NOTES for Luk 19:41-44
When we read that our task is to imitate Christ in everything, we usually understand these words as a convention. We might try reading this Gospel passage from that point of view. In a situation like this, a person either waves a hand in resignation, saying, “That is how it turned out,” or descends into undisguised gloating: “There, you were told not to do this and to do it that way; now suffer and be tormented.” But when Jesus “drew near and saw the city, He wept over it.” He is powerless to impose Himself; everyone is free to accept Him or not. Yet the result of rejecting life with Christ is so terrible that God weeps when He thinks of it. This is not despair born of helplessness; it is grief over the choice made by a free human being. And this is despite Jesus knowing that, in a few days, such rejection will bring Him Himself to the cross. But He does not weep over that; He weeps over what the people chosen by God are bringing upon themselves. Here is a portrait of God in the sharpest possible outline: He created humanity free; He will die a terrible death because human beings chose to kill Him; knowing this, He weeps over how terrible life will be for the person who made that choice. This is what He calls us to imitate.