Standing and looking upon the city, we see Jesus weeping. We are watching the Creator of the Universe overcome with absolute grief and why? He knows that Jerusalem will be destroyed in forty years' time.
But why doesn't He stop it?
Why does He allow the destruction of Jerusalem to happen? Why not come again in glory with a horde of archangels and save Jerusalem from itself?
[PAUSE]
Jesus says that the destruction of Jerusalem is come because it has not recognised the time of its salvation. Jerusalem refuses to recognise that Jesus is Our Lord and Saviour and it must pay a price for its choice.
The consequences are clear, Jerusalem is indeed utterly destroyed. It passes away to dust.
This is because God has made a choice, too. He has chosen to honour the free will of human beings rather than to force them to worship Him. Human free will gives us control of our destiny and God chooses to give us that control. It means we are free to choose Him and recognise Him as the Saviour. It means we are free not to recognise Him as the Saviour.
Put bluntly, if we choose not to be saved, God honours that. He honours it and weeps. He weeps because refusing Salvation means destruction.
Jesus Himself tells us that there is an unforgivable sin and this is against the Holy Ghost. It is a refusal of God's help and love.
Jerusalem has refused the Saviour, so it passes into dust. Remnants exist but it only as a testament to its destruction.
And so God weeps.
But this weeping is not the end.
[PAUSE]
St John tells us of the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven out of God. It is not the Old Jerusalem which is destroyed. It is the New Jerusalem adorned as a bride for her husband. God separates the Old Jerusalem from the New Jerusalem. God separates out the first Creation from the second. He makes all things new, and He offers us the choice to be part of that New Creation.
It is our choice to be saved and be transformed. It is our choice not to be saved and to be given up to destruction. This destruction is not God's will for us but it will happen just as surely as putting your hand in the fire will burn you. It's not the fire's fault you got burned, is it?
[PAUSE]
After weeping, the Lord comes into the temple and removes all the obstacles that others have put there. He throws out the money changers and merchants who are in the way of people honestly seeking Him.
He clears the path for us. He teaches us, warns us, shows us, weeps for us, dies for us and rises again for us.
Our Lord's victory upon the Cross is the successful and total removal of the barriers which prevent us from getting back to God, thus opening the way to Salvation. Surely it's about time we made up our minds to be saved, isn't it?
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