Breaking the Word

  As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."  (Lk 19:41-44)

 

 

Jesus wept over the city. His journey to Jerusalem was long and with a lot of preparation. He had gathered a great crowd of followers. He had done such an amount of preparation for this journey but at the end of the journey he weeps. It should have been a glorious and a joyous arrival.

 

Weeping and tears seem to be the core of his mission in Jerusalem. As a leader and as a messiah he should have avoided this. Right from the beginning and all through his journey he was preparing for peace and God’s grace. Like Galileans the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem did not heed his call. (Unless you repent you will all likewise perish Lk 13: 3,5).

 

The destruction and the lose are due to the negligence of the people. In fact they are the outcome of their not heeding to his call. The arrival of the enemy and his evil activities are consequences. Jesus does not gloat over the consequences he feels sorry for the people and feels one with them in their suffering and weeps for their resistance to good. 

 While they were listening to him speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of god would appear there immediately. So he said, "a nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.  He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, 'engage in trade with these until i return.' his fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, 'we do not want this man to be our king.'  but when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, 'sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.' he replied, 'well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.'… (Lk 19:11-28)

 

 

Jesus is telling a story about a king who was coming back to his servants to check on them about their doings. In turn the story speaks about Jesus’ own coming to verify the works of his disciples and followers. It is about the long awaited return of God among his people.

 

The story gives some salient points about the coming of Jesus among his people which is the coming of God among Israel. The story points out that his coming is like that of a judge who has come to judge the people but at the same time this coming is with mercy together with judgement.

 

Jesus is the embodiment of all the story talks about. Jesus coming is for the judgement of the people but he comes with mercy. He is Israel’s God in human form. This is his mission and this is his message. Every historical event or story speaks of Jesus and his mission.