But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the
barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never
nursed.”
Luke 23: 28 - 29
Jesus has been up all night through five different trials, has been deserted by his closest friends, and subjected to horrific abuse and torture. And when he hears the women of Jerusalem, his heart is touched by their cries. He sees what is happening to him and what is going to happen to the people of Jerusalem through the lenses of the Old Testament prophesy and his compassion is for these women.
He is not thinking about his rights.
He is not concerned about the injustices that he is suffering.
He is not focused on the wickedness of his enemies.
His mind is filled with the plight of those who will be there in 70 A.D. when the Romans will completely destroy Jerusalem after one of the worst historical sieges that has ever occurred.
When I think of how incensed I can become when I am the victim of someone's wrongdoing or thoughtlessness and how the sense of injustice "against me" can completely fill my mind and then think of Jesus in this passage, I am humbled. He doesn't just teach us God's way, he shows us.
It is so hard not to linger on wrongdoing until the hurt becomes bitterness. I struggle with this. I believe we have such a difficult time letting go because we feel that would be saying the person‘s actions weren’t wrong. As if letting go negates their wrongs. Instead letting go is a choice not to allow their treatment of us dictate who God plans us to be. To give them that power over us is not allowing God to have his power in our lives.
ReplyDeleteObviously no big revelations…just where your thoughts took my thoughts!
Wow - I especially liked your "As if letting go negates their wrongs."
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right. I have had times when I have been so consumed with my own hurt, so bewildered and pained by the injustice of it all, I don't think I notice anyone or anything else. I hate it when I am like that. I don't think the answer is to act like I am unaffected, but, like you say, "let it go." Praying for the one who hurt you helps a lot. And then, I think that what Jesus does here is another way that we get out of our own self-focus: have compassion for others. In my case, there are many many people out there who suffer much more than I ever do.