Dear Friends,

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 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 does not make him a cynic. Jesus’ heart breaks with unrequited love.True love desires the best for the beloved. Jesus wants 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 every thing about us, he still intercedes for us with the Father (Heb 7:25).

Mavericks, rebels, rogues, wanderers, 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?”

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who find refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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The Lord is the strength of his people;