By Martin Accad

These were Jesus’ words of lament, as he entered the city of Jerusalem, where shortly after he would meet his death on a Roman cross. The apostle Luke tells us in his account that Jesus wept over the city. But why did he weep? “The days will come upon you,” he mourned,

“When your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (Luke 19:41-44).

From the perspective of the inhabitants of the city – both people and religious leaders in first-century Palestine, Jerusalem and its temple were doing well. The temple was crowded with pious worshippers. Religious business was good, as animals for the sacrifices and other paraphernalia of worship – one might assume – was on sale and doing well in the temple. But all this religious sham did not impress Jesus. The city might have been economically at its best. It might have been buzzing with religious fervor. But Jesus observed that its inhabitants were missing the core of the message: he had come to the earth to proclaim the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom unseen with bare eyes but with the eyes of faith; yet the people were still busying themselves with the mundane, with the fluff of folk religion. Though the passage is usually taken to refer to the destruction of the temple that would come about in AD70, more symbolically we might say, as far as Jesus was concerned, Jerusalem’s enemies had built an embankment against her with their fake religiosity. They had encircled her and hemmed her in on every side. They would dash her to the ground, her and the children within her walls.

Jesus had little patience for this pious mockery. As he entered the temple, he drove out the merchants and cried: “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’” (Luke 19:46).

So, would Jesus be pleased with the religious fervor of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem today? Would he be impressed that the three so-called monotheistic religions are fighting over the ownership of this piece of real-estate? Does he care that Israelis and Palestinians are claiming the city as their “eternal capital”? That is very doubtful! What good is an “eternal city” for people who know nothing about eternal life? How will an “eternal city” rescue those who know nothing about the city’s king and its Prince of Peace, who alone can give eternal life?

And what about his disciples? They had just made all the arrangements for their master, whom they were beginning to discover as king, to enter the city on the back of a donkey – an ancient mark of kingship. They had just led a great demonstration, and the crowds had spread their cloaks before the man, praising God joyfully and shouting “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:37-38) Yet, they too, it seems, had still very little understanding of what kingdom that king had come to inaugurate.

Two chapters later, we read that:

“Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down’” (Luke 21:5-6).

Jesus, it would seem, couldn’t care less about the fineries of religious megalomania. In another shockingly blasphemous statement reported by the apostle John, Jesus taunted the religious leaders: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). And the gospel writer to added, reflecting later on Jesus’ death and resurrection: “But the temple he had spoken of was his body” (verse 21). These religiously blasphemous words would cost Jesus his life, and he knew it (see Matthew 26:61 and Mark 14:58). But turning people’s hearts to true faith was more important to Jesus than fanning their religious fervor by cajoling their ears and saving his own life.

So, in this fateful month of December 2017, after President Trump reversed decades of US policy and officially “recognized” Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, should we say “Yay!” to this historic moment? It seems clear from the teaching of Jesus that his true followers all over the world should instead lament and cry out:

“O Jerusalem! If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace!”