Stubbornly stupid Jerusalem

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned. I assure you that you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord”.’ (verses 34,35)

Read Luke 13:31-35

Jerusalem should have learnt the lesson by Jesus’ time. Again and again God sent them leaders and prophets to warn them about the painful results of their faithlessness. Again and again the Israelites rejected the God-given warnings and were overwhelmed by national disaster.

Now God’s ultimate prophet-leader, Jesus, the Son of God, was with them, calling them back to God. Threats would not deflect him from his mission. He kept proclaiming his message, taking it from the backblocks of Galilee to Israel’s political and religious centre, Jerusalem. But the response of the people was the same: ridicule and rejection of his message, and death to him. How could they be so stubbornly stupid?

Jesus still reaches out today to enfold you and me in his caring and protective arms. How do we respond? Does Jesus still cry out, ‘O Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin, please let me help and save you!’? Are we also so stubbornly stupid that we reject our loving God?

Keep calling us, O God, until we respond and let you take care of us. Amen.

by John Vitale, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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