May 25 2025

Sunday May 25

Luke 19:41-44 – Jesus Looking and Weeping

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Welcome to Pastor's Chat. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m in Kingsland, Georgia. I prerecorded this video for you, and I trust it’ll be a blessing. This morning, I’ll be attending a service at Kings Bay Submarine Base to hear my son Nathan, a Navy chaplain, speak.

Let’s continue in Luke chapter 19:28-48, which take place on what we call Palm Sunday morning, and in verses 35-44, Jesus is entering Jerusalem, riding a colt. The crowd comes out to meet Him, proclaiming, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” They are singing praises, throwing palm branches and clothes in front of the colt Jesus is riding. The Pharisees criticize, saying, “Rebuke these people.” Then, in verse 41, as Jesus draws near, He sees the city and weeps over it.

I can picture this, having been there many times. I can imagine seeing Jesus coming down the Mount of Olives with a clear view of Jerusalem. The crowd is rejoicing, but Jesus is weeping. In verse 42, He says, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus goes from this rejoicing and celebration of the people, to weeping over Jerusalem. No matter where He looks, He finds a cause to weep. Looking back, He sees how the nation wasted its opportunities to receive Him as the Messiah, ignorant of the time of His visitation. Looking within, He sees spiritual ignorance and blindness in the people’s hearts.

They should have known who He was. God gave them His Word with all the prophecies concerning His first coming and had also sent John the Baptist to prepare the way. Jesus Himself had been preaching for three and a half years for the nation to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. And by His miracles and healings and power over the demons, the elements of nature, manifesting Himself to be the Son of God.

Looking around, Jesus sees religious activity that accomplishes little. The temple had become a den of thieves, the religious leaders were out to kill Him, and though the city was filled with pilgrims celebrating Passover, their hearts were heavy with sin and life’s burdens.

Looking ahead, Jesus weeps because He sees the terrible judgment coming. In AD 70, about 40 years after His death, the Romans would come, and after a 143-day siege, they would kill over 600,000 Jews, take thousands captive, and destroy the temple and city. Why? Because the people did not know God had visited them. As Scripture says, “He came to His own, and His own received Him not.”

The people are rejoicing, but Jesus is looking within, around, and ahead. I believe He’s looking into our hearts today, too. What does He see in our lives that would cause Him to weep if we don’t believe, trust, and are not living for Him as we should?

What a powerful passage. Jesus sees the crowd celebrating, calling Him King, yet He weeps because He knows the reality of what will happen. He knows in a few days this same crowd will be yelling “crucify Him” and have Him nailed to a cross to die. Jesus know that will reject Him and will not trust Him to be their Messiah and Savior.

May God give us grace today to bring a smile to the face of Jesus as we live to glorify His name in everything that we say and do! And may we also, like Jesus, have a broken heart to weep over the condition and future of a lost world around us.

God bless!