Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Who has not encountered weeping in his life? We say we are in the valley of tears from birth to death. Pain is the punishment for our sins. But there is no crying like weeping. There is a difference between the cry of an infant and that of his father. There is a difference between crying for joy and crying for pain.

Even today, we are aware of this difference when we read the Gospel, “When he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it…” (Lk 19:41).

Christ’s coming to earth powerfully manifested God’s love for human beings. The Lord Jesus, especially in the last three years, when we speak of Him as Teacher, has not only explained His mission and why He came into this world but we have been instructed how we are to live here on earth to be worthy of the fruits of His Passion and death.

The Lord Jesus, as God, knew that His journey here on earth was coming to an end. He knew His mission would culminate in a few days, yet He weeps over Jerusalem. This weeping is justified. How does God know that this city will not accept his sacrifice of love, that is, his death on the cross? In the same way, other cities, individuals, and nations will not take his teachings of love. He knows that for many, his death is useless. Indeed, he knows that every man has the power to decide his eternity. Every man with reason and free will is created in the image of God and, therefore, either desires or rejects eternal dwelling in a state of bliss with his Creator and Redeemer God.
The weeping of Christ over Jerusalem is a solemn remembrance for Christians. We know that in the year 70 – as recorded by the historian Josephus Flavius – this city that crucified Christ was destroyed by the Roman army, and the nation was scattered throughout the world. In two thousand years, the country disappeared from the world map. They lived scattered all over the world. Today we know that the government has its state existence again. But even all this should alert us to the grave motives that led the Lord Jesus to tears over this city.

We know that Jesus wept only twice. The first time was out of love for His friend Lazarus, where He showed His human love when His friend Lazarus died, and the second time He wept out of pain over the blindness of the people of Jerusalem.
He did not weep over the betrayal of Judas, but we can assume that the tears over Jerusalem were also tears over Judas at the same time. He did not grieve over the betrayal of Peter, but we may also surmise that his tears over Jerusalem were understood by Peter, for he indeed remembered his betrayal. But we know that the Lord Jesus did not weep even when He was scourged, crowned with thorns, when He carried the cross, nor when He was crucified.
The Lord Jesus wept only at the hardness of human hearts. Weeping over Jerusalem is also crying over us when our hearts are complex because he teaches love when our hearts have become a rock that does not receive his words of love, when we reject him with words, when we despise him, when we hinder others from having our hearts belong to Christ, when offenses, strife, sins without regret, desire for correction and repentance come from us.

This is a clarion call for us believers to struggle against sin, against our faults and shortcomings, and not to neglect to do good because we must live in union with Christ; so that the words that Jesus wept over our indifference and the hardness of our hearts do not apply to us.

We know how it hurts a father when a son falls under sin. The son often does not realize that the father suffers more for his sins. Only when perhaps the son becomes a father will he then understand why the father was sometimes sad for him. To prevent sorrow and pain, to prevent tears, means more effort in the fight against evil and sin.

There is a difference between tears and weeping. We also know the tears of repentance. Let us not content ourselves with the tears of repentance in our eyes alone but also be sensitive to the tears of repentance in our hearts.