Luke 13:31-34 (RSV) 31At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, `Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.' 34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
Jesus is determined. Jesus dismisses the opposition of Herod with a quiet confidence that God is working out a plan that will be fulfilled in Jerusalem. If that quiet confidence in God was all we saw in Jesus, it would certainly be a confidence that we would want for our life. But confidence is not His only reaction to opposition.
Jesus turns from the Pharisees, looks toward the city and cries, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” Jerusalem is a city seething with malice, hostility, and self-pity. Jerusalem is not only heedless to God and hostile to the presence of God in Jesus, Jerusalem is determined to stay that way. And Jesus will die for a people who do not want to be saved from their folly? He will forgive those who see no need for their forgiveness? He will offer life to those who are content to suffer through life instead of accepting the gift He offers?
Is it easy to see the Jerusalem in our midst? We could cite the escalating statistics of destruction in our society: divorce rate, teen suicide, crime, violence, child abuse. It is easy to simply denounce the sickness of society, and to say our woes about it. But can we feel that agony of compassion that Jesus felt?
Compassion is the willingness to persist in the pain of love despite the way others may live or what they may do. What about the individuals in Jerusalem? Do we see them as hopeless? Do we assume, or feel like or talk like they are beyond the life changing compassion of God in Jesus Christ? Do we denounce the sins and sickness with a little “isn’t that terrible?” Do we give up on certain people as hopeless? Or do we recognize the call to the power of compassion? Compassion is the willingness to persist in the pain of love despite the way others may respond.
In the long run the power of Jesus proves stronger than the rejection He meets, more forceful than the apathy He encounters, more powerful than the folly of human blindness. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Jesus seeks to cry His compassion into our hearts and minds, and with His tears, to cry compassion into our hearts.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 8, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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