Pastor's Weekly Word

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:41)

These words follow the famous Palm Sunday passage when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem. He sent two of his disciples ahead to fetch a colt for him, the palms waved, and then he wept over the city. A church now stands in the place where it is believed Jesus wept, crying out to a God who had long been burdened by a people at odds with one another. While sitting in that church on my recent trip, I sensed a heaviness that still hangs in the air, almost as if Jesus still weeps there today and will continue to weep until we stop killing one another. It reminded me of what author Danielle Shroyer wrote when she visited the same spot, “In the same way that Moses could not experience the fullness of God’s glory, here we are reminded that we cannot experience the fullness of God’s pain.”

It was rainy and cold on the day our group visited. My fingers went numb for about an hour. There I was, standing in the place where Jesus stood, and all I was thinking about was when will it stop raining? When will we be done and be able to get warm? When will I feel my hands again? I lasted 5 min in the rain. Jesus endured suffering beyond compare. He chose to do it, weeping and suffering for a world that was as equally divided and violent then as it is now. He did not turn aside or complain. He did not shy away from it. He experienced the fullness of God’s pain for us, and in those moments, revealed the fullness of God’s glory.