Paul of Tarsus on What Really Matters

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

-Paul of Tarsus (from Galatians 5:6 NIV)

On Nonviolence:

"Violence simply is not radical enough, since it generally changes only the rulers but not the rules."

-Walter Wink in Jesus and Nonviolence, A Third Way

Al Fatiha

In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy! Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy, Master of the Day of Judgement. It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help. Guide us in the straight path: the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and who have not gone astray.

Feeling | 1

The last post ended with Luke 19, Jesus finally arriving in Jerusalem after quite a journey. He’d been through Judea, Galilee, and Samaria and had at last arrived at the city in which he would die. Now, every year on Palm Sunday you probably hear the story, although it’s probably read from the account of Matthew, Mark or John. The event is mentioned in all four gospels but these three talk more about Jesus riding on a donkey and thus fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. Luke, however, mentions something that none of the other gospel writers mention, and, to me, it’s one of the most beautiful scenes in all of Jesus’ ministry. It occurs between Jesus getting on the donkey and actually entering the gates of Jerusalem. Jesus, the disciples and a whole crowd of people are coming down the Mount of Olives. The disciples are singing joyfully, the Pharisees were being critical as they usually were, and then in verse 41 it says that “as [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace. . .’” (emphasis mine)

I spent a while meditating and thinking about this scene and I imagine Jesus and the disciples just before this on top of the Mount of Olives. He’d just spent so much time traveling around, healing, feeding, rebuking, teaching, proclaiming freedom for all the oppressed. All of this in all kinds of places, from inside synagogues to the dining rooms of tax collectors and sinners. He spoke the elite rabbis as well as the people they hated. He’s travelled miles and miles on foot and now he’s on the top of the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem looking out over everywhere they’d just been. I imagine there’s no way anyone could sit up there and not reflect on all that had just happened, especially knowing what was about to happen when he entered the city. (In fact, later this is the exact spot Jesus goes to pray before he was arrested, praying, “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done”) Everything he’s said and done has all been leading up to this point and it’s finally arrived and he’s riding down the hill and sees the city and the people in it, and it breaks his heart. And in the midst of this incredibly emotional moment, well, he loses it.

Luke uses the same word here, eklausen (translated wept), that he does a few chapters later when he’s telling how Peter “went outside and wept bitterly,” (Luke 22:62) after having just realized he’d denied knowing Jesus three times, just as Jesus had predicted he would. (Luke 22:34) This must have been another intensely emotional scene, Peter realizing he’d let someone down who had given everything for him. Another word that is really important in this verse is the word peace, or eirene in the Greek. The concept is signified by the word shalom in Hebrew, which is much more than just a lack of conflict. It’s complete wellness, safety, satisfaction, and wholeness of being in the presence of the Creator. Jesus continues,

“The days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:43-44)

What he’s describing here is a city without the shalom of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what I think really breaks Jesus’ heart in this moment is that the shalom of the Kingdom of Heaven is sitting on a donkey riding down the Mount of Olives and into their midst, and they have no idea.

Feeling like Christ means that our hearts break for what breaks his. It means being desperate for the shalom of the Kingdom.

Now that we’re here, let’s go back and check out what the disciples were singing in this moment:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
(Luke 19:38)