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Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

Tag: jerusalem

  • Jesus Wept

    mayberetiredpastor

    Jesus Wept

    I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!

    Romans 9:1-5 New Testament, The Bible.

    Palm Sunday. Two thousand years ago, a man stood overlooking Jerusalem and wept. He wept because a people whose history should have led them to the light of God chose, instead, spiritual darkness. They welcomed Jesus as King but then crucified Him as blasphemer. They would not acknowledge the gift of divine grace that was being offered to them.

    Today, little has changed. Jerusalem remains the city over which Christ weeps. Its leaders still do not understand the grace to which their inheritance points and they continue to act as if they were children of darkness (1). The Old Testament teaches clearly that the orphan and the widow and the stranger are protected by God, but they kill and destroy the orphan and the widow. They starve a people into submission. They go back on their promises. Such a people, the Old Testament prophets say, will be broken beyond repair because they have turned away from God and done evil (2).

    The Jewish people are privileged because they were given the commandments of God and they were taught by Him in intimate and direct relationship. They were destined to be a people of light bringing goodness and blessing to the world. They were prepared to welcome the Son of God. Many Jewish people today live in the light of their inheritance bringing blessing to the world, but Jerusalem and her leaders have turned away from their inheritance. That way leads only to judgement.

    1. The Gospel of John 8:42-44, New Testament, The Bible
    2. The Book of Jeremiah 18:9-10, Old Testament, The Bible

  • The Glory of God

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Glory of God

    Then he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And there, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east; the sound was like the sound of mighty waters; and the earth shone with his glory.

    Ezekiel 43:1-2

    It’s Holy Week. As I was sitting through service on Palm Sunday I was thinking that we don’t seem to give much time in church life to teaching about how Jesus fulfils prophecy, particularly on the occasion of His entry into Jerusalem. This is a great pity because, as recent events demonstrate, properly understanding these matters profoundly affects our view of the Middle East today.

    Many people will know that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey on Palm Sunday was a direct reference and fulfilment of Zechariah 9:9 hailing the new king of peace. This was what prompted the cheers and acclamation of the crowds, but fewer of us, perhaps, appreciate the far greater prophecy that was also being fulfilled by Jesus on that day.

    The gospel writers are united in carefully specifying that Jesus started His procession on that day from Bethany. The first readers would have had the advantage of knowing the layout of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time, so, they would have been aware that, starting from Bethany, Jesus’ route would have led Him to enter through the eastern gate of the city.  This was not accidental. A greater prophecy than Zechariah’s is in play here.

    The prophet Ezekiel documents the fall of the first Temple and in chapters 10 and 11 recounts the departure of the Glory of God from the Temple and the city via the eastern gate. But, in chapters 43 and 44 he prophesies the return of the Glory of God to the new, restored Temple, again through the eastern gate.  This is a prophecy not only of restoration but the inauguration of the greater, perfect Temple and city of God. It is this prophecy that Jesus fulfils with His entrance to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, through the eastern gate. Not only is He the king who brings peace, His entrance is the very Glory of God returning to His city. This is what the Pharisees and Temple authorities perceived which the ordinary people, and probably many of us today, did not. It is the reason why the Pharisees and Temple authorities determined to execute Him as a blasphemer because He made Himself God.

    Ezekiel’s prophecy of the new Temple continues with careful instructions to purify and cleanse the Temple and the people’s sins. Jesus, after His dramatic entrance into Jerusalem famously cleanses the Temple and then, a few days later, is crucified thus cleansing all the people’s sins.

    Ezekiel could only frame his prophecy in Old Testament terms, the reality of its fulfilment demonstrates the limitations of his conception. Jesus offered no sacrifice in the Temple for the atonement of the people’s sin and the cleansing of the Temple itself was a mere symbol of a much greater cleansing to come. The sacrifice Jesus offered for the people’s sin was His very own life, and the true cleansing of the Temple meant its utter destruction and the razing to the ground of Jerusalem itself decades later, just as Jesus Himself had prophesied during Holy Week.

    Understanding how Jesus fulfils Ezekiel’s prophecy gives a very different perspective to our attitudes and judgments concerning the Middle East today. The perfect new Temple and Jerusalem of Ezekiel’s prophecy is not to be found in bricks and mortar this side of the new creation. It comes only with the full return of the Glory of God in Jesus Christ.