Life of Christ 146
We last saw Christ on
Friday night at the celebratory dinner put on by Simon in Bethany. Saturday was
the Sabbath, and would have been spent quietly in Bethany. On Sunday morning,
Jesus and the Apostles got up and headed into Jerusalem. This is the day of the
famous Triumphal Entry, otherwise known as Palm Sunday. Before we get to that,
however, we must examine something that takes place along the way, namely, the
lament over Jerusalem. (Luke 19.41-44)
The key to understanding
this story is to see the contrast in it between Jesus and everyone else
present.
The Apostles, meanwhile,
surrounding the ass and the colt on which Jesus was riding were thinking about
one thing – the kingdom. It had been on their mind for weeks now. (see Life of Christ 139 and Life of Christ 142) When Jesus told them to get the animals in order to fulfill
Zechariah's prophecy, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, (Zechariah 9.9) His
words confirmed what their hearts had so long craved. Now, strolling along with
Him, they are smiling and laughing. They are soaking it all in.
They gave up their lives
to follow Christ. They tramped with Him all over Palestine. They slept under
the stars. They ate poor man's food. They were criticized, attacked, slandered,
laughed at, and mocked. They endured awful nights, such as the one when Jesus
had earlier rejected a crown (see Life of Christ 74). They have struggled to understand
and to follow Jesus. Now then, their ship has come in. Their faith is being
repaid. Jesus is taking charge. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin are
about to get a kick in the teeth. The Roman Empire is about to be turned upside
down. Israel will be on top. And this Man, to whom they have been supremely
loyal, and to whom they were closer than anyone else is about to take charge.
Finally. This is it.
The crowd cheers itself
hoarse. The Apostles build air castles out of their dreams. And all alone,
astride the animals, without a soul noticing, Jesus silently weeps. And when
he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it. (Luke 19.41). The
crowd made the mistake of being excited about the excitement. The Apostles made
the mistake of being excited by their own desires. Jesus saw, not the present
excitement, but an awful tragedy in the not distant future.
Thirty years later in AD
66 Emperor Nero, running out of money, demanded that Florus (in charge of
Judea) confiscate the Temple's money. One of the responses was a group of Jews
who mockingly begged for money on the street to provide for a bankrupt Roman
government. Enraged, Florus tried to find them but could not. He settled for
grabbing some random citizens off the same street and crucifying them. Without
warning, like dry tinder to which a spark is suddenly laid, the Jews rose up in
revolt against Rome.
Initially their
rebellion met with success. They captured the Roman fortress at Masada. Using
weapons captured from the fortress, they rooted out the Roman garrison at the Fortress
Antonio in Jerusalem. In response to this Rome sent in portions of four
legions, and was soundly beaten. In fact, the Jews even captured one of the
legions standards, a grave sin in the eyes of Rome. The revolt thrived, casting
the Romans out of the rest of Judea, and most of Galilee.
Titus |
Rome, of course, did not
take this sitting down. They sent in three full legions under the command of
Vespasian. In a year's time he reconquered Galilee and most of Judea. He was
closing in on Jerusalem when Nero suddenly died. As it often did, the death of
a Roman emperor sent the empire into a short but nasty civil war as claimants
fought each other for the throne. Vespasian was involved in this and actually
won the throne, becoming the next emperor. In the process, though, he largely
abandoned the war in Palestine and the Jews, once again, rolled back the Roman
gains.
In AD 69 the now Emperor
Vespasian sent his son, Titus, back to Judea to finish the job. Titus well knew
that until he reconquered Jerusalem the rebellion would continue to smolder. By
the spring of AD 70 he had surrounded the city with four legions, including one
camped on the very spot where Jesus wept looking over Jerusalem thirty years
before.
It was Passover. The
Jews held themselves to their religious ordinances even in the midst of war,
and hundreds of thousands of them streamed toward Jerusalem. Titus, cleverly,
allowed the civilians to pass his lines into the city and then refused to allow
any food to follow. As the food shortage grew acute gangs of men began to roam
the city streets, breaking into houses searching for food. Cannibalism was reported.
There were approximately
26,000 Jewish soldiers holed up in Jerusalem under various leaders along with more than a million civilians. Shortly,
these soldiers fell to quarreling with themselves. This factionalism allowed the
Romans to build siege works with complete impunity. For weeks the Romans
besieged Jerusalem while control of various walls and gates surged back and
forth. Finally, realizing how difficult it would be to root the Jews out of the
strong points in Jerusalem, Titus backed up and settled down to starve them out.
He cut down every tree within ten miles of Jerusalem and built his own wall, a
wooden palisade that surrounded the city completely.
The tables had turned.
Now, Jews that had been desperate to keep the Romans out of Jerusalem became
desperate to get out themselves. Those that tried to sneak through the lines
were almost always caught, and an average of 500 Jews a day were thus crucified
for weeks. Meanwhile, inside the city, starvation and disease were rampant. The
Jewish soldiers would carry the dead bodies out of the Eastern Gate and thrown
them into the Kidron Valley. One defector told Titus that the Jews themselves
estimated the number of corpses they thus disposed of to be at least one
hundred fifteen thousand.
The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem Francisco Hayez, 1867 |
Stalwart Jewish zealots
continued to fight on, as in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis 2000 years
later, in the sewers as well as in the palace. Stone by stone, the massive
Temple was pulled down to build siege works against the palace, which was soon
taken. The fighting in the sewers continued, but by September 8 it was all
over.
The Arch of Titus |
And when he was come
near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, if thou hadst known, even
thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto they peace! but
now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee
in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children
within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because
thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19.41-44)
…the crowd of millions
cheered a Jesus they did not believe in. The Apostles walked beside Him into
Jerusalem with dreams of glory dancing in their heads. And above them all rode
Christ, with tears streaming down His face.
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