As he
came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "If you, even you, had only
recognized on this day the things that make for peace!"
All of salvation history pointed toward this single, spectacular
event when Jesus, the long awaited Messiah, presented himself to the nation.
That Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem mounted on a donkey was public
proclamation of his kingship. Ancient prophets had said that the chosen Son, the one
anointed to sit on David’s throne, would arrive in David’s City on a donkey.
Jesus’ appearance was the mark of a promise fulfilled for those who were alert to
prophesy: "See your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and
riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)
Yet on this glorious day, Jesus wept as he approached Jerusalem. Jesus
was to be rejected by the people because he did not fit their expectations of what the
Messiah should be. The people failed to recognize Jesus as the expected Messiah. Most of
them did not recognize him as any kind of Messiah at all.
Like Jesus’ contemporaries, it is easy for us, during the business
of our daily life, to think and to live with our own expectations of God, to sleepwalk
through God’s surprises, to overlook God’s presence among us. Just as Jesus wept
over Jerusalem, so God grieves over our spiritual inattention to God and our indifference
to God’s many gifts of grace in our lives.
In what surprising ways does the presence of Jesus ride into our lives
today? Will we be alert and able to "see" the moment? Or will our
inattentiveness cause us to miss an opportunity to serve God?
O Lord, we pray to be watchful and alert to your surprises in our
daily lives.
