Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died. His sisters had sent for Jesus expecting his immediate return to heal him. But instead, Jesus waited knowing the miraculous hope his delay would bring.
But, still he wept for their sorrow and loss.
After miraculously raising Lazarus from the dead…stunning the sisters and the crowd of unbelieving mourners, Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem.
Multitudes shouted, “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel.” (John 12: 13b).
He was, indeed, that.
But their desire for their physical reality to change obscured their understanding of why he came. So even in the enthusiastic adulation of waving palm branches, they had missed the greater reality: their own hearts becoming his throne.
We see him courting Israel, wooing her, desiring that she come to true faith in him as their long-awaited Messiah. Yet, we again we sense his tears.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
The childlike faith of children or the praise of the healed understood that Jesus longed for their hearts to be his home. Though his crucifixion would blur their hope with tears, the unseen reality of eternal hope through his resurrection would spring forth through child-like trust. Selah