When Jesus entered Jerusalem the Sunday before Passover, He received the peoples’ welcome as the coming Messiah as they shouted, “Hosanna!” (Save Us!). After some Pharisees challenged Him, Luke says, “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41, NKJV). This is one of two times the Bible says Jesus wept about an issue.
Jesus knew what was coming for Jerusalem. The same crowd that received Him would reject Him in a few days and urge the Romans to kill Him. The same Roman army would destroy the City in 70 AD.
God sends judgment when people rebel and reject His love offerings. Remember Jesus’ tears regarding The City. He did not relish the idea of judging Jerusalem with destruction. Neither does He look forward to the final judgment. He said, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”
God weeps at the judgment of people. The old parental adage, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you,” is ever-so-true with God. Think of the pain God felt in condemning His Son on our behalf. The ancient gods did not sacrifice for people. They required people to sacrifice for them. Our God offered His one-of-a-kind Son for our sins. As a result, darkness fell at the cross, and God tore the veil in the temple from top to bottom as signs of His sorrow.
Americans are “playing with fire” in turning away from God. America has gone from the light of God’s word to the darkness of sin. Like the Jews and Romans who crucified Jesus, we reveal our sinful nature. We openly engage in abominable practices like homosexuality and bestiality and the slaughter of innocents in abortion clinics, or as one pastor calls them, “Death Camps.” Some call child predators “pedovores” instead of “pedophiles.” How we have fallen!
Homosexuality so appalled our forefathers and mothers that they would not even name it. James Wilson signed the Declaration and Constitution. He described homosexuality as “that crime not to be named among Christians.” That does not sound like many Americans or Christian Americans today.
The Bible condemns sin in general and homosexuality in particular. (Leviticus 23:10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Jude 1:6-7; and Romans 1:18, 26-27). Here’s the good news – there is hope in Christ. Paul included a list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6. Then he said, “11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
God does not rejoice in man’s lost condition. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Ezekiel said it like this:
‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?”
Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). He described the process with a three-in-one parable of a shepherd seeking a lost sheep, a woman looking for a coin, and a father watching for his son (Luke 15). God is intently earnest in saving us from the condemnation of our sins, regardless of what they are. Jesus can remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Jesus can clean us up and reconcile us to God. This is God’s heart as He spoke to Judah through Isaiah and said:
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV)
Judgment IS coming. Some WILL BE cast into outer darkness where Jesus says there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). On that day, the tears will not be limited to the condemned. Just as Jesus wept over the condemnation of Jerusalem, He will weep over the utter destruction of those who choose the domain of evil and darkness over righteousness and light. Hell is a place for divine tears as well as deserved retribution.
Do we weep for the lost? Regardless of the sin, we are lost unless we come to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. The lost condition of our neighbors should move us on many levels. In the long run, their condemnation is forever. In the short term, we realize we cannot save America without saving Americans. Our Constitution is useless for immoral and irreligious people. The original intent of our Founders and Framers incorporated God into our nation and gave us a foretaste of God’s kingdom.
My wife and I took her to the Mall when my daughter was very young. While we were distracted looking for our list of items, as children do, she wandered away, and we panicked. We began an all-out search and notified the store. Everyone around us started looking. We found her crying in a rack of clothes.
Perhaps Christians need to remember what it is like to be lost. God knows the feeling and the consequences of being lost. Jesus felt it when He took on our sins at the cross. He could not obtain a governor’s pardon. Pilate tried, but the people rejected it. Jesus was destined to die for the sake of our sins.
No one has to die eternally. We have a Savior willing to forgive our wrongs, all of them. While sin torments us, Jesus offers to carry our load. Listen to His invitation:
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
For the sake of our souls, let's follow Jesus and feel the relief His forgiveness can bring. For the nation's sake, let's turn to the "King of kings and Lord of lords." According to the Messianic reference in Psalm 89:27 (NKJV), God says, "Also I will make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth." "Firstborn" here is not birth order but supremacy. Colossians 1:18 (NKJV, emphasis added) says of Jesus, "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."
Keep The Light of Remembering God’s Tears for the Lost Burning!
GodNAmerica.com
