NOTES for Luk 19:28-48
The evangelist combines in one account Jesus’ triumphal entry into the holy city, when praise and joy cannot be restrained by any force, so that even the stones are ready to sing glory to the coming King, and Jesus’ sorrowful weeping over Jerusalem. Here the city of the promise becomes a collective image of all who wait for Christ and cannot live without Him, yet do not recognize Him and cannot believe that their hope is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Before our eyes, triumph and catastrophe take place at once, because the city, the people, and individual persons receive the long-awaited opportunity to see, recognize, and encounter their dream, but they “do not recognize the time of their visitation.” Deep down, I, like many others, would probably prefer this time to be clear and obvious to everyone, or at least not obligatory, not something everyone must face. But such a time does come, and, most frighteningly, it can be missed: one can fail to recognize God when He passes nearby...