bring destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. As unholy traffic then desecrated the courts, the temple of the heart where Christ should dwell is defiled by selfishness, love of the world and money and worldly honor, malice, envy, and unholy passions, and many professing godliness remain unsanctified, receiving warnings and calls to repentance as idle tales. His counsel and mercies are despised whenever selfishness and love of money possess the heart, and His denunciation of self-righteous Jews condemns in every age those professing to represent Him while their lives continually deny Him. With infinite sight reaching beyond that city He saw the same influences corrupting the cause at the heart of the work, compliance in business with maxims based on false principles which Spirit-filled men will never do, and people professing godliness yet practicing injustice, greed and oppression, kept by spiritual blindness from seeing these evils until convicted and converted.
Foreseen Judgment and Prophecy
With omniscient eye He saw the certain doom of the city close at hand, besieged by armies with its people starving and suffering and its temple and buildings burned and destroyed. The nation would be scattered, dispossessed and driven from place to place, with descendants denied protection or a lasting home. That desolation came about forty years later, when the Roman army utterly destroyed and burned Jerusalem because its people had not heeded His teaching nor received Him as Saviour. He had cared for the city, and had it received the world's Redeemer it could have been healed, remained secure, and become a source of peace to all nations with its spiritual and temporal advantages shared abroad. The blighted fig tree stands as the emblem of that national ruin, whose sight filled Him with deep sorrow.
Though city and nation had been God's chosen people, they were about to lose their favored status when He was crucified. Their day was nearly ended, their time of grace passing and at last ended, with coming judgment irrevocable and no other means left by which they could be delivered after rejecting the warnings of God's Spirit. Punishment for that rejection would be measured exactly according to the light that had shone upon them and that they had turned away from.
The ruin was not inevitable, nor was the city left to its doom because He wished to abandon it. The people brought the calamity upon themselves by rejecting God and His Word and Christ the provision made to save them, resisting repeated calls to repent and obey and resisting even the Roman power they were bound to obey. Had they been loyal to God, searched the Scriptures and tested their expectations and hopes of earthly power by them, recognized the plain testimony and evidence of His Messiahship and time of visitation, repented, obeyed His teachings and commandments, and accepted His teaching and protection, heaven would have defended them and the calamity that left their city in ruins might have been averted. Their disobedience brought ruin on themselves and their children, for continued resistance fixes consequences until truth is hidden from sight, while the present day remains an opportunity to accept correction.
Jerusalem's destruction foreshadowed and symbolized the destruction of the impenitent world at His second advent. In Jerusalem's fate He beheld the destruction of the world, and His tears were for more than the chosen city. Looking beyond the coming destruction of Jerusalem to an impenitent world doomed to destruction, He wept for the sins of all time and the retribution awaiting an unrepentant world. As the flood and Sodom had shown judgment before, so the end would come by fire rather than flood, and His grief is connected with the warning that similar scenes will take place in the last great day. The Jewish nation was a symbol of the people of all ages who scorn the pleadings of infinite Love, and looking down the ages He saw the apostasy of the present time when the Protestant world departs from the principles of true Protestantism and the churches whose spiritual declension is foretold in prophecy. His tears reveal His patient, loving work for sinners' salvation and His continuing appeal for them to receive grace.
His grief therefore warns those living before His second advent not to reject the light and opportunities and message of salvation sent from heaven. The day of visitation was a time of opportunity and privilege that would not last, for privileges abused or rejected would be hidden, so the time to do God's work must be used while it remains. Transgression of God's holy law brings retributive judgment on those who reject His warnings and messages, despise truth, persist in wrongdoing and sin, and disregard His law. When Paul entered the city he viewed it differently, knowing that judgment was hanging over it. Cities may be spared for a time if people heed warning and repent, but continued wrongdoing brings calamities and destruction, as when the warning went unheeded at Jerusalem and as applied to those in Battle Creek who despised warnings and acted wickedly.
Warning to All Ages
His tears over Jerusalem reach beyond the Jews through the centuries even to the close of time, for present impenitence in every age. The great sin of the city was rejecting its present blessings and present warnings, spurning love and despising mercy, and not knowing in its day the things belonging to its peace until they were hidden from its eyes. From an anguished, breaking heart He had labored untiringly to save His chosen people from the fate they were bringing on themselves, but they returned His love with ingratitude, selfishness and neglect, refused His mercy, and knew not that their time of visitation and day of privilege was ending. He foresaw their guilt reaching its climax in His coming crucifixion and the doom that would follow, with the dark clouds of retribution gathering because, blinded by sin, they knew it not. To all who in like manner repay His love and admonitions with selfishness and neglect is addressed the same solemn declaration that they know not the time of their visitation.
Neglect of mercies and blessings in the day of opportunity brings impenetrable darkness and makes men candidates for wrath, and many today draw that wrath upon themselves by unheeded opportunities, scorned counsels and love, and despised servants who speak the truth. The city had rejected warnings and the Spirit's pleadings until its time of mercy had ended and no other means of deliverance remained, and its judgment warns that those who reject the Spirit's reproofs and warnings bring condemnation upon themselves. His tears therefore express grief not for Jerusalem only but for the sins of all ages, and persistent unbelief and disobedience in rejecting Christ's mercy, present opportunities and warnings brings spiritual ruin. Rejecting present blessings, warnings, mercies, counsel and messengers means missing the things that bring peace.
The same great light given to the Jews has been sent now, with reproofs, entreaties, warnings and yearning love, yet it is rejected by thousands because it involves a cross and does not harmonize with their practices and natural inclinations. His words from the mount reach to the present time, for His tears were for present impenitence, and He grieves for those who fail to recognize what would bring them peace even when they do not grieve for themselves. Grace and light either soften and subdue the heart or confirm it in hardened impenitence, and by resisting repeated calls to repent and obey men bring doom upon themselves rather than being abandoned at His wish. The present day is opportunity to accept correction, but continued resistance can bring a point when consequences are fixed and truth is hidden from sight. As unholy traffic then desecrated the temple courts, the heart-temple where Christ should dwell is defiled by selfishness, love of the world, love of money, malice, envy and unholy passions, and many professing godliness remain unsanctified, receiving warnings and calls to repentance as idle tales, and if they refuse the light offered in their own time they may likewise be given over to evil.
Jerusalem stands as a symbol of the people of all ages who scorn the pleadings of infinite love, and His denunciation of the self-righteous Jews condemns in every age those who profess to represent Christ while their lives continually deny Him. He wept not for Himself but for a hard-hearted, impenitent people who despised His mercy, patience and forbearance and were blinded by unbelief to their visitation, and their response is compared with churches and individuals who disregard His requirements and repeated warnings while keeping only outward forms of worship without softened heart and spiritual power. His grief over the city warns churches and institutions that have received great light but reject warnings, light, entreaties and counsel and fail to meet His demands, for continued departure from just and righteous principles leaves them unable to discern light, truth, justice or mercy and leads to spiritual ruin. Whenever selfishness and love of money and worldly honor possess the heart, counsel is rejected and mercies despised.
The same was true of Paris, which did not know its visitation nor the things belonging to its peace. For two years the gospel was preached there openly to all classes, and thousands were moved to temperance, purity, order and industry, with many accepting it. Yielding blindly to false teachers and stirred by fear, prejudice and fanaticism, the majority rejected the invitation, the king's show of toleration served only his own purposes, the papists regained ascendancy, the churches were closed and the stake was set up. Despite hearing the message, most refused it and lost the opportunity to receive its blessings.
The sorrowful, displeased regard with which He looked upon impenitent Israel, ignorant of God and of Christ their Redeemer, falls also upon Battle Creek in its peril. Unbelief and refusal to repent had blinded leaders who relied on human wisdom instead of seeking His will and counsel, leaving them unaware of the danger before them though facing judgment for despising warnings and persisting in wrongdoing. They had not truly repented or valued the salvation offered, and like Jerusalem of old, a concentrated center, they centered means and responsibilities in one place while neglecting other cities. His weeping over a people unaware of peril because they know not God and their Redeemer warns all who are likewise blinded by unbelief and impenitence.
Call to Share His Burden
The weeping over Jerusalem was for its guilt and stubbornness as God's chosen people, and those who have received great light and rich gifts and have witnessed His power, goodness and mercy are to share their Saviour's grief over sin and over people who remain unresponsive. That grief is also over hard-hearted professed workers who claim to labor with Him yet do nothing for souls, and over wicked cities given to idolatry whose destruction is impending. Those who know the value of souls share Christ's burden of sorrow and tears for such spiritually neglected cities, warning and helping them rather than remaining inactive, knowing neglect now brings accountability at the final reckoning. His tears call for unreserved consecration to service, for hearts to break for the lost and mingle with His tears, and for gatherings to become penitent, humble seeking of the Lord for His Spirit for work for souls.
Seeing people and their needs with His Spirit moves the heart to practical effort to save them, so that sorrow has a purpose in awakening a burden for souls and leading to earnest work rather than fruitless lamentation. His followers are to share His concern and plead for people who will not plead for themselves and weep over those who will not weep for themselves. True laborers feel as He felt, care-worn and oppressed in spirit at crookedness, impenitence and refusal to listen to the Word, and in God's great day of preparation, with the last message of mercy going to the world and the Lord coming, they must not sleep or be indifferent but work with all their might with zeal, living interest and intensity in action for precious souls around them. That work is to warn old and young and lead them to Him as Redeemer, to reclaim the wanderer, edify the believer and turn thoughts to divine realities in a work for time and eternity, especially for those in medical institutions to lose no opportunity to bring patients to Him as the great Healer of body and soul.
His tears express deep sorrow for those hardened and in spiritual peril and in darkness, and stand as a model of concern for their salvation and a call to committed missionary service. His response to those who err from the truth and stray is compassionate grief and sorrow, not condemnation, setting the example to love and pray for them. Love for souls mourns when people resist God's grace, abuse privileges and slight mercy, for His grief was over hardness of heart toward resisted grace. His sorrow for the doomed city was the same deep concern He felt for Judas, longing for him to turn from sin and be saved. A mother's bitter tears over a rebellious child's wrongdoing show the same day-and-night burden He carried and will rise in condemning power in the day of judgment.
His sorrow over Jerusalem when He stood on Olivet grieving that the people had become estranged from God also shows His present grief and pleading with sinners in the final moments of time to turn and live. He weeps over the impenitence of men and pleads with deep compassion for sinners to turn to Him, and rejoices when they turn asking what they must do to be saved. His mournful appeal is that people recognize the things that bring them peace while opportunity remains, for the sentence that these things are hidden from their eyes has not yet become irrevocable. His tears reveal compassion for those facing judgment and the terrible retribution awaiting an unrepentant world, and declare the urgency of the present day as a time of healing and opportunity in which His people are to testify by showing the sinless character of the Redeemer.
That same weeping from tender, longing love continues over individuals now who leave cheerful trust and a humble, happy walk with Jesus in duty and peace for a worldly-wise life of thoughtless gaiety and social excitement. Such a course drives heavenly graces, elevated tenderness and sympathy from the heart and lets selfishness, suspicion, vanity and indulgence take their place, and His tears call them to give their hearts to Jesus and return to Him. His weeping over an impenitent nation that claimed to be His people and to be God's people declares that ungodliness and ungodliness can have no part and no place in the kingdom of God.
His life was an example of good works as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and His self-denying sacrifice and earnest prayer stand as the pattern against which professed followers must compare a self-pleasing, frivolous course. He wept because the people would not be saved by accepting the redemption He offered and would not come to Him that they might have life, and His sorrowful love was for those who reject salvation. His sorrow over the city's impenitence added to its guilt, for God's chosen people had received great privileges and the light of truth through His teaching yet had not responded, but acted against the light and righteous principles He had given as He taught those He came to save. Jerusalem faced God's retributive judgment, and when Paul entered the city he viewed it differently, knowing that judgment was hanging over it.
At His triumphal entry as the lowly King bringing salvation, with hosannas at their height, He halted on Olivet overlooking the city in glory and suddenly broke into anguished weeping that silenced the triumph. His tears were not for His approaching betrayal, suffering and crucifixion lying before Him, but the irrepressible agony of a broken heart of deep love and pitying tenderness over a people He came to bless and could not easily give up. He grieved because Jerusalem rejected its Redeemer, scorned His love and miracles, and in spiritual blindness did not know in its day the things belonging to its peace and the time of its visitation. With omniscient eye He foresaw its certain doom by besieging armies, temple burned and nation scattered about forty years later, a ruin brought by the people upon themselves that foreshadowed the destruction of the impenitent world by fire at His second advent. His tears reach beyond the Jews to every age, warning that rejecting present light, mercy and entreaties hardens the heart until truth is hidden, and calling those who have received great light to share His sorrow and labor with tears to warn and reclaim the lost.
Setting and Occasion
The weeping belongs to the ride into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry of the promised King who comes lowly and bringing salvation in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy. It took place as He drew near the city while the shouting of hosannas was at its height, yet He felt no joy but deep emotion over the doom soon to involve thousands upon thousands. The multitude that poured out from Jerusalem to join His company fulfilled prophecy without knowing it. That crowd included those who had felt His healing power in their bodies, cripples made whole, blind whose eyes were opened, lepers cleansed, and dead raised to life, who spread their garments in the way and cried Hosanna to the Lord with new zeal for His mighty works.
He halted on the crest of Olivet, on the hill above the city, and beheld the devoted city in glory before Him. At sunset the western sun gilded its towers, and when that sun set the day of Jerusalem was ended. Kidron lay at the foot of Olivet and Calvary stood in sight, where the cross would be placed and He would be stretched upon it. He stopped there on the mount overlooking Jerusalem and looked upon what the city had become and what it might have been.
Amid the general acclamation of triumph and rejoicing He suddenly broke into tears and groans of irrepressible agony. The wail from His quivering lips and the rocking of His body silenced the multitude and interrupted the grand triumphal chorus, filling many with sympathetic tears. The celebrating crowd could not understand His grief or why He lamented in the hour of homage. His sorrow was unlike silent tears of gladness and unlike His grief at the grave of Lazarus, coming as a note of wailing amid praise.
Nature of His Weeping
His tears were not for Himself, though all that lay before Him was open to His sight — betrayal and trial and rejection, the horror of great darkness at Gethsemane, the sheep gate opening for Him as the great Antitype of the sacrificial offerings, and Calvary with its cross and approaching agony. They were no selfish sorrow and no fear of pain or of physical suffering and death, not weeping in anticipation of His own coming humiliation and shame and crucifixion. They were for the doomed people of the city, for the thousands facing destruction, for Jerusalem in its guilt and coming ruin, because in blindness and impenitence it did not know the time of its visitation and the things belonging to its peace.
His sorrow was intense grief and insuppressible, irrepressible agony from the depths of a broken heart, suddenly breaking forth in tears and groans amid triumphal shouting. A wail burst from His quivering lips and His body rocked to and fro like a tree before the tempest, silencing the multitude, an agony of pity that bedewed the palm branches strewn in the way. It was not silent tears of gladness, and unlike His God-like grief in harmony with the occasion at the grave of Lazarus, it came like a note of wailing in a grand triumphal chorus while all paid Him homage. That same human sorrow and suffering seen over Jerusalem was reflected afterward in Gethsemane.
His weeping reveals deep love and sympathy for a people who had received light and opportunities, pitying tenderness toward the city He loved, and fatherly yearning over the child of His care whom He had come to bless and save and could not easily give up. He grieved because they rejected Him as Redeemer and as the way, the truth, and the life, refusing the love that could shelter them and the teaching that could keep Jerusalem secure and make it a source of peace to all nations. Even as He fearlessly rebuked wrongdoing His truth was never cruel, for He regarded them as precious, fallen souls He came to save.
The tears show His mercy and love in coming to this world to die for sinful man so that he might not perish in his sins, God giving His only begotten Son because souls are very precious in His sight. Doing good to men was the joy of His soul, yet many times He sighed in spirit and was very sorrowful, with tears flowing from anguish of soul at the unbelief, ingratitude, and hatred of those He came to bless and save. That same grief continues in heaven over the insensibility of souls upon whom His richest favors are poured without effect, whom He made and endowed with wondrous faculties of mind and noble affections of heart which they use against the Giver, with ears not inclined to hear His voice and tongues not speaking His praise, even among His professed followers who daily receive His mercies yet keep hearts empty of His praise.
Cause of His Sorrow
He wept because Jerusalem rejected Him, its only hope, the Son of God and Redeemer and Saviour, the Way, Truth and Life, scorning His love, refusing the evidence of His miracles, refusing to come to Him for life and healing, and about to take His life and crucify its King. His tears were not for the physical suffering and death awaiting Him but for the guilt and coming ruin of the city and for the salvation and healing it could have received through Him. He grieved over what the city had become and what it might have been if it had accepted the One who could save it, and He could not easily give up the people He had come to save. He wished to free them from heathen rule and give them rest, freedom and happiness, but they rejected the only help that could release them from captivity, though they had received His blessings and invitation, and were about to seal their doom by putting Him to death.
They were spiritually blind, hardened and impenitent, ignorant of God and their Redeemer, and did not know in their day the things belonging to their peace and the time of their visitation, though Scripture had made His ministry plain, and those things were now hidden from their eyes. His tears were for the doomed people of the city and for the thousands facing destruction, whose blindness and impenitence kept them from recognizing the One who came to bless and save them. The city’s day was nearly ended and its coming judgment irrevocable, and applied to God’s people the same weeping warns that rejecting present blessings and warnings means missing the things that bring peace. The weeping also expresses righteous indignation against unholy mixture and bartering in the earthly temple, which then needed cleansing as does every place where dishonest practices are covered while claiming to be the temple of the Lord.
They did not realize their privilege in having the Majesty of heaven among them, did not appreciate God’s gift of His Son, and would not let Him gain entrance to their hearts when He saw their stubbornness. He had left His seat in glory to bring blessing and peace and to lift fallen humanity and give eternal life, yet few knew who was in their midst. They rejected Him because customs and practices had more weight with them than the precious gift He came to bring, leaving the things of peace hidden, and the same rejection is acted over today whenever light sent from heaven is refused instead of received. Jerusalem could have received the world’s Redeemer, been healed, and shared truth and peace with the nations despite the spiritual and temporal advantages it had received, but it put away the only One who could give peace, rest and victory because His purity pressed upon its sin.
All the history of ages lay distinctly before Him — centuries of grace resisted, privileges abused, opportunities slighted, warnings and reproofs unheeded, prophets put to death and servants abused, His vineyard trodden under foot, with ages of ingratitude, formalism, hypocritical insincerity, pharisaic pride, national apostasy and human traditions displacing honor for God’s law. He scanned Israel’s years of impenitence and murmuring, the murder of prophets sent to reprove sin and give truth, and His own long effort to turn them from their self-ruinous course, and His tears asked what more could have been done for His vineyard. He foresaw the city’s guilt reaching its climax in His coming crucifixion, the last act causing the nation’s downfall, and grieved over the doom that would follow, with the cloud of vengeance loading for a thousand years about to burst upon the city. He wept not for His betrayal, trial, rejection, delivery into enemies’ hands, nor the cruel death appointed though no fault was found in Him, but for those placing themselves beyond long-suffering mercy, pierced by the thought that all He would endure to win His people back would seem in vain. His forbearance is the pattern for meeting presumptuous, high-headed, hard-hearted souls who irritate and provoke, and His tears were not for Jerusalem alone, for in its fate He beheld the destruction of the world and wept for the sins of all time.
Their sin included desecrating the temple courts with unholy traffic and bartering for gain and the desecration of the temple for unlawful gain, which with refusal of His repeated invitations to repent and receive the only One who could give life would bring destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. As unholy traffic then desecrated the courts, the temple of the heart where Christ should dwell is defiled by selfishness, love of the world and money and worldly honor, malice, envy, and unholy passions, and many professing godliness remain unsanctified, receiving warnings and calls to repentance as idle tales. His counsel and mercies are despised whenever selfishness and love of money possess the heart, and His denunciation of self-righteous Jews condemns in every age those professing to represent Him while their lives continually deny Him. With infinite sight reaching beyond that city He saw the same influences corrupting the cause at the heart of the work, compliance in business with maxims based on false principles which Spirit-filled men will never do, and people professing godliness yet practicing injustice, greed and oppression, kept by spiritual blindness from seeing these evils until convicted and converted.
Foreseen Judgment and Prophecy
With omniscient eye He saw the certain doom of the city close at hand, besieged by armies with its people starving and suffering and its temple and buildings burned and destroyed. The nation would be scattered, dispossessed and driven from place to place, with descendants denied protection or a lasting home. That desolation came about forty years later, when the Roman army utterly destroyed and burned Jerusalem because its people had not heeded His teaching nor received Him as Saviour. He had cared for the city, and had it received the world's Redeemer it could have been healed, remained secure, and become a source of peace to all nations with its spiritual and temporal advantages shared abroad. The blighted fig tree stands as the emblem of that national ruin, whose sight filled Him with deep sorrow.
Though city and nation had been God's chosen people, they were about to lose their favored status when He was crucified. Their day was nearly ended, their time of grace passing and at last ended, with coming judgment irrevocable and no other means left by which they could be delivered after rejecting the warnings of God's Spirit. Punishment for that rejection would be measured exactly according to the light that had shone upon them and that they had turned away from.
The ruin was not inevitable, nor was the city left to its doom because He wished to abandon it. The people brought the calamity upon themselves by rejecting God and His Word and Christ the provision made to save them, resisting repeated calls to repent and obey and resisting even the Roman power they were bound to obey. Had they been loyal to God, searched the Scriptures and tested their expectations and hopes of earthly power by them, recognized the plain testimony and evidence of His Messiahship and time of visitation, repented, obeyed His teachings and commandments, and accepted His teaching and protection, heaven would have defended them and the calamity that left their city in ruins might have been averted. Their disobedience brought ruin on themselves and their children, for continued resistance fixes consequences until truth is hidden from sight, while the present day remains an opportunity to accept correction.
Jerusalem's destruction foreshadowed and symbolized the destruction of the impenitent world at His second advent. In Jerusalem's fate He beheld the destruction of the world, and His tears were for more than the chosen city. Looking beyond the coming destruction of Jerusalem to an impenitent world doomed to destruction, He wept for the sins of all time and the retribution awaiting an unrepentant world. As the flood and Sodom had shown judgment before, so the end would come by fire rather than flood, and His grief is connected with the warning that similar scenes will take place in the last great day. The Jewish nation was a symbol of the people of all ages who scorn the pleadings of infinite Love, and looking down the ages He saw the apostasy of the present time when the Protestant world departs from the principles of true Protestantism and the churches whose spiritual declension is foretold in prophecy. His tears reveal His patient, loving work for sinners' salvation and His continuing appeal for them to receive grace.
His grief therefore warns those living before His second advent not to reject the light and opportunities and message of salvation sent from heaven. The day of visitation was a time of opportunity and privilege that would not last, for privileges abused or rejected would be hidden, so the time to do God's work must be used while it remains. Transgression of God's holy law brings retributive judgment on those who reject His warnings and messages, despise truth, persist in wrongdoing and sin, and disregard His law. When Paul entered the city he viewed it differently, knowing that judgment was hanging over it. Cities may be spared for a time if people heed warning and repent, but continued wrongdoing brings calamities and destruction, as when the warning went unheeded at Jerusalem and as applied to those in Battle Creek who despised warnings and acted wickedly.
Warning to All Ages
His tears over Jerusalem reach beyond the Jews through the centuries even to the close of time, for present impenitence in every age. The great sin of the city was rejecting its present blessings and present warnings, spurning love and despising mercy, and not knowing in its day the things belonging to its peace until they were hidden from its eyes. From an anguished, breaking heart He had labored untiringly to save His chosen people from the fate they were bringing on themselves, but they returned His love with ingratitude, selfishness and neglect, refused His mercy, and knew not that their time of visitation and day of privilege was ending. He foresaw their guilt reaching its climax in His coming crucifixion and the doom that would follow, with the dark clouds of retribution gathering because, blinded by sin, they knew it not. To all who in like manner repay His love and admonitions with selfishness and neglect is addressed the same solemn declaration that they know not the time of their visitation.
Neglect of mercies and blessings in the day of opportunity brings impenetrable darkness and makes men candidates for wrath, and many today draw that wrath upon themselves by unheeded opportunities, scorned counsels and love, and despised servants who speak the truth. The city had rejected warnings and the Spirit's pleadings until its time of mercy had ended and no other means of deliverance remained, and its judgment warns that those who reject the Spirit's reproofs and warnings bring condemnation upon themselves. His tears therefore express grief not for Jerusalem only but for the sins of all ages, and persistent unbelief and disobedience in rejecting Christ's mercy, present opportunities and warnings brings spiritual ruin. Rejecting present blessings, warnings, mercies, counsel and messengers means missing the things that bring peace.
The same great light given to the Jews has been sent now, with reproofs, entreaties, warnings and yearning love, yet it is rejected by thousands because it involves a cross and does not harmonize with their practices and natural inclinations. His words from the mount reach to the present time, for His tears were for present impenitence, and He grieves for those who fail to recognize what would bring them peace even when they do not grieve for themselves. Grace and light either soften and subdue the heart or confirm it in hardened impenitence, and by resisting repeated calls to repent and obey men bring doom upon themselves rather than being abandoned at His wish. The present day is opportunity to accept correction, but continued resistance can bring a point when consequences are fixed and truth is hidden from sight. As unholy traffic then desecrated the temple courts, the heart-temple where Christ should dwell is defiled by selfishness, love of the world, love of money, malice, envy and unholy passions, and many professing godliness remain unsanctified, receiving warnings and calls to repentance as idle tales, and if they refuse the light offered in their own time they may likewise be given over to evil.
Jerusalem stands as a symbol of the people of all ages who scorn the pleadings of infinite love, and His denunciation of the self-righteous Jews condemns in every age those who profess to represent Christ while their lives continually deny Him. He wept not for Himself but for a hard-hearted, impenitent people who despised His mercy, patience and forbearance and were blinded by unbelief to their visitation, and their response is compared with churches and individuals who disregard His requirements and repeated warnings while keeping only outward forms of worship without softened heart and spiritual power. His grief over the city warns churches and institutions that have received great light but reject warnings, light, entreaties and counsel and fail to meet His demands, for continued departure from just and righteous principles leaves them unable to discern light, truth, justice or mercy and leads to spiritual ruin. Whenever selfishness and love of money and worldly honor possess the heart, counsel is rejected and mercies despised.
The same was true of Paris, which did not know its visitation nor the things belonging to its peace. For two years the gospel was preached there openly to all classes, and thousands were moved to temperance, purity, order and industry, with many accepting it. Yielding blindly to false teachers and stirred by fear, prejudice and fanaticism, the majority rejected the invitation, the king's show of toleration served only his own purposes, the papists regained ascendancy, the churches were closed and the stake was set up. Despite hearing the message, most refused it and lost the opportunity to receive its blessings.
The sorrowful, displeased regard with which He looked upon impenitent Israel, ignorant of God and of Christ their Redeemer, falls also upon Battle Creek in its peril. Unbelief and refusal to repent had blinded leaders who relied on human wisdom instead of seeking His will and counsel, leaving them unaware of the danger before them though facing judgment for despising warnings and persisting in wrongdoing. They had not truly repented or valued the salvation offered, and like Jerusalem of old, a concentrated center, they centered means and responsibilities in one place while neglecting other cities. His weeping over a people unaware of peril because they know not God and their Redeemer warns all who are likewise blinded by unbelief and impenitence.
Call to Share His Burden
The weeping over Jerusalem was for its guilt and stubbornness as God's chosen people, and those who have received great light and rich gifts and have witnessed His power, goodness and mercy are to share their Saviour's grief over sin and over people who remain unresponsive. That grief is also over hard-hearted professed workers who claim to labor with Him yet do nothing for souls, and over wicked cities given to idolatry whose destruction is impending. Those who know the value of souls share Christ's burden of sorrow and tears for such spiritually neglected cities, warning and helping them rather than remaining inactive, knowing neglect now brings accountability at the final reckoning. His tears call for unreserved consecration to service, for hearts to break for the lost and mingle with His tears, and for gatherings to become penitent, humble seeking of the Lord for His Spirit for work for souls.
Seeing people and their needs with His Spirit moves the heart to practical effort to save them, so that sorrow has a purpose in awakening a burden for souls and leading to earnest work rather than fruitless lamentation. His followers are to share His concern and plead for people who will not plead for themselves and weep over those who will not weep for themselves. True laborers feel as He felt, care-worn and oppressed in spirit at crookedness, impenitence and refusal to listen to the Word, and in God's great day of preparation, with the last message of mercy going to the world and the Lord coming, they must not sleep or be indifferent but work with all their might with zeal, living interest and intensity in action for precious souls around them. That work is to warn old and young and lead them to Him as Redeemer, to reclaim the wanderer, edify the believer and turn thoughts to divine realities in a work for time and eternity, especially for those in medical institutions to lose no opportunity to bring patients to Him as the great Healer of body and soul.
His tears express deep sorrow for those hardened and in spiritual peril and in darkness, and stand as a model of concern for their salvation and a call to committed missionary service. His response to those who err from the truth and stray is compassionate grief and sorrow, not condemnation, setting the example to love and pray for them. Love for souls mourns when people resist God's grace, abuse privileges and slight mercy, for His grief was over hardness of heart toward resisted grace. His sorrow for the doomed city was the same deep concern He felt for Judas, longing for him to turn from sin and be saved. A mother's bitter tears over a rebellious child's wrongdoing show the same day-and-night burden He carried and will rise in condemning power in the day of judgment.
His sorrow over Jerusalem when He stood on Olivet grieving that the people had become estranged from God also shows His present grief and pleading with sinners in the final moments of time to turn and live. He weeps over the impenitence of men and pleads with deep compassion for sinners to turn to Him, and rejoices when they turn asking what they must do to be saved. His mournful appeal is that people recognize the things that bring them peace while opportunity remains, for the sentence that these things are hidden from their eyes has not yet become irrevocable. His tears reveal compassion for those facing judgment and the terrible retribution awaiting an unrepentant world, and declare the urgency of the present day as a time of healing and opportunity in which His people are to testify by showing the sinless character of the Redeemer.
That same weeping from tender, longing love continues over individuals now who leave cheerful trust and a humble, happy walk with Jesus in duty and peace for a worldly-wise life of thoughtless gaiety and social excitement. Such a course drives heavenly graces, elevated tenderness and sympathy from the heart and lets selfishness, suspicion, vanity and indulgence take their place, and His tears call them to give their hearts to Jesus and return to Him. His weeping over an impenitent nation that claimed to be His people and to be God's people declares that ungodliness and ungodliness can have no part and no place in the kingdom of God.
His life was an example of good works as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and His self-denying sacrifice and earnest prayer stand as the pattern against which professed followers must compare a self-pleasing, frivolous course. He wept because the people would not be saved by accepting the redemption He offered and would not come to Him that they might have life, and His sorrowful love was for those who reject salvation. His sorrow over the city's impenitence added to its guilt, for God's chosen people had received great privileges and the light of truth through His teaching yet had not responded, but acted against the light and righteous principles He had given as He taught those He came to save. Jerusalem faced God's retributive judgment, and when Paul entered the city he viewed it differently, knowing that judgment was hanging over it.