I wasn't planning on posting today, but I've been praying, reading and meditating over this for a couple days now...so be blessed and may the Spirit fall afresh on you this Pentecost leading you out into the world for His great purposes!
So, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem and this may be the last time he passes through these towns calling people back to the Way of peace. He has sent His seventy two ahead of him whom the Lord had given a share of His Spirit (echoing Numbers 11); however, the reality is that most people in Jesus time, especially the religious leaders, really had no desire for peace and this worked its way through society. They wanted war and violence towards their neighbors, the Samaritans, and their pagan occupiers the Romans. Then, so they thought, the anger of YHWY would be roused on their side and He would finally act decisively to deliver them from exile. The problem was that this desire in their heart was in fact the root of their exile. Their true prison, their true Egypt was their sin (just as it is ours) and Jesus was going to accomplish the exodus that would lead them out of it.
Jesus and his disciples came into these towns saying things like love your enemies and pray for them, if they make you go one mile with them, go two…crazy stuff, ridiculous love. There was a sense of urgency too, because YHWY’s anger was about to be kindled and for those who rejected the message of the true Kingdom and the Way would be consumed by it because their desire for violence and destruction would be their own end not those they wished it against, and the lack of desire for peace in their hearts, the lack of hospitality and grace would play out into a greater condemnation for them, greater than that of Sodom!
God himself was with them testifying by great miracles that this was the Way and that Jesus was the Son of Man spoken of by Daniel…they would soon see him coming on the clouds (that is Ascending to His heavenly throne), He was the true Son of God as opposed to Caesar’s claim to that title and yet his own people desired violence, they desired to rule by the sword rather than by service. They indeed had received Caesar’s way…the way of men, only they wanted to sit on the throne over the world and so rebellion stirred. Those who live by the sword, die by it and so the condemnation would not come in the form of fire falling from the sky, but by the force of the greatest military power in the world falling on them and snatching them off into captivity, building up a wall around Jerusalem, with tens of thousands slain by crucifixion, starvation running rampant causing them even to consume their own children and so ultimately the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem herself. Jesus was trying to lead the people out of this…Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near to you! But many would not hear.
This was no joke. When they rejected Jesus’ messengers, they rejected Jesus himself, and those who reject Jesus, reject YHWY, the Father of all. These people were very much embracing their own destruction. If we are to be like Jesus, then we will call people out of their destructive ways (because the wages of sin is death) and if they reject the Good News of Jesus and with it the love and healing we demonstrate to them …then we are to wipe the dust from our feet against them and this is to be done with nothing less than a heavy heart and tears lest we become just like them. Yes, just as Jesus would soon weep over Jerusalem saying…"Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." So should we weep for those who continue down the path of destruction, praying fervently…whether it’s pride, violence, thieving, drugs, sexual immorality...whatever destroys our humanity, our image bearingness…death is its end.
May we lead others in the Way of peace with great patience, even as we are led by the great Shepherd of the Sheep. May we not seek destruction, but peace in His Way so that when tribulation comes we may be of those who stand and the house we have built for His glory may not be burned up. Truly, in that day, when we have stood through, kept in Christ-not forgetting the Love that we first knew, God himself will wipe every tear from our eyes and the leaves of the Tree shall be for the healing of the nations because then we shall have the strength to fully know His great love for us. Amen. Come Lord Jesus, Come.
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