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Jesus' Great Love for Jerusalem

Dr. Dwight A. Pryor

From Christendom's earliest centuries, an attitude of Adversus Judaeos ("Against the Jews")

shaped Christian theology, and influences the way we read the Bible even today.
The Church was considered heir to the promises of the Old Testament. Jesus was viewed as an opponent of Judaism, and the destruction of Jerusalem was seen as God's final rejection of Israel. Instead, "New Israel" (the Church) took possession of a superior 'heavenly' Jerusalem.

St. Luke's gospel, fortunately, portrays the historical Jesus and Jerusalem in quite a different light. The Messiah is rooted firmly and positively within the fertile soil of Second Temple Jewish life and values, and his love for Jerusalem is deep and abiding.

Luke informs us, for example, that every year Jesus' devout parents took him up to Jerusalem for Passover (2:41). What wonderment must have filled this Jewish child from a small Galilee village of probably 200-300 people when he went up to the magnificent Temple! It was one of the wonders of the ancient world - but more importantly, it was his Father's house ..

Luke describes a bright young Jesus, aged 12, sitting in the Temple courtyard engaged in sophisticated rabbinic-style, question-for-question discourse with the sages (2:46-47).

He notes further that in the final week of his life, Jesus is again at his beloved Father's house in Jerusalem, teaching daily in the Temple courtyard (19:47).

Before Jesus left the Galilee for his final journey up to Jerusalem, Luke tells us that he was warned by the Pharisees that Herod Antipas was out to kill him (13:31) . At the mention of his looming destiny at Jerusalem, he breaks into heartfelt lament over the City of the Great King: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings ... " (13:34-35). Jesus is burdened with the foreknowledge that Jerusalem will reject his prophetic call for repentance and forgiveness of sins, and that her house will be left desolate.

Luke reports that when Jesus approaches Jerusalem for Passover, he beholds the city from the Mount of Olives. His disciples burst into Messianic praise (19:37-38), but he breaks into tears. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem in prophetic pathos (19:41). Rather than shalom within her walls, he grieves that the day is coming when Jerusalem will be hemmed in on every side by enemies and "torn to the ground" (19:43-44).

Four days later Jesus is handed over to the Romans for execution as a seditionist - . as "King of the Jews." On his way to the cross, even after extreme abuse and torture by lawless men, Jesus cautions the women mourning his dreadful condition: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when ... they will say to the mountains, 'Fallon us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things to a green tree, what will happen to the dry?" (Luke 23:28-31).

The anguished Messiah alludes to prophetic texts in Hosea (10:8) and Ezekiel (20:46ff) to forewarn Jerusalem of its coming desolation.

Forty years later, in 70 C.E., those prophetic words found painful fulfillment when the city was "trodden down by the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). Titus sacked Jerusalem with four legions of Roman soldiers, utterly demolishing the Temple, "leaving not one stone upon another" (19:44). And the Jewish people were left longing for the "times of the Gentiles" to be completed (21:24).

In June 1967, for the first time in nearly two millennia, Jews stood freely within the gates of the Old City and prayed joyously at the Western Wall. Christians should celebrate the 40th· anniversary of this historic event, remembering Jesus' great love for Jerusalem.

Thanks to Luke's gospel we can see our Lord in strong solidarity with the Jewish people and with great affection for Jerusalem. His laments over the city, like the anguished cries of the prophet Jeremiah before him, sprang from a deep attachment to the city he loved. The Father's passion for His house and His people was fully embodied in His son. tIt

Dr. Pryor is Founder and President of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies www.jcstudies.com