Being ready for His visitation

Luke 19:41-44

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,” the good doctor is letting us see the heart of Jesus in that the priest and the people had been looking for generations for Messiah, and yet they did not know the time of His visitation.  This is what Jesus said, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”  (Luke 19:42-44 ESV)

In the gospel according to John we have this insight, looking in the first chapter, verses 9-13, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  How in the world can we be so blind to have our Creator come to our world and take on flesh and do all kinds of stuff that had never been done before, such as casting out demons, raising the dead, giving the blind sight, and we just blow it off.  But the world Jesus came to even His chosen people, were to share the good news that Messiah had taken on flesh and was the Christ.  But they were not looking for a servant; no they were looking for a mighty king who would set it all right and rejected the Author of Life.

Making bad choices always cost more than we are willing to pay, and every word Jesus said in these verses came about, “because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

It makes me wonder how often has Jesus come to my city and yours and we were not looking for Him?  How many times has He wept over our hardness of heart, and we like the people doctor Luke is telling us about were clueless or just not ready for His visitation.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Quote of the day: “Measure of a man's worth is the measure in which he no longer lives "to and for himself," but "to and for Jesus Christ." No more and no less!” (Major Ian Thomas”