Shortly before His death, Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem in what is often referred to as the “triumphal entry.” However, Luke recorded a different emotion from Jesus: “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41).
Why would Jesus react in this way? He was being enthusiastically welcomed and praised by the people, yet He saw something that others did not see. He explained, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:42- 44).
Jesus came to establish peace between God and men – particularly with those who would turn from their evil ways to be pleasing to Him (cf. Luke 2:14). Yet so many of the people did not see this. They rejected Jesus (in His crucifixion), so they would be destroyed.
Jesus was foretelling of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by the Romans. This would be a horrific event. Yet it signified God’s judgment because they rejected Jesus and the peace that He offered.
So remember that we must know Jesus to know peace. The destruction of Jerusalem gives a glimpse of what it looks like when we reject God. Let us follow Christ so we can have peace with Him.