There are times when the ache in your heart threatens to overwhelm you, when your heart literally feels pain because of a grief so great or a burden too deep. The only way to relieve that pressure that presses deep into your soul is to weep. To cry great heaving sobs, oceans of tears, and then perhaps, but only perhaps, there is some sense of respite. So many people tell me that they feel great after a ‘good cry,’ but I don’t. I feel terrible, my head aches, and my eyes are red and irritated, and I’m an ugly crier, a hot mess.
Right there in the middle of a victory celebration, where palm fronds were waved, and thousands cried out “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:9) the King of Kings, riding on the back of a young colt looked out over Jerusalem and literally began to sob. “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42)
My heart hurt when I read this verse, knowing that my Savior was so overcome with sorrow during this short celebration. This was not simply a few tears that stained Jesus cheeks but the Greek tells us this was mourning, sobbing, or wailing aloud! The grief that hit Jesus’ heart as he looked at Jerusalem caused His shoulders to shake as he began to cry.
The future loss of His beloved city was almost too much to bear. This should have been “their day!” “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day…”. Not only were there 300 prophecies about the Messiah but this was such an important day that it had been prophesied by Daniel 483 years before! It was a day that Israel could and should have recognized.
Sir Robert Anderson, the former head of Scotland Yard, calculated in his book, The Coming Prince, that Jesus’ triumphal entry was exactly 483 years after Daniel spoke of it in Daniel 9:25. Incredible! The day Zechariah predicted, the day Daniel spoke of, was such an important day, and it could have been “their day.”
No wonder our precious Savior’s shoulders shook with grief, no wonder a sob escaped his throat, as He contemplated the future of His chosen people. The signs were all there but they didn’t see Him, they didn’t recognize their Messiah!
Is today “your day?” Your appointed time, the day in which you need to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied about countless times in the scriptures? A day created for you from the beginning of time. A day that will bring you peace, freedom, and joy in Christ, the beginning of a journey with the King!
Claire's Prayer 