On This Day: Jesus’ Lament for the ‘Not Willing’

 

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39)

 

   This hits me in so many ways. There is the grief of hearing such words and knowing it was too late.

   There’s the attachment-pain scenarios of personal grief at wanting so much for people but they were unwilling to have it.

   And there is the heart-sickening admission that these exact words of the Savior feel so applicable to the church and the community of my town. The triune God working to seek and to save the lost, and churches and lost people unwilling to surrender to his will.

   I recall another Scripture that rhymes with this one both in the beauty of the desire of God to bless, and the rebellion of the people to reject him and his work.

“For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ But you were unwilling”.

   Here’s another one that God used to minister to me in a particularly difficult season of my pastoral ministry, 

“But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”

   The first challenge is for you and me to ask God, “Is there anything you are doing in my life that I am unwilling to receive because I’m so stubbornly set in my own ways?” If he convicts us of anything, let’s be quick to repent and return to walking with him in his will.

   The second challenge is for the people in our churches and communities. Would Jesus say something like this to our church groups? Is the church of your community like the active presence of Jesus saying something like this to your neighborhood, or town, or region? Whenever Jesus shows his work to your people, do you see people respond with a willingness to obey or unwillingness to surrender?

   Here is my positive encouragement no matter how much this may be hitting home,

“Therefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, so now,
not only as in my presence but much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you,
both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
(Philippians 2:12-13)

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)