Dear Caldwell,
In the narthex entrance to our sanctuary of the door with the ramp is a painting that has always captured me. It pictures Jesus on a ridge high above a large city. His head is bowed and turned to the side as he looks down on the city. It may be Jerusalem he looks over, as described in Luke 19:41-42. But, upon closer examination, there is a large building in the distance that looks quite like the Capitol in Washington, DC …. Either way, Jesus is weeping in sorrow that the city missed the chance to choose peace. In Luke, this scene immediately follows the reading we heard on Sunday that features Jesus entry into Jerusalem.
In her wonderful book , Kneeling in Jerusalem, the poet Ann Weems offers these verses in a poem titled “Jesus Weeping Over Jerusalem,” offered for your reading and reflection as we all follow Jesus this week.
There is but one face
whose holy eyes
won’t turn away,
but focus on us
and weep …
Jesus, you!
like a mother hen
yearning to gather us to you,
but we would not …
for we have killed the prophets
and stoned the messengers.
Now abandoned and empty,
the stones of the temple
waiting to fall
around our ankles,
we still do not come
to you,
and, even now,
you weep.