SCRIPTURE And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! Luke 19: 41-42
“While Lent is the journey into the most significant event of human history, the three great days [Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Saturday night Great Paschal Vigil] are a life-changing experience of God’s saving work in history. For Christians there is no time throughout the entire Christian year that is more crucial than the three great days. These are days to be set aside to enter into a worship that is the source of our entire spirituality, a moment in time that defines all time for Christians, a moment in time that is the very sum and substance of our spirituality for every season, every week, every Sunday, and every moment of every day. . . . It is imperative for the church to go beyond its present practice to recover the fullness of the three great days and to impress upon us all how important these days are, not only as historical events to be remembered but as events to be lived in our own dying to sin and rising to the new life of the Spirit. For herein lies the source and energy of our spiritual lives.“
Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year
THOUGHT The night of Jesus’ birth, angels announce “on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:14 KJV).” Now, years later, Jesus faces death. He is less than five miles from the place the angels sang when he begins to weep. His tears are for a city – a people of God – who neither understand nor accept that peace.
Jerusalem, literally interpreted, means “City of Peace.” Jesus, more than any other man or woman in history, can see the chasm between what God dreamed, and what sin has wrought. It’s not hard to imagine that he might be weeping today over a different nation running from the truths it once called self-evident.
Tantamount to a soldier sacrificing deeply on the battlefield only to come home and find he is neither valued nor celebrated, Jesus pauses over Jerusalem this day and feels the overwhelming grief and betrayal that his peace, God’s peace, has been rejected. The people he loves favor cheap substitutes – lies, pride, idols, addictions – whatever can be bought and sold in the temple by the moneychangers, who can turn any sanctuary into a marketplace.
Jesus dies that week to usher in fully the promise of peace between God and humans (Rm. 5:1). The veil is torn from the top, signaling invitation and welcome. The things that make for peace are done if we but walk in them.
PRAYER God, help us lay down our incompetent warring and move through the curtain. There is peace between us and the King! Color every corner of life with this good news.
Dear Reader,
I’m glad you’re along and I pray you will be blessed, challenged, and encouraged in your faith by something you read here.
There are archives by topic below – now more than 1000 of these daily meditations to browse.
ABOUT ME:
Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
Check out Walking When You’d Rather Fly, and learn more about the book and Amy’s other ministries. You will also find her devotional work at Words of Hope.
FREE TO YOU:
If you’d like to be notified of this blog each weekday, please look for the little blue “follow” button below (just above the topical search), and welcome!
asipoblog.com 
AMEN
>
LikeLike