“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!—See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37)
The great irony is that the city above all others in the world, venerated by three great religions and named “City of Peace” is anything but. Jerusalem is not where one goes today to find peace. On the contrary, it’s where a sensible person fears to be among any crowd that might tempt a human bomb to explode her or himself.
The other irony is that the United States has been the one nation most instrumental in turning the land and the city to the Jewish people—or at least the greater part of it, subsidizing it for a half century in spite of the injustices perpetrated on the indigenous Palestinians who yearn to share the land that they had lived in for centuries. It’s a city where all three great faiths have a claim, if not a place. Christians are in the minority, Jews in the majority and Muslims in between. Is it religion that’s the cause of the division? Yes, but it’s more than that. Ethnocentricity is a factor, as well as indigenous rights. The Arabs claim what is, or was theirs. Jews insist that they have suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany, so they are entitled to remuneration.
Most cities today are a polyglot of races, nationalities and backgrounds. New York City, for example, means what is written at the base of the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free. Its glory was the welcome to millions who fled from nations where they had no hope of a life worth living. Paris is perhaps the loveliest of all, the perfect city for spreading out its arms, exposing herself to all who care to bask in her glory. Paris doesn’t change. Its art, literature and music embrace all who are eager to grow in the spirit of true culture.
Dostoevsky said that a city is an accidental tribe. New York City and Paris are witness to that phenomenon. Taxi drivers barely speak the language of the city and hardly know where to take the passenger, but it all works out. Such cities are miniatures of the great Roman Empire, making a place and space for all inhabitants and visitors. Live and let live. But then why is it not so with Jerusalem?
Read again the above passage and understand the tragic feelings of our Lord Jesus. Jerusalem was intended to be the focus of His life on earth. God wanted to have a love affair with the world, and Jerusalem was to be the bedroom of that love. For all the daily sacrifices to God in the Temple, for all the prayers offered up by every Jew several times a day, for all the pleadings to send Messiah for their salvation, the greatest irony of all is the tragedy that they never recognized Him when He appeared, nor understood their own prophets who predicted what He would be like and how He would act.
So we look at Paris, Hong Kong, San Francisco and other locales where people get along because they are not waiting for Him especially, and it’s business as usual. What would it take for the great religions in Jerusalem to realize their status among the cities of the world and find a way to be the city of peace that only that city was intended to be, according to the sacred scriptures? Is it just a wild and crazy fantasy that such a vision could ever be a reality, or will Jews and Arabs continue their bitter hatred of one another so violent that even the dividing wall between them will be no real solution? Or does the seemingly impossible have a chance—that the people of Jerusalem will one day turn to welcome that Stranger with the words: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!”