“Jerusalem, Jerusalem … the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (Matthew 23: 37). Prophetic and chilling words given the one who spoke them. They are the last words that the Lord Jesus Christ would address to His beloved city, Jerusalem … the city that hailed Him as the Messiah just a few days earlier would soon call for His death and would mock Him as He hung from a cross on the outskirts of the city that killed the prophets, stoned those who were sent to it, and crucified the One who came to save it. “Now my soul is troubled,” Jesus would pray, “and what should I say – ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:27-28).
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, the promise of a messiah is clearly given. These messianic prophecies were made hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years before Jesus Christ was born … and clearly Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever walked this earth who could fulfill them, amen? In fact, from Genesis to Malachi, there are over 300 specific prophecies detailing the coming of this anointed on. For example: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,” the Prophet Isaiah wrote in 786 bc, “and a branch from His roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1). Matthew’s gospel opens with an “account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1) …. showing that Jesus is, in fact, a shoot from the stump of Jesse.
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the Prophet Micah revealed where the Messiah would be born: “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathat, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from old, from ancient of days” (Micah 5:2). Around the time of Micah, God declared through His prophet Isaiah that He would give us a sign: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” and shall be called what? “Immanuel” … “God With Us.” When, describing Jesus’ birth, Matthew said that all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through His Prophet Isaiah, he quotes Isaiah 7:14.
A few days before Jesus uttered His prophetic words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Matthew 23:37), Jesus rode into Jerusalem riding on a colt … a sign pointing to a prediction made by the Lord’s Prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5).
In addition to prophecies detailing Jesus’ virgin birth, His birth in Bethlehem, His birth from the tribe of Judah, His lineage from King David, His sinless life, and His atoning work for the sins of His people, the death and resurrection of the Jewish messiah was, likewise, well documented in the Hebrew prophetic scriptures long before the actual death and resurrection of Jesus Christ actually occurred in history.
Of the best know prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures concerning the death of the Messiah, Psalm 22 :17 and Isaiah 53 certainly stand out. Psalm 22 is especially amazing since it predicted numerous separate elements about Jesus’ crucifixion a thousand years before Jesus was crucified. Here are some examples: the Messiah’s bones will not be broken (Psalm 22:17; John 19:43) … his hands and feet will be ‘pierced’ through (Psalm 22:1; John 20:25) … men will cast lots for the Messiah’s clothes (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 22:35).
Isaiah 53 … the classic messianic prophesy known as the “Suffering Servant Song” or “Suffering Servant Prophecy” … also details the death of the Messiah for the sins of the His people. More than 700 years before Jesus was even born, Isaiah provided details of His life and death … details that only God could obviously know, amen? God said that His messiah would be rejected (Isaiah 53:3; Luke 13:34) … that His Messiah would be killed as a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of His people (Isaiah 53:5-9; 2nd Corinthians 5:21) … His Messiah would be silent in front of His accusers (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32) … that His Messiah would be buried with the rich (Isiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60).
In addition to the death of the Messiah, His resurrection from the dead is also foretold. The clearest and best known of the resurrection prophecies was written by Israel’s King David in Psalm 16: “For You [God] will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” Psalm 22 also speaks clearly about the Messiah’s resurrection. In verses 19 to 21, the Suffering Savior prays for deliverance “from the lion’s mouth” … a metaphor for Satan. This desperate prayer is then followed immediately in verses 22 through 24 by a hymn of praise in which the Messiah thanks God for hearing His prayer and delivering Him. After prophesying that the Suffering Servant of God would suffer for the sins of His people in Isaiah 53, the prophet says that the Messiah would then be “cut off from the land of the living” (v. 8) … but then states that the Messiah “will see His offspring” (v. 10) and that God the Father will “prolong His days” (v. 10).
Our Lord’s final journey to Jerusalem was one that involved a great deal of emotion. Perhaps if we took some time to consider some of the things that happened along the way we could know something of the burden that Jesus felt in His heart as He looked out over His beloved city, Jerusalem. Back in Matthew 16:21, for example, we’re told that Jesus “began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and be raised the third day.” As they drew ever closer to the city, Jesus once again pulled His disciples aside and told them: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will be raised” (Matthew 20:18-19).
He was aware of what would happen to Him there and it was very much on His mind, I’m sure, as He looked across the Kidron Valley at Jerusalem. We can be sure that He was feeling a whole range of emotions: anger … fear … regret. How could He not recoil from the gruesomeness of the cross that awaited Him? How could the thought of bearing the sins of all humanity not affect Him deeply? How could He not grieve over the fact that His Holy Father would turn away from Him as He bore the guilt and shame of sin on our behalf.
All those things were on His mind and troubling His heart, I’m sure, but when He looked down upon Jerusalem, His heart was truly breaking over the fate that awaited God’s great city and God’s people. Luke tells us that as Jesus drew near the city, He wept over it, 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. 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” (Luke 19:41-44).
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her broad under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until your say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Matthew 23:37-39). You can be sure that there were tears in His eyes and deep passion in His voice as Jesus spoke these words.
Now … these words were spoken by our Lord to a particular generation of Jewish people. They were meant for a specific people, who lived at a specific time, and who were in a specific situation. But there is an important spiritual principle in these words that apply to all of God’s people. In fact, we are under an even greater obligation today to heed this spiritual principle than those Jewish people were back then because the Holy Spirit has set their example before us as something we must learn from … and we know so much more now … such as the resurrection …. than they did then.
There is a gracious offer from God, given to His covenant people through His Son Jesus Christ. It is the offer of His rule over our lives. Jesus extends His hand to us, and offers to be everything we need … to be our protector, our provider, our guide. His offer to us is different from the offer He made to the people of those days. For them, the offer was offered on the basis of the Law. For us, it is offered on the basis of grace. Either way … then and now … the spiritual principle is the same: God offers us His gracious rule and protective care but we have to accept it. He will not force it upon us. But when we refuse it … when we reject it … how sad that is to Him and how tragic for us!
Jesus chooses an interesting way to describe the protection and care that He offers us. “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” … an image that was no doubt as common then as it is here in the Glades today … so we can all relate to the image, amen? When a hen senses danger, she will make a clucking noise and that’s the signal for her brood to gather to her. Once they’re gathered to her, she puffs up and covers the chicks with her wings. She bears the threat … she will sacrifice herself it she has to … to protect her children.
In the same way, Jesus wants to gather His children … to care for them … to protect them … to be everything to them that they need … to give His life, if need be, to protect them … to save them. He wants our experience of Him to be the same as what the psalmist describes in Psalm 91: “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; He will cover you with His pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge” (v. 1-4). “Whom have I in heaven but You?” prays the Psalmist Asaph in Psalm 73. “And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (v. 25-26). But they didn’t want that. “I desired to gather you together under my wings,” Jesus laments, “but you were not willing” (v. 37).
When there is danger, the hen makes a clucking sound to warn her chicks of danger and to gather to her for protection. How many times had God sent prophets to warn His children? How many had He sent to call His people to seek His care and His protection? “Therefore, indeed,” says Jesus, “I send you prophets, wisemen, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth” (v. 34-35) … “truly I tell you all this will come upon this generation” (v. 36).
Why?
Why will the righteous blood shed on the earth be upon them? Why will all this come upon them? Because they refused to gather when He called. Because they refused to accept His offer of protection. Because they were not willing to accept Him as their Messiah, as their Lord and Savior. It wouldn’t be too long afterwards that Pilate would offer to release Him, only to have the crowds shout that they wanted Pilate to release a murderer instead (Matthew 27:21). It wouldn’t be too long before Pilate would stand Jesus before the religious leaders and ask: “Shall I crucify your king?” Only to hear the chief priest answer: “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19”15).
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how often I have desired to gather your children together and you were not willing” (v. 37). Just think, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, how it must break our Lord’s heart when we don’t turn to Him in our times of need because we might not like what we ‘think’ He may ask us to do. How it must grieve Him when we run around banging our heads against this wall and that … over and over and over again … trying to find some solution other than seeking and relying on Him.
It really is pretty sad when you think about it. Jesus’ example of Jerusalem teaches us that when we keep rejecting Him, when we refuse to answer when He calls, when we chose to rely on everyone and everything but Him, there are consequences. “See, your house is left to you … desolate!” “House,” as Jesus uses it here, may refer to the Temple. The very next thing that happens in Matthew’s gospel is the disciples admiring the Temple. I want you to put verse 39 and verse 3 of the next chapter together. “For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who come in the name of the lord’ (v. 39) … “you see all these, do you not?” (referring to the Temple buildings) … “truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (v. 3). In a couple of days, they will see Him no more as He predicted. In a couple of decades, they would see the Temple no more. It would be destroyed just as Jesus predicted it would be. In Ezekiel 10, the prophet witnesses the Shekinah of God … the glory of God … depart from the Temple and shortly thereafter it was destroyed by the Babylonians. In a few days, the Shekinah of God would be crucified on a cross and then sealed in a borrowed tomb. In 35 years, the Temple would be gone as well.
Jerusalem was God’s city. It was a symbol of the nation of Israel. It is where God’s children came to gather and to worship Him at Temple. “He was in the world, and world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did accept Him (John 1:10-11). “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Those who are condemned are those who reject Jesus, who chose not to come when He calls, who don’t take refuge under His wing, who chose to be exposed or fend for themselves. But those who do! Those who believe in Him, those who come to Him when He calls, who take refuge under His wing will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). “But all who receive Him, who believe in His name, He will give power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
Here’s the most beautiful word in today’s scripture reading: “until.” God will never stop calling. God will never shut the door on any of His children. “For I tell you,” Jesus promises, “you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord” (v. 39; emphasis mine).
God has not revoked His promises to Israel. He still loves Israel. And it is still in His plan that “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). “Out of Zion will come the deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27). As the Apostle Paul reminds us: “… the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).
The people Of Jerusalem suffered the loss of the good things they could have received from their King … His protective care and love … because they would not receive it. But they still have the “until” that God promised through His prophet Zechariah and His Son Jesus: “And I will pour on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on me whom they pierced, yes, they will mourn for Him as one who mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). I praise God that one glorious day, as the Bible promises, they will receive Him. “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,” says Paul, “what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!” (Romans 11:15).
What about you, dear brothers and sisters? Will you allow Jesus Christ to completely rule over your life as King or not? Will you renounce all the false things you trust in and turn to Him for your every need? Will you quit rejecting His help and allow Him to be your protector and provider? Will you humble yourself and come under His wing?
Every aspect of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah had been prophesized in the Hebrew scriptures long before the events ever unfolded in the time line of human history. No wonder that Jesus the Messiah would proclaim: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40).
My goal for Lent is to help you see that there can be no Easter without Christmas … and no Christmas without Easter.
Let us pray …
