A Light in Jerusalem ...

The modern American Christian community has long been fixated upon Jerusalem.  They seek the literal fulfillment of prophecies that would point to the end of all things.  So underlying political interests have always found an ally within the Christian community for support for Israeli longevity.  Hitler became nothing more than a catalyst for a “never again” philosophy, and a nation was born.  But it was not a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters that has maintained America’s support of Israel.  It has been political self-interest in a hostile region, and a twisted view of what prophecies may yet reveal themselves in Jerusalem.  But I would submit, modern Christians are looking for the wrong things, the wrong ways, and without the love that should truly motivate them.  What remains of anti-Semitism in this country is proof of that.  If the citizens of the world had held a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters in their hearts so many years ago; Hitler would have been nothing but a lunatic in a need of an asylum.  Instead quiet disinterest, apathy, and perhaps an active resentment for how Jesus was treated so many years ago, has led the world to witness systemic exterminations.  And now, even decades later, continued prolonging of the original conditions we swore would never happen again.  Quiet racism continues in our hearts, because the primary teaching of Jesus to love others, has never truly found a home there.

The city of Jerusalem has a vaunted history.  It was King David who conquered it from the Jebusites, and made it the capital of the burgeoning nation of Israel.  It was King Solomon (David’s son) who constructed the greatest Temple ever constructed for the honor of the true God.  David made the plans, and collected the materials, but it was Solomon who actually constructed it.  David was forbidden because of the blood that stained his hands.  When Solomon was finished, perhaps the greatest light ever known in history to that time then stood proud in Jerusalem.  But over the years, as hearts grew cold, and wickedness prevailed, that same city witnessed the executions of the very prophets of God, who modern Christians still look to for prophetic fulfillment.  And the city lost its light, to the point where the sacrifice of its own children replaced the sacrifices our God called for.  When abomination had reached that kind of zenith, Jerusalem was overthrown, conquered, and its people scattered to the winds and enslaved.

Generations later, Jerusalem was rebuilt.  The glory of Solomon’s Temple could not be replaced, but what emerged in Jerusalem was a light far greater.  The Messiah came.  Jesus Christ walked among us.  And now for certain the greatest light of all time walked within Jerusalem.  The glory not of earthly Temples, but of universal prominence, now walked those city streets.  But even then, hearts had grown cold, particularly in the leadership.  And so craving for control, lead to a betrayal of the Lamb of God.  And once again the capital city, heart of the nation, rejected the glory that had been sent unto it.  But this did not happen casually, or because God simply permitted it.  Quite the opposite.  God is never “content” just to see us choose evil, and then walk away.  Instead God turns over every rock He must, in the pursuit of our salvation.  If there is a chance, He will take it.  If there is a way, He will pursue it.  The greatest difference between us and God is found in the light illuminated in His heart.  When you examine His heart,  you find His love overflows the boundaries of His heart.  Whereas our love, is so small, it is barely measured in a trickle.  And once again the light is snuffed out.  But this is not the will of our God.  Luke talks about the heart of Jesus on this matter.  He picks back up in the 13^th chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

Beginning in verse 31 it reads … “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. [verse 32] And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”  Here at the outset, there is a threat against the greatest Light that would ever walk the streets of Jerusalem or the nation in general.  Herod was a vain ruler, who like every other man granted power, sought to keep his power absolute over the people.  And Herod was fine with killing anyone who threatened it.  But before we simply read this as Herod being a wicked man (and who of us is not), how is it different with any modern ruler of our age?  Oh sure, perhaps political murders are less common today, but political corruption has almost become the norm.  We expect it.  We see it and turn a blind eye to it.  When a politician is caught, we are seldom surprised.  If anything, we are surprised they got caught, not surprised at what they did wrong.  Men who are granted power, seldom are happy to relinquish that power, more often they want more, and will do what it takes to get more.  In Herod’s case, if that meant murder, he was fine with it.

But Jesus had a mission.  And He did not waste this opportunity to tell even the Pharisees the outcome of seeking His life.  Today He would cast out devils and do cures, and tomorrow as well, but on the third day, He would be perfected.  Behind every wickedness is the self-love that would motivate that wickedness.  It was self-love that molded Lucifer from the perfect creation of our God, into the pathetic creature of Satan, twisted, and full of nothing but evil.  That evolution, is undeniable.  And as we choose to embrace evil, and look away from Jesus to save us from it, we find ourselves on the same road as Lucifer, ever inching towards Satan, until the difference between us and Satan is imperceptible.  Even church leadership is subject to this phenomenon.  Think about it.  It was Pharisees and the Sanhedrin that became the sworn enemies of Jesus.  Jesus loved them.  But they hated Him.  Not because He was evil, but because they were.  Are we so certain we are different?  When we lose love for others, quiet evil is allowed to persist in our hearts, and the depths to which it will go, Hitler did not even define the bottom of.

Jesus continues in verse 33 saying … “Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. [verse 34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”  Again Jesus offers a veiled reference to what awaited Him in the capital city and heart of the Israelite nation.  Jesus knows that He travels towards His own torture and death at our hands.  He will be murdered by His own church, carried out as they would gladly betray Jewish blood into sadistic Roman hands.  And this is not new to our God.  When His people strayed, our God sent the prophets that preceded Jesus.  But those prophets often met the same fate Jesus was traveling towards.  They were stoned and killed as well.  Instead of breaking the hearts of His people that they might return unto Him.  His people became hardened to their own evil, even to the point where murdering the messenger of God, seems preferable than having to listen to that same message.

Are we any different here and now?  How often are you willing to hear the words of our Bible, when what it says runs counter to the pathway of your life?  What do you do when you discover this?  Do you put the Bible back on its shelf willing to let it collect dust and never touch it again.  So many do.  So many Christians look to find a grace that is content to permit sin, to excuse sin.  They do not seek a remedy for sin, only a justification for it.  We are content with forgiveness, but do not seek reform.  This would leave us looking to extinguish the light of Heaven itself were we given the chance, rather than have to face our inadequacies in the light of His divine mirror of Love.  Our evil today is no different than the evil that preceded us.  A different time, but the same disease.  A different people, and technology, and set of abilities, yet all content to misuse what we have been given until it becomes the method of our own destruction.  Few of us look at a message different than what is in our hearts and ask to have our hearts change.  Instead we ask for forgiveness and wish for God to wink at our sins as we have every intent to continue them.  And nothing has changed.

But what God wants is not this.  What God wants is to love us, like the love of a mother hen, who would bring her chicks under her wings where it is safe and warm.  It is the mother hen who puts herself between any danger of the world, and her baby chicks who reside under her wings.  This is what God wants.  He wants to love us, and nestle us under His divine protection and keep us in His very heart.  But then come the saddest words Jesus could utter: “and ye would not”.  Instead of looking for a warm safe place where we could be showered by the love of God, we look to stay away from that very place.  We don’t want to have our sins, and sinful desires, cleansed from us.  Instead we define ourselves by those very sins.  We falsely state that you cannot separate the sin from the sinner.  When in truth, our salvation is just that.  We are to be saved from “who we are”, from what we want, from what we do as a result.  Our very salvation was meant to be a gift to cleanse us from who we are, so that we are not ever forced to our knees again in repentance.  Salvation is more than just forgiveness.  That is only a beginning.  There is more, so much more.  There is freedom beyond your current imagining.  But do you run away from this, or are you willing to run towards it?

Jesus concludes this segment picking back up in verse 35 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  What is the result of running away from the love of God?  It is a house left in desolation.  Not the desolation caused by the will of others, but by the choices we make for ourselves.  For love of self put in action destroys the happiness of others, and ultimately of ourselves.  And it is empty, it is void of meaning.  But there is another light on the horizon.  If we were to examine Jerusalem in the context of history we know of its greatness.  If we look to its future, it carries the honor of being the site where Heaven itself will descend and come to rest at the end of all things, when the earth is to be remade new.  But what of the intervening time?  What about now?  A stricter read of this passage would seem to indicate there is no role at all for Jerusalem until Jesus returns.  So much for all that hope around as yet unfulfilled prophecy.

The desolation Jesus speaks of here was not meant only to apply to Jerusalem, or to the sinners of His own day.  Desolation is the hallmark of any who choose to embrace sin, and look away from the gift of salvation Jesus offers.  It is the second half of this verse I find interesting.  You will not see Me, Jesus says, until the time comes when you will say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”.  Blessed is he that comes.  You could argue that was the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  You could argue that is a reference to the second coming itself.  But what if Jesus is talking about you?  What if the light in Jerusalem is “you” who are willing to go, to live, in the name of our Lord.  There are Christians today who still live in Jerusalem.  They profess His name.  And if they are willing to love like Jesus loves, are they not still the light that remains in Jerusalem.  When a Christian can love his Jewish, and his Muslim brothers, as Jesus would love them still – is not that Christian a reflection of the love and light of God?  For light will always point to love.  It is only in darkness where love cannot be found.  Light will always illuminate love.

And beyond the borders of the city of Jerusalem.  What of the light meant to illuminate the world?  Between now and the end of all things the world craves the light and love of God.  Will you be willing to be a reflection of that light, or merely look to be its customer?  We cannot see Jesus again, until we find one who comes in the name of the Lord.  That messenger is blessed, as we are blessed from encountering them.  But what if it is you who Jesus is referring to?  What if Jesus always intended you to be a reflection of His light to the world around you in the here and now.  Are you willing to accept His ideas for your life, even if they come, at the loss of your own ideas?  So many of us think we have a plan for our lives.  We have desires we have so long pursued.  We have jobs, homes, and families, and count them all as among our accomplishments, instead of as blessings of the Lord.  But we then take His gifts and elevate them beyond the gifts they were intended to be.  We make our lives revolve around what we have been given, instead of around the transformative love of Jesus Christ.  We live for career.  We live for family.  But we do not really live for Jesus.  We simply squeeze Jesus in, when we have time, or find ourselves in time of need.  But our jobs, and our families are not His light, they are His gifts.

It is our love alone, a love reflected through the very Son of God, empowered by it, sustained by it, that could ever be the light of Jerusalem, or the light of the world around you.  The love for others, will be illuminated in your own heart and mind, as Jesus re-creates you back into His image.  And in so doing, you become a light to others, to point them back to the same Savior we all so desperately need.  I don’t know about you, but I want a place under the mother-hen-wings of Jesus.  As a baby chick, I know I need it.  And the last thing I ever want said about me, is that “I would not”, that I refused for the mystery of iniquity.  I want instead the good riddance of iniquity.  Let us live and reflect His love in such a way, that no matter where we are, we bless those who see us coming.  Let us be a light in Jerusalem once again.  There is no prophecy more powerful than that.  There is no promise more meaningful to you or the world around you than that.  It is in love where quiet racism finally disappears forever.