Amy C Walters

The Triumphal Entry | Luke 19:28-44

Even though all four gospels include an account of the Triumphal Entry, only Luke records Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He desires that they would know salvation and peace and yet they will soon completely reject him. Jesus’ response to their rejection shows that he is the compassionate king.

Even though all four gospels include an account of the Triumphal Entry, only Luke records Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. There’s a stark shift in the mood at this point. It goes from a loud celebration to a quiet moment of mourning. It’s almost like the crowd is fading into the background, and we see an intimate moment of Jesus and the city. 

Jesus starts by saying, “Would that you, even you, knew on this day the things that would bring you peace?” If the people of Jerusalem just knew where true peace came from. 

Years from this moment, in 66 AD, Jewish rebels will revolt against the Romans, kicking them out of Jerusalem and forming their own government. They probably believed that this would bring them peace. Instead, just four years later, Titus will lay siege to Jerusalem and totally destroy it, fulfilling what Jesus says about barricades and being surrounded and torn to the ground. 

The things they thought would bring them peace did not. As Jesus said, such things “were hidden from their eyes.” Why? Because they did not know “the time of their visitation.”

A day or a time of visitation in Scripture refers to God coming to his people either for salvation or for judgment. Isaiah 29:6 says, “You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.” In this passage, the visitation clearly is one for judgment.

But then we have Genesis 50:24, where Joseph is talking to his brothers in Egypt. And it says, “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I’m about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’” This is a reference to the Exodus, when God delivers his people. 

Even in the Book of Luke, we’ve seen mentions of God’s visitation. In Luke 1, after John has been born, Zechariah is able to speak again and sings this incredible song. In verse 68, he says, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” Visited and redeemed are parallel here, referring to God’s salvation. 

When Jesus raises the widow’s son in Luke 7, it says about the crowd, “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people’” (Luke 7:16). 

Both these mentions of God’s visitation refer to salvation. So when Jesus says after the Triumphal Entry, “You did not know the time of your visitation,” he’s saying, you didn’t recognize that I bring salvation with me, that I am the source of salvation.

Let’s also briefly look at the phrase, “the things that would bring you peace.” According to John Piper, this is the same phrase in Greek as is used in Luke 14. In it, Jesus tells a couple of really short parables, including one about a king who’s considering what to do about another king coming to attack him. It says in Luke 14:31-21, “What king, going out to encounter another king of war, would not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able, with 10,000 men, to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000? And if he’s not, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and ask for terms of peace.” 

The phrase, “terms of peace,” is the same as “the things that bring you peace.” So Jesus has come there to Jerusalem with terms of peace. But the people have rejected it.

Think about this. If any other king had come to a rebellious city, offering mercy and peace to the rebels and yet was rejected, how would you expect that king to respond? With anger and indignation! How dare they turn down this peace that I’m offering them? 

But what do we see from Jesus? He weeps. He weeps over the very rebels who reject the only source of true peace. He weeps over people who don’t deserve the peace that he is offering them, and they still reject it. He weeps over the very people who will in a few days from now put him through an unjust trial, accuse him, spit on him, mock him, torture him, demand his death, and kill him.

Jesus knows these are the same people who will do that in a few days, and yet he still weeps over them. What does this tell us about who he is? What does this reveal to us about his heart?

It shows us his deep compassion–compassion even for people who rebel against him, hate him, murder him. 

Our key truth for today is that Jesus is the compassionate king.

Jesus cares for the sinners and the rebels and the traitors. He wept over them then, and he weeps over you today when you reject his terms of peace, when you rebel and go your own way. 

The people in Jesus’ day thought that a new government would bring them peace But chasing after it left them worse off than they were to begin with. 

Where do people look for peace today? Some people seek inner peace through meditation or travel, getting away from it all. Some seek it by living in harmony with nature. Some people try to create it by smoothing over tensions between people. Some just try to ignore any unpleasant thoughts or information, things that they don’t want to deal with.

Do you do any of these? You see, the destruction of Jerusalem was not the only judgment. The time of visitation also refers to the end times, when Jesus will return.

Just as in the Parable of the Minas, the king will return and reward his followers, but the rebels will be punished. The visitation is still coming.

Jesus will return one day. Will you be found as one of his followers or one of the rebels? 

He is compassionate and still offers peace to anyone who accepts his terms. And his terms are to admit your sin, to recognize that you cannot save yourself, and to accept him as your king. Will you do that today? 

Today as you go, share this story with someone. Tell them about this celebration of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, how it points to him as the prophesied, peaceful, compassionate king.