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As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41-42).
Jesus is a realist. He is reduced to a warm fuzzy blur by all of the heart-tugging appeals, tear-jerking stories, and sonorous organ chords that short-cut past the mind to the heart. But in the light of his own testimony, he is a clear-eyed realist.
He approaches Jerusalem for the last time, knowing that he is going to be rejected and crucified there. He wastes no time on anger at his fate. He seeks no refuge, devises no evasive strategy.
When the religious start serving themselves instead of God, they will soon start sacrificing those with the temerity to point out the difference. Jesus has no illusions that it will be any different for him. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing”(Luke 13:34).
Being a realist did not make him a cynic. Jesus’ heart broke with unrequited love. True love desires the best for the beloved. Jesus wanted nothing less than the children to come home and be at peace with their Father, but they are settling for so much less. They will kill him in an attempt to erase the reminder that their best isn’t good enough.
Jesus weeps for them, but he doesn’t stop loving them. That’s the saving grace of it all — when we are at our worst, he loves us still! (Rom 5:8). He doesn’t reject us or curse us in bitterness. Knowing everything about us, he still intercedes for us with the Father (Heb 7:25).
Mavericks, rebels, rogues, wanderers, progressives, conservatives, rugged individualists– think of the images we prize. How is that working out for us? After 2,000 years are we any better at “recogniz[ing] the things that make for peace?”
And what are the things that make for peace.
Jesus walked into Jerusalem, entered the temple, and was greeted by the din of currency exchange and sales of livestock for sacrifices. He took a whip of cords and drove out the sellers and dealers, overturning their tables and chairs, and scattering their coins. It was a dramatic, even violent, act of protest and religious reform.
Hours before, Jesus had wept over the unwillingness of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to pursue peace-making. Then he breached the peace in the sacred Temple and the most important gathering place of the Jewish nation. His voice thundered words of Scripture – “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17).
How do we reconcile the compassionate, empathetic, longing Jesus with the eyes-blazing, Scripture-shouting activist Jesus? That’s a 2,000 year argument.
Progressives claim the activist Jesus as kind of a fire-breathing First Century Bernie Sanders. Conservatives claim that Jesus’ mourning over the apostasy of Jerusalem and his raised room-clearing messianic-voice represent his call to the nation to repent.
I am weary of the attribution of divine righteousness to partisan political positions while opposing positions are attacked as pure evil. The fellowship of spiritual companions is sacrificed to unreasoning, uncompromising political zealotry. Wrath seethes, fingers are pointed, epithets are hurled, and boycotts are called to damage and destroy in deployment of scorched earth strategies and all of this among proclaimed followers of Christ.
Did Jesus cleanse the Temple for the sake of inclusion, or exclusion or political reform, or peace through protest in the House of the Lord?” I don’t think he had political motives. The money-changing proves that people from a lot of different countries were present. And if all we can see are political strategies and outcomes, we are spiritually blind.
Jesus told Pilot, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was from this world, my followers would fight . . . But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). He had no political point to make.”
Jesus had said of Jerusalem, “If you only knew the things that make for peace.” Nothing makes for peace like reconciling with God and reconciliation means communication. Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
My friend Nate Schilts says, “There is no debate in prayer. True prayer is a dependence on God alone.”
Exactly! Dependence on God makes money-changing, politics, and name-calling irrelevant. Jesus would let nothing stand between his people and God. That’s why he came. That’s why he gave his life – to reestablish the direct connection between the Father and his children – the connection that makes for peace.
It is no wonder that Jesus was ruthless in dealing with those who would interfere with the life-giving, life-sustaining relationship with the Father for their own purpose and profit. If our brothers and sisters were dying what would we do to save them? And if we fickle humans, would do that much, how much more will be done for us by our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who he sent for us? (See, Rom 8:31-36).
What does it profit us if we gain the Supreme Court and lose our souls in the process? How can God’s will be advanced through labeling and character assassination?
It’s past time we stop trying to settle scores and turn to prayer to the God of all grace that “his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a prayer taught to us by Jesus as a path to reconciliation and peace (Matt 6:7-15).
Each of us is accountable for seeking that peace. The Apostle Paul wrote, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all” (Rom 12:18). If we are serious about living out the life of Christ in us, we will think about his peace before we hit the “send,” “reply” or “post” buttons on our political pronouncements.
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps 34:8).
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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.