2. He wept over the doom of the impenitent city that He loved. He foresaw the hour when- the Roman army would level its walls, destroy its Temple, and scatter its people through all lands ; when the spot that had been so long known as the glory of Judaea should be recognized only by its ruins. And to Christ there must have been something profoundly sad in that prospect. For ages Jerusalem had been the home of truth and the temple of the Eternal. For ages its people had been the solitary worshippers and witnesses to the true Lord of men. And the thought that a nation called and chosen of old, a nation whose forefathers had been true to God through perils and captivities, should fall from its high standing through falseness to its Lord, and, shorn of its ancient glory, should wander through the world, crowned with mockery, misery, and scorn, might well fill the heart of the com- passionate Christ with sorrow. But yet we cannot suppose that
^ Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiahy ii 369.
ST. LUKE XIX. 41, 42 409
the downfall of Jerusalem and the scattering of its people were the chief objects of His pity. It was the men themselves — the men of Jerusalem, who, by the rejection of God's messengers, and of Himself, the greatest of all, were bringing down those calamities — that awakened His compassion. He saw other temples than Solomon's falling into ruin — the temples of the souls that had spurned His voice ; and the ruin of those spirits moved Him to tears.
3. He knew that this dreadful doom might have been averted. There were things which belonged to Jerusalem's peace, and which would have secured it, if only she would have known them. They were things which He had brought with Him. The guilty city, the murderess of the prophets, she that had been a provoca- tion almost from her first day until now, might have washed her and made her clean from all that blood and from all that filthiness ; she might have become, not in name only, but in deed, " the city of peace," if only she would have consented first to be " the city of righteousness," to receive aright Him who had come, "meek and having salvation," and bringing near to her the things of her everlasting peace. There was no dignity, there was no glory, that might not have been hers. She might have been a name and a praise in all the earth. From that mountain of the Lord's house the streams of healing, the waters of the river of life, might have gone forth for the healing of all the bitter waters of the world. But no ; she chose rather to be herself the bitterest fountain of all. As she had refused in the times past to hear God's servants, so now she refused to hear His Son, stopped her ears like the deaf adder, made her heart hard as adamant that she might not hear Him.
4. But He knew that His bitter tears were unavailing now. The desolation of the beloved city was a catastrophe that even the prevailing work of His redemption was powerless to avert. " Now they are hid from thine eyes." This is a deliverance which lies beyond the limit even of the salvation which Christ is to accomplish. " Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." All the opportunities afforded by the Divine forbearance to those who slew the prophets, who stoned the messengers, and who were about
4IO THE IMPENITENT CITY
to kill the heir, and culminating in this day of Messiah's unmistak- able claim upon the allegiance of God's people, had passed unheeded and unused. Now, once and for all, the things that belong to peace are hidden. Jerusalem Christ cannot save. Its destruction He cannot turn away. Therefore, He breaks forth into a passionate lament, like Eachel weeping for her children — " And when he drew nigh, he beheld the city, and wept over it."
^ Jerusalem is the head and heart of the nation, the seat of the religious power in which Israel is personified. Why then must this power be blind and obstinate, angry and ofifended ? Why should these high priests, elders, masters of the Law and guardians of the traditions, these leaders of the chosen people, fail to under- stand what the simple, the poor, the humble, the despised have comprehended ? Why do their minds blaspheme while the minds of the people welcome with acclamations the Chosen One of God ? Such thoughts overwhelmed and distracted the soul of Jesus. There is still time for them to acknowledge Him ; they can still proclaim Him Messiah, and save Israel, to bestow upon it the peace of God. The unutterable anguish of Jesus is not for His own fate, to that He is resigned ; it is the fate of His people and of the city which is on the point of demanding His execution ; and this blindness will let loose upon Israel nameless calamities. The hierarchy, which despises the true Messiah, will be carried away by its false patriotism into every excess and every frenzy. It will endeavour in vain to control the people in their feverish impatience for deliverance. The Zealots will provoke implacable warfare, and, in grasping after empty glory and empty liberty, their fanaticism will be the unconscious instrument of the vengeance of God. Jesus knew it ; the future was before His eyes ; He saw Jerusalem besieged, invested, laid waste with fire and sword, her children slaughtered, and her houses, her monu- ments, her palaces, her Temple itself levelled with the ground.^