"If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon 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.”
When Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem for the final time, He looked at the city and wept… because He knew what was coming.
What was Jesus talking about? To paraphrase, He said, "If you had just paid attention to what my Father’s Word said, you’d know who I am, and that I am the only one who can bring you peace. But because you ignored His Word, He has now hidden the truth from your eyes. By ignoring the prophecies (esp. Daniel 9:24-25 NIV), you didn’t even recognize what TIME it is… time for God to come to you in human form. Now your time is up, and so Jerusalem – and the temple – will be destroyed." And in 70 A.D., this terrible prophecy began to be fulfilled when the Roman army under Titus destroyed the temple killed 600,000 Jews. In 135 A.D., the destruction of the city was completed, and the people were dispersed.
What does this have to do with you and me? Everything! God is still around. His Word is still active. His plan is moving along as always. His Word is filled with prophecies that point us to the time of Jesus’ Second Coming. And yet so very few people recognize how close that time really is. No one knows the specific day or hour – only the Father knows that. But He gave us things to watch for, specific events both in nature and in the world… and He also told us what will happen to those who ignore His Word. Just as Jesus’ prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem came true, so, also, will these later and much more terrifying prophecies come true.
Do you recognize many of the things that are happening in the world today as biblical prophecy being fulfilled? Or will you, like the people of Jerusalem , be blinded to the truth unto destruction? Think about it.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7 NIV)
When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge–to the great amazement of the governor. (Matthew 27:12-14 NIV)
The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. (Mark 15:3-5 NIV)
When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. (Luke 23:8-10 NIV)
When Jesus stood before His accusers, He offered no defense for Himself. He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish religious leaders because He claimed He was God (John 8:58 NIV). But this charge held no weight with the Romans, and the Jews needed Roman law in order to kill Jesus. So they created false charges against Him… things that were against Roman law which carried a death sentence – things like encouraging the people not to pay taxes, claiming to be a king, and causing riots. Not one of these charges was true, and yet Jesus offered no defense for Himself. In fact, He did not speak at all. He did not open His mouth. Why not?
Because Jesus knew the whole picture. He knew what His purpose was. He knew that He was the final sacrifice. And He knew that the time had come. If He had defended Himself and won, He would not have been crucified. And if He had not been crucified, you and I would still be required to come up with lambs and doves to be sacrificed on the altars of the temple if we wanted to be forgiven for our sins. We would have no salvation through Jesus. The world would not have been changed one whit. So, because He knew the future, He offered no defense. He did not open His mouth.
However, today, Jesus is not silent. When it comes to you and me and the things that we do wrong, He’s quite verbal. Unwilling to defend Himself in order to save you and me, He is quite willing to stand at the right hand of God and continually offer a defense for us, protecting us from the certain and eternal punishment that we deserve without Him. Praise God that He is no longer silent!
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Romans 8:34 NIV
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. (Isaiah 53:5-7 NIV)
Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.”
So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” (Acts 23:1-4 NIV)
Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. (Matthew 27:1-2 NIV)
But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61 NIV)
Jesus was an innocent man… a man without sin… a man who had done no wrong. Yet He was tried and condemned to the most horrible death his judges could create… tried and condemned while He offered nothing in His own defense… tried and condemned to suffer and die so that you and I might be saved from every evil thought, every evil action, everything that any of us has ever done or will ever do that is evil in the sight of God. And now, you and I look back at those who condemned Him and shake our heads in wonder that they couldn’t see who He was… amazed that they could reject Him so completely.
Hind-sight is twenty-twenty, isn’t it? Would we have recognized Him then? Possibly… and possibly not. But we recognize Him now. We can see the whole picture, the plan that God set in motion in the Garden of Eden.
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah saw the whole picture, too. He described what he saw in this passage. He wrote this passage and, I’m sure, shared this vision verbally with all he could find. Yet, few believed. Few recognized Jesus when He was on earth. And now, with the whole picture in hand, with the clear vision of the past firmly in our hands, few believe today. Jesus told Thomas that he was blessed because he had seen and believed, but those who did not see and yet believed were even more blessed. (John 20:24-31) In that same light, those who rejected Jesus in person were foolish, but how much more foolish are those who live today and have the whole story and yet reject Him?
Are you a part of His fold? Or are you still wandering around, lost because you can’t – or won’t – recognize the whole picture?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Isaiah 53:2-3 (NIV)
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; (Psalm 118:22 NIV)
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. (Matthew 26:3-4 NIV)
About seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote a description of how Jesus’ life would be here on earth. Isaiah foretold that Jesus would be rejected by His own people… that the very ones He came to save would turn their backs on Him.
Why would the Jewish people do that? Why would they reject their long-awaited Messiah? Why do the majority of them still do that until this day? Because they are normal people.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Jews were among the most despised people on earth. They suffered oppression, slavery, torture, and death just because of who they were. Their religion provided ample opportunity for atonement for sin through the blood sacrifice of animals and other rituals. They saw no real need to be saved from their sins. What they wanted to be saved from was their enemies. When they read the prophecies about the Messiah, they concentrated on the ones that foretold a triumphal King, a Savior who would deliver them from the oppression and slavery that had dominated their history. When Jesus came along, they paid no attention to the prophecies that told of His first visit to earth as the humble shepherd, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. To them, He seemed to be nothing more than a good Rabbi, possibly another prophet. That’s it. Nothing at all like what they were expecting.
You and I are no different. We have our salvation experience and expect to wake up the next morning completely different. But when we go look in the bathroom mirror, the same bloodshot eyes with bags under them look back! Our life doesn’t suddenly change. We still have bills to pay and work to do and children to raise. We still have all the same problems we had the day before… only now, they seem more pronounced. Now it is much more obvious what an evil life we were living before. Now we have to figure out how to deal with life from a Christian viewpoint. The instant cure we were looking for doesn’t happen.
So what do we do? Do we drop back into familiar territory, finding sin almost comforting when compared to the challenge of living a life for Jesus? Or do we respond to the prodding of the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us, opening ourselves up to His teaching and guidance and comfort, willingly allowing Him to begin molding us into the person Jesus wants us to be?
Sadly, far too many people follow the road of the Jews… refusing salvation because it looks too difficult. Many reject Him because He’s just not what they’re expecting. They don’t see Him hitting those who are saved with a spiritual "insta-cure," so they turn away, following the easier, more familiar path of the world. Forgetting (or ignoring) the fact that Jesus’ salvation is eternal, and the abundant life He promised can begin right here and now, they turn to self-help books and psychologists rather than to the Word of God.
Is Jesus falling short of your expectations? Have you, like the Jews, rejected Him because He’s not who you expected Him to be? Perhaps that’s because you’re expecting the wrong thing. If you will allow Him to be all He can be for you in your life, He’ll go far beyond what you could ever imagine. If you’ll stop limiting Him, the results will be limitless!
"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting."
Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him…
They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.
Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.
Seven hundred years before it happened, Isaiah saw the Master being humiliated, mocked, degraded… even spat upon by those who mocked Him.
When you say words over and over again, they begin to lose their impact… and sometimes, even their meaning. Try it. Pick out a word… any word. Now say it over and over and over again for a minute or so. Pretty soon, it becomes nonsense, doesn’t it? The meaning and impact of the word are gone. For this reason, sometimes it helps to change your perspective on an event occasionally, to look at what happened from a different angle in order to regain the impact the story had the first time you heard it.
So, if you can, put yourself in Jesus’ place for a moment. Think about how Jesus felt as he was mocked. Imagine being stripped of what little clothing you own. Imagine seeing the man wielding the cat-o-nine-tails walking toward you… Examine that whip closely… Each leather strip is wrapped around sharp pieces of bone and metal and stone – all guaranteed to cut whatever they encounter. Imagine the pain as that horrid instrument of torture rips the flesh from your back. Imagine a crown made of long, needle-sharp thorns being jammed down onto your head, the spike-like thorns digging into your face and scalp. Imagine standing in the center of a huge crowd, every face contorted with mockery and hatred, ridiculing everything about you. Imagine someone spitting in your face. How do you feel right now?
That’s not the worst of it. That’s just the beginning… but let’s stop there for a moment and just mull all those thoughts around in our heads. Are you getting a renewed picture of what was happening that day?
The point is this: Jesus knew what was coming, and yet He went willingly and offered no defense. Just thinking about the ridicule… if Jesus was willing to allow Himself to go through all that for you, are you willing to take the ridicule you might suffer for being one of His? Yes, you say? Do you always speak up for Him in a crowd of non-believers? Do you always speak up for Him when believers get away from God’s word in their thinking? Do you use His word when dealing with your family? Do you always reflect Him in everything you say and do?
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
Mary knew. Somehow, Mary knew that Jesus was about to die. Perhaps it was because she was always at His feet, listening to Him, rather than being the “hostess” that her sister, Martha, always was. Perhaps it was because Mary was one of the few who really heard Jesus when He spoke. Perhaps the Holy Spirit had given her insight, as He had done with Peter. Whatever the case, Mary knew. So she took a jar of pure nard, a very expensive perfume that was used for preparing a body for burial, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with the nard and wiped His feet with her hair. It was a beautiful act of worship, and Jesus commended her for it. The only thing that Judas Iscariot could see was that she was wasting money. But Jesus told Judas to leave her alone. She knew what was coming and wanted to do something to let Jesus know how much she loved Him. She wanted to show how devoted she was to Him through this act of worship. What a contrast there is between these two people!
Do you see the same contrast in the people around you today? Those who are totally devoted to Jesus and who display that devotion through their every word and deed… and those who are only devoted to themselves and they glory and honor and money they can obtain through their apparent devotion to Christ?
Today, think about how you would have felt in Mary’s place. Think about how it might have been to sit at His feet and listen to Him teach and absorb His every word, His every nuance, His every movement. Think about how you would feel, loving Him with the depth of love that Mary had, and knowing that He would soon die. Think about what the sacrifice of the nard meant to a poor woman like Mary. Think about Mary today, and pray to have her kind of devotion to Jesus.
Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
Peter asked, "Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Can you relate to the people in the Bible? I can… and I do so quite strongly sometimes. Some of the people in the Bible remind me of people I know. And some remind me of myself. The problem is, when they remind me of myself, it’s always when they’re busy making a mess of things! I can’t always relate to their successes, but I can totally relate when they blow it. Peter is one of those characters with whom I can really relate – especially when the only reason he’s opening his mouth is to change feet. I think most of us can relate to that – a tendency to turn our mouths on before our brains kick into gear.
But when we look at the heart of Peter – at those things within him that made him one whom the Lord chose to be an apostle, and later on, to be one of the men whose leadership helped keep the early church together - there is absolutely no doubt that Peter loved Jesus and was dedicated to him. In fact, the only times he was reprimanded by the Lord were when he allowed his flesh to override his spirit, and let something totally out of kilter with God’s plan came flying out of his mouth. That was Peter’s problem… many times his love and devotion to Jesus did not allow him to face the reality of his weakness and vulnerability. Although he eventually became a great leader, Peter was just a man… a human being like you and me. And, like you and me, Peter would fail. The good news is that Jesus could see Peter’s heart.
This is exactly where you and I are the same as Peter. We get so bolstered up in our faith we forget that we, too, can fail. And when failure comes, it wrecks us. Like Peter, we weep bitterly over our failures (Matthew 26:69-75). But also like Peter, God knows us and loves us and has called us according to His holy purpose. He knows we will fail. But He also knows that He will strengthen us through those failures and guide us to greater victory in Him.
Praise God that He sees past our failures and into our hearts. Praise God that He uses our failures to produce victories.