Luke 19:41-44

Butler's Comments

SECTION 4

Peace (Luke 19:41-44)

41 And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it,42saying, Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. 43For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, 44and dash you 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.

Luke 19:41-42 Weeping: The crowds were clamoring, almost in hysteria, shouting loudly, Peace in heaven.. They were apparently oblivious to the Lord Himself so taken were they with their own emotions. As He rounded the crest of the Mt. of Olives and the thousand-year-old capitol city of the Jews came into view, He wept. The Greek word eklausen is translated wept but it means much more than tears; it suggests that His whole body was heaving with sobbing. It is the kind of deep, soulful sobbing the human body suffers at the death of a loved one. None of the crowd Seemed to notice except perhaps one of His disciples who gave Luke this eyewitness account later. It is interesting that this particular incident is recorded only by Luke.

Jerusalem (Hebrew, Yerushalom) means, Righteousness Peace. They were shouting Peace in heaven.. but they had no idea of what it meant. Peace (in the Hebrew language, shalom) means, soundness, wholeness, well-being. Peace as it relates to God may be experienced by man even in the midst of earthly conflict (cf. John 14:27; Isaiah 26:3). Jerusalem was the City of Peace and yet it represented the center of all that stood in opposition to the God of peace. Its people, for the most part, did not know the way of peacenot then, not ever. Isaiah condemned the nation in his day because it did not know the way of peace (cf. Isaiah 59:8). This is the city of God's presence but the frivolous, materialistic-minded mobs, and the self-righteous rulers have taken the kingdoms by violence for themselves. The attitudes of the Jews toward Jesus are so vividly like those of the Jews toward God and His prophets in the days of Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 6:16 ff.) that one should not be surprised at the terrible devastation predicted by Jesus here. Peace, true peace, is not the absence of struggle, discipline or conflict; it is the result of reconciliation and surrender to the will of God by being in Christ (cf. Ephesians 2:11-22). This is what the inhabitants of Jerusalem rejected.

Luke 19:43-44 Warning: Jesus gives a somber and gruesome prediction in a general way here of what will happen to the Jews because of their soon rejection of the Prince of Peace. Later He gives in great detail the same prediction (Luke 21:5-32; Matthew 23:37 to Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:1-31). We will deal with this prediction fully in Luke 21:5-32. Jerusalem's enemies (the Romans) would cast up a bank (siege wall) around the city and hem them in. Thousands would starve to death, other thousands would fight and kill one another. Then the Romans would dash many to the ground, including infants as they slaughtered the besieged Jews. Josephus documents the literal fulfillment of Jesus-' prophecy in 66-70 A.D. in his history of the Jews. Titus Vespasian razed Jerusalem so that it looked like a plowed field, and not one stone was left upon another. The crowds seem unaware of this shocking prophecy. His prediction, if heard, would have been considered outrageous and completely out-of-place. Even His own disciples later (Matthew 23:37 to Matthew 24:35) could not believe that not one stone would be left upon another in their beloved Jerusalem. When Jesus said that so they could hear it later, they thought He was talking about the end of the world. To a Jew, the destruction of Jerusalem would be the end of the world. But, as incredible as it seemed, it came to pass to the very letter of the prediction just 40 years after Jesus said it.

All this was to come upon them because they did not know the time of their visitation, The Greek word episkopes means literally, to look upon, care for, exercise oversight. It may be used to denote a visitation from God in judgment (Isaiah 10:3 in the LXX episkopes) or a visitation by the Son of man with mercy and redemption (Luke 1:68; Luke 1:78; Luke 7:16; Acts 15:14; Hebrews 2:6). God visited man in the Person of His Son, as Man, to exercise oversight for the purpose of accomplishing man's redemption. The prophets of the Jews predicted God would visit man as Man (Isaiah 7:14; Micah 5:2 ff.; Isaiah 9:6 ff.; Isaiah 11:1-9; etc.). But when that Man came and claimed to be God in the flesh (John 1:14; John 1:18) they accused Him of blasphemy (John 5:18) and plotted to kill Him. He invaded history in a fashion quite contrary to the human concept of how God would come. God's chosen people had been manipulating the written Law of God, His temple, His priesthood and His creation so long they thought they could manipulate Him. But God in the flesh, Jesus, would not be manipulated. When they rejected Him, He rejected them. They did not know Him because they did not know God (John 5:30-47; John 8:19; John 8:42-47; John 10:31-39; John 14:8-11, etc.). He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not, (John 1:10-11). Tragedytragedytragedy! And in spite of documentation by eyewitnesses of the historical reality of visitation by God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, most of the world today does not acknowledge with any personal obligation and responsibilitynot even of praisethat He has visited to bring peace. What is left then for those who pass from this life into the next without personal recognition and responsible commitment to that Visitor? The opposite of peaceeternal rebellion, fragmentation and torment. It is important to notice here Jesus-' pity never led Him to compromise the truth. In spite of the deep grief which made His whole body shudder with sobbing, He pronounced the terrible truth of Jerusalem's doom. Had He known it and kept it to Himself no sane person could call Him compassionate! Pity alone never saved anyone; the compassion which elicits truth spoken and acted is what saves.

Applebury's Comments

Jesus-' Lament Over Jerusalem
Scripture

Luke 19:41-44 And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43 For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44 and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Comments

he saw the city and wept over it.What should have been a joyous occasion, for the people were praising Him as King, was a sad one to Jesus. Not the momentary acclaim of the crowds, but the fact that many of these same people who soon would be crying out, Crucify him, crucify him, was in the mind of the Lord. The deep sorrow that disturbed him as He thought of what was going to happen to the City of the Great King caused Him to break forth in sobs that shooks His body. Once before His sorrow had caused Him to break into tears. That was just before He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:35). Luke does not mention tears at this time; he told about the agonizing sobs that expressed the Savior's grief.

If thou hadst known.Jesus spoke to the city, meaning, of course, the people of the city. If they had known the things of peace which even then were hid from their eyes, they would have escaped the awful destruction that was coming upon them. If they had listened to the message of the angels-' song at the time of His birth or to His teaching about the peacemakers or to His pleas for sinners to repent before it was too late, they would have escaped the most terrible punishment ever visited on any city (Matthew 24:21).

This may well indicate the remorse of those who will stand in the Judgment without having made peace through the blood of His cross.

but now they are hid from your eyes.The things of peace were hid from their eyes, for they saw Jesus only as a man who was perverting their nation (Luke 23:2).

For the days shall come upon thee.Jesus foretold in detail what was coming upon the city. He mentions it briefly here but in detail in Matthew 24:1-34 and Luke 21:5-32. Escape would be cut off; the people would be crashed to the ground; the city would be completely destroyed. It all happened in 70 A. D. when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.

became thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.What is meant by visitation? There are two possible interpretations of this passage. In Isaiah 10:3, the Hebrew word which is translated in the LXX by the Greek word that Luke uses here means a visitation that results in punishment. This illustrates the fact that the word can be used of the coming of the Judge who rewards the faithful and punishes the wicked. See 1 Peter 2:12 where this might apply. But in Luke 1:68, it is stated that God visited His people and wrought redemption for them. This was in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The consensus of commentators is that visitation in Luke 19:44 refers to the redemption which Jerusalem did not accept, just as she did not know the things of peace. But Jesus might have been speaking of the destruction that He was to bring on the city that rejected Him, when He mentioned the time of their visitation.