“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate. 

Matthew 23: 37- 38

The Old Testament exalts Jerusalem above all places on the earth.  It is the apple of God’s eye.

Then we see Jesus standing in that revered city with the Temple of God as its center – he is lamenting over that great city of promise, the city of David!  Note – the time has come for elders of Jerusalem to arrest and kill Jesus.  What shall he say?

Jesus pronounces seven “woes” over the city and ends it all with these words, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.

Of course, Jesus was the latest to be killed – on a Roman cross just outside Jerusalem’s mighty walls.  He wanted to gather Israel under his wings, but they refused him, preferring to kill him.

We then hear those words of lament – Look, your house is left to you desolate.  They had the house, splendid and glorious, but it was empty!  Just a house!  An uninhabited one.

Jesus will build a new house in which God will be honored.  It will be called The Kingdom of God.  The church!  This was the heart of Jesus’ ministry.  He will fill that church with his fulness.

That is us!  May we respond with shouts of hallelujah!