Matthew 23:37-39
Rejected mercy leaves Jerusalem desolate until she recognizes the blessed King she refused.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
Rejected mercy leaves Jerusalem desolate until she recognizes the blessed King she refused.
Matthew presents Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem to reveal that the city's coming judgment is not cold fate but the tragic result of refusing the gracious, kingly gathering of God's sent Son.
Jesus is in Jerusalem during the final week before the crucifixion, after his public confrontations with the temple authorities. The lament follows speech to the crowds, disciples, scribes, Pharisees, and Jerusalem's religious leadership, but the address widens to Jerusalem as the covenant city.
Woes upon Hypocritical Leadership and the Lament over Jerusalem
Jesus condemns religious leadership that replaces obedience with performance, mercy with burden-making, truth with manipulation, inward purity with outward polish, and prophetic repentance with murderous resistance; yet even in judgment he laments Jerusalem’s unwillingness to be gathered under his saving care.