If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! – Luke 19:42 (NKJV)
Within Your Reach – Resurrection Series – Part 7
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
A week before his death,
“When Jesus caught sight of the city, he burst into tears and sobbed over Jerusalem, saying, “If only you could recognize that this day peace is within your reach! But you cannot see it. For the day is soon coming when your enemies will surround you, pressing you in on every side, and laying siege to you. They will crush you to pieces, and your children too! And when they leave, your city will be totally destroyed. Since you would not recognize God’s day of visitation, your day of devastation is coming!” (Luke 19:41-44).
History shows us that this could have been Jesus prophesying the fall of Jerusalem. Forty years after he ascended, a rebellion rose up against Rome. Emperor Titus squashed it, almost literally flattening Jerusalem and killing thousands of men, women and children.
“If only you could recognize that this day peace is within your reach.”
This is the way of resurrection. That’s not to say that we don’t rebel and rise and protest and stand for justice. But we would do well to examine the life of Jesus and see that he protested with bold forgiveness in one hand and grace in the other, always pointing to the way of love and sacrifice and unity. Those are the things he fought for, and his weapons were not the ones used by armies.
Jesus' cry echoes across the centuries to this day:
Is peace within our reach? Shalom, the essence that re-connects us back to the life source of all things, which in turn, connects us to one another?
And if it is, how do we grasp it?
Not an easy question for a Sunday morning. Ha! Sorry about that.
A week after Jesus cried over his beloved city, it watched him die, and then it housed his resurrection.
Perhaps the death and resurrection of Christ is just the place where we’ll find the path to peace.
But even when we lose our way; even when we fail to realize that peace is within our grasp and we reach for more destructive ways, remember this:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll rebuild it.”
Written by Lizzy Milani
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