“Thy King Cometh”
489
Commander in an agony of tears! What a sight was this for the glad
throng that with shouts of triumph and the waving of palm branches
were escorting Him to the glorious city, where they fondly hoped He
was about to reign! Jesus had wept at the grave of Lazarus, but it was in
a godlike grief in sympathy with human woe. But this sudden sorrow
[576]
was like a note of wailing in a grand triumphal chorus. In the midst
of a scene of rejoicing, where all were paying Him homage, Israel’s
King was in tears; not silent tears of gladness, but tears and groans
of insuppressible agony. The multitude were struck with a sudden
gloom. Their acclamations were silenced. Many wept in sympathy
with a grief they could not comprehend.
The tears of Jesus were not in anticipation of His own suffering.
Just before Him was Gethsemane, where soon the horror of a great
darkness would overshadow Him. The sheepgate also was in sight,
through which for centuries the beasts for sacrificial offerings had
been led. This gate was soon to open for Him, the great Antitype,
toward whose sacrifice for the sins of the world all these offerings had
pointed. Near by was Calvary, the scene of His approaching agony.
Yet it was not because of these reminders of His cruel death that the
Redeemer wept and groaned in anguish of spirit. His was no selfish
sorrow. The thought of His own agony did not intimidate that noble,
self-sacrificing soul. It was the sight of Jerusalem that pierced the heart
of Jesus—Jerusalem that had rejected the Son of God and scorned His
love, that refused to be convinced by His mighty miracles, and was
about to take His life. He saw what she was in her guilt of rejecting
her Redeemer, and what she might have been had she accepted Him
who alone could heal her wound. He had come to save her; how could
He give her up?
Israel had been a favored people; God had made their temple His
habitation; it was “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth.”
Psalm 48:2
. The record of more than a thousand years of Christ’s
guardian care and tender love, such as a father bears his only child, was
there. In that temple the prophets had uttered their solemn warnings.
There had the burning censers waved, while incense, mingled with
the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended to God. There the blood
of beasts had flowed, typical of the blood of Christ. There Jehovah
had manifested His glory above the mercy seat. There the priests had