James Nisbet Commentary - Luke 19:41 - 19:41

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

James Nisbet Commentary - Luke 19:41 - 19:41


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

WHY JESUS WEPT

‘And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.’

Luk_19:41

How touching, but how solemn, to think of our Lord weeping! No doubt there were many occasions on which He wept bitterly (Heb_5:7). ‘He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’—but only two instances are recorded (Joh_11:35; Luk_19:41). In each case death was the cause. Natural death had grasped Lazarus, the friend whom Jesus loved. Spiritual death had grasped Jerusalem, the city that He loved. It is of the latter that our passage speaks, and we shall best enter into its teaching by dwelling on the three leading points thrown out by our Lord in reference to Jerusalem—

I. ‘Thy day.’—This is the time when we enjoy the light, and are able to work with all diligence (Joh_9:4). So in spiritual things, ‘the day of salvation’ is the time of opportunities. The Sun of Righteousness has risen, and sheds light on every hand (Mal_4:2; Joh_8:12; Joh_12:35-36). It is the time for work (Ecc_9:10; Php_2:12). Nothing can be done if the opportunity is lost (Heb_2:3). Such a day of grace Jerusalem enjoyed in having Jesus (Luk_19:9-10; Isa_55:6; Heb_3:7-8).

II. ‘Thy peace.’—This follows the right use of the day of salvation (Rom_5:1). Only God can bestow it (2Th_3:16). It is the desire of Jesus that all His people should have it (Joh_14:27). And each soul must appropriate it in receiving Jesus (Luk_2:29). He is ‘the peace’ (Mic_5:5). The Jews would not receive Him (Joh_1:11). They could not see in Him anything to desire (Isa_53:2-3; see Rom_11:8; Rom_11:25). In rejecting Jesus, Jerusalem lost her peace.

III. ‘Thy visitation.’—God had told the Jews to expect Jesus in many parts of the Old Testament Scriptures (Isa_9:6-7; Dan_9:25; Mal_3:1). But when He came, they were not prepared for Him (Joh_5:16; Joh_7:1). They knew not the day of their visitation (Deu_5:29; Psa_81:13). What, therefore, did it bring? Judicial blindness (Luk_19:42; Act_28:25-27); condemnation (Luk_19:43-44; Joh_3:18-19); and solemn rebuke (Luk_19:45-46; Joh_12:48).

Three things, then, we must lay to heart from this lesson—‘Now’ is our day (2Co_6:2). ‘Jesus’ is our peace (Eph_2:14). The day of visitation is coming (Act_17:31). Are we ready?

Bishop Rowley Hill.

Illustration

‘There, before the Saviour’s gaze of tears, lay a city, splendid apparently and in peace, destined to enjoy another half century of existence. And the day was a common day; the hour a common hour; no thunder was throbbing in the blue unclouded sky; no deep vows of departing deities were rolling though the golden doors; and yet—soundless to mortal ears in the unrippled air of eternity—the knell of her destiny had begun to toll; and in the voiceless dialect of heaven the fiat of her doom had been pronounced, and in that realm which knoweth, needeth not any light, save the light of God, the sun of her moral existence had gone down while it was yet day. Were her means of grace over? No; not yet. Was her Temple closed? No; not yet. No change was visible in her to mortal eyes. And yet, for her, from this moment even until the end, the accepted time was over, the appointed crisis past; the day of salvation had set into irrevocable night. And if it were so with the favoured city, may it not be so with thee and me? What shall the reed of the desert do, if even the cedar be shattered at a blow? It is not that God loses His mercy, but that we lose our capacity for accepting it; it is not that God hath turned away from us, but that we have utterly paralysed our own power of coming back to Him. Life continues, but it is really death; and on the dead soul in the living body the gates of the eternal tomb have closed.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY

He who came to seek and to save lost sinners could not witness with indifference the sin and ruin of His beloved city.

I. These tears over Jerusalem flowed from His perfect knowledge.—Of her obstinacy and impenitence (Luk_19:42; Luk_19:44; Mar_3:5; Mar_8:12; Act_13:45-46). Of her judicial blindness (Mat_13:14-15; Act_28:25-27; Rom_11:8). Of the complete measure of her iniquity (Mat_23:32; 1Th_2:16). Of the awful extent of her loss (Mat_21:43; Rom_11:19-22). Of the irrevocable certainty of her doom (Luk_19:43-44; Mat_23:35-38; Mat_24:1-2; Mat_24:34-35).

II. They were but an index of that heart of love, which caused Him—To leave the bosom of His Father (Php_2:6-7). To suffer the hidings of His countenance (Mat_27:46). To endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself (Mat_22:15; Mat_22:46; Heb_12:3). To support unknown shame and agonies (Isaiah 1, 6; Gal_3:13). To shed His most precious blood (1Jn_3:16).

III. In the spirit of this blessed example, let us learn what our feelings ought to be towards those who neglect this great salvation.—We should be deeply concerned for them as St. Paul was (Act_17:16; Rom_9:1-3). We should be earnest in prayer for them, as Moses was (Exo_32:31-32; Deu_10:17-19; Deu_10:22). We should grieve and weep for them, as David and Jeremiah did (Psa_119:136; Jer_9:1; Jer_13:17). We should labour for them, as the Apostles did (2Co_6:4-10). Do I pray for the conversion of my friends, neighbours, for the enemies of Christ and His Gospel (1Ti_2:1)? Do I let my light shine before them (Php_2:15)? Am I careful not to put a stumbling block in their way, by my own misconduct or inconsistency (1Pe_2:16; 1Pe_3:16)? Oh! how inexcusable is my indifference in that which cost my Saviour tears, agonies, and blood! How apt am I to feel disappointment, and even anger, at the hardness or enmity of my fellow-creatures, forgetting that such once was I! Lord, turn these sinful feelings into a holy compassion, that in this, as in every other feature, I may be conformed to the blessed image of Thy dear Son.

Rev. C. Bridges.

Illustration

‘Let our work for the public weal be accompanied and sanctified and guided by patriotic prayer in public and in private. Do not forget Abraham’s intercession for guilty Sodom, and how he was assured that for ten righteous the city would have been spared. Do not forget the Psalmist’s passionate supplication for the “peace of Jerusalem.” Our own Book of Common Prayer strikes the right key-notes and puts the right words into our lips. Alas! they sometimes—it is to be feared—fail to awaken a responsive echo within our souls. Our so-called State prayers, and our prayers for Parliament, may fall upon listless ears and chilly hearts. Let there be more faithful spiritual concentration, and more holy enthusiasm in these devotions. A little leaven of earnest workers and of devout supplicants may leaven the whole lump. A handful of sincere Christian patriots may be as the salt of the earth, to sweeten and purify the towns, or even the country, in which they live. What wonders have been wrought by single-minded patriotic individuals! Elizabeth Fry reformed our prisons; Florence Nightingale reorganised our hospitals; Wilberforce and Clarkson freed our slaves.’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE TEARS OF JESUS

I. The tears of Jesus Christ are compassionate tears.—Like His Heavenly Father, He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.

II. The tears of Jesus are admonitory.—He would not have wept merely because a little pain, or a little suffering, or even a little anguish and misery, lay before us. There was only one thing which Jesus Christ could not endure, and that was the real displeasure, the prolonged hiding of the countenance, the punitive wrath of God. It was because He foresaw that for impenitent sinners that He wept.

III. The tears of Jesus were exemplary tears.—As He wept, so ought we to weep. We ought to weep more exactly as He wept. He wept not for Himself: so also, in our place, should we.

IV. The tears of Jesus Christ are consolatory tears.—They say to us, ‘Provision is made for you.’ They say to us, ‘It is not of Christ, it is not of God, if you perish.’ They say to us, ‘Escape for your life—because a better, and a higher, and a happier life is here for you!’

Dean Vaughan.

Illustration

‘If we think of what it was that evidently caused those tears of Christ over Jerusalem, we emphasise that special danger and that particular sin which, if unchecked and undetected in our midst, will bring its certain judgment on any congregation, town, or country that lies under its hand. There are few places in the Holy Land more movingly pathetic than that corner of the road from Bethany to Jerusalem which circles round the slope of Olivet and gives you in a moment the sudden view of the whole city of Jerusalem. Yet Jesus wept! He wept because the city’s doom stood out (in His mind’s eye) in dismal certainty; He wept because man’s fickleness could thus to-day cry “Hosannah!” and in a few days “Crucify!”; He wept because that “might have been” of the great possibility of Israel’s conversion swept like a mist of tears over His eyes; He wept because the sands of time were running out and the Judge stood before the fast-closed door, and Mercy had already raised her hand to hide her face, and Justice taken up the sword to smite the blow of judgment. And all the while the people knew it not.’

(FOURTH OUTLINE)

INDIFFERENCE

The whole picture of the text is the most moving evidence of God’s abiding sorrow for indifference.

I. A real foe.—And is not this the sin which seems above all others to be our special foe in this our so-called Christian age and in this so-called Christian land? It would be idle to dispute the fact that this indifference is a real foe with which the Church has to contend to-day—a foe of deadly strength, a mighty enemy of the Church’s growth and power. How God has warned us against this danger in His Word!

II. Causes of indifference.—How many causes go to make up the sum of man’s indifference?

(a) The attitude of the Church. The Church, alas! is not altogether irresponsible. Her voice, so often silent when men expect to hear her speak, her liberality and breadth of sympathy and freedom of opinion almost extending to a dangerous latitudinarianism, seem to give rise to it. And besides this there is her jarring strife of tongues when she is stirred to speak—her odium theologicum. And this makes men impatient, and they become further discontented, and then in their despair they stand aside upon the neutral ground of the indifferent.

(b) The attitude of the world. But, on the other hand, a far larger share of this indifference comes from the attitude and action, not of the Church, but of the world. For there must be much that the world cannot square with a religious life.

III. A foe to be fought.—Let us recognise and fight as a foe this cowardly indifference. Let us care more, and magnetise with a truer interest the vis inertiœ of worldliness. Let none of us affect indifference. Live in the things of God and you will grow to care for them. Stop nowhere short of Christ Himself.

IV. Christ’s care.—Above all, remember this: whatever you may feel or may not feel, whatever you may know of all that this world has to teach you, remember that He cares for you. He made you for Himself. He needs you for His work.

Bishop the Hon. E. Carr Glynn.

(FIFTH OUTLINE)

WOES OF A GREAT CITY

No inhabitant of a great city can read this narrative without great searching of heart.

I. City life is one of the great problems of the day, and in London it reaches its most acute shape. A large city is a loveless place; yet it cannot be that salvation for our cities is only to be found in arresting development. City life in itself is distinct from the evils of city life.

II. A city was meant to represent an aggregation of excellences. John set forth in the Apocalypse the ideal of a great city. Yet how far are we removed from that! There is much to deplore in the loss of the old spirit which consecrates work, and in the growth of a spirit of frivolity. A city should represent the ideal of mutual help and co-operation; yet what is there to compare with the isolation of the inhabitants of great cities? And what shall we say of those who are living to prey on their fellow kind? Every Christian man must see to it that negatively he is not a source of harm to, but rather a helper of, others.

III. There is still a beauty belonging to a city which still attracts crowds to visit. It was meant to be a beautiful place. Let us, then, purify our streets, our books, our plays, our life, and we shall see that a city may yet become a joy of the whole earth.

Rev. Canon Newbolt.