Luke 19:41-42 (NRSV)
Read Luke 19:41-42 on biblegateway.com
Verse 41As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, Verse 42saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Devotion
One of the most moving sights in the Holy Land is on the Mount of Olives. When viewing Jerusalem from the simple chapel Dominus Flevit—in Latin, "The Lord Wept"—my tears joined with the tears of Jesus. I thought about Jesus' tears, spilled over our human incapacity for insight and change, our inability to do justice, to hear the truth he was speaking, to receive those whom God sends and to recognize "the things that make for peace."
It is impossible to confine the tears of Jesus to a distant past. We see a modern city torn apart by hate and distrust, and the weeping of the world rings in our ears. We think about our own tears. We bring our sorrows to that place.
Pausing to absorb Jesus' tears is one of the most important things we can do in our lives of faith. In doing so, we take up the tradition of the biblical lament, telling our truths to God. Our tears are met by divine weeping. Jesus weeps because of us. But he also weeps for us. His tears are tears of forgiveness. And Jesus weeps with us, making our lamenting his own.
Prayer
Lord of compassion, weep for us. Weep with us. Weep for your people. Weep for your world.
Amen.