Luk 19:41-44 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
“(Dan) Brown, who hadn't seen the special (ABC News) before it aired, said he doubts scholars ever will reach consensus over whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene married. ‘There is simply too much contradictory documentation in existence... much of which seems to spring from reputable sources.’”[1]
“In 2005, UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, "The Real Da Vinci Code", shown on British TV Channel 4. The programme featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as "absolute fact" in the Da Vinci Code. Arnaud de Sede, son of Gerrard de Sede, stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieuré de Sion, the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory - to quote Arnaud de Sede in the programme, "frankly, it was piffle". The programme also cast severe doubt on the Roslyn association with the Grail and on other related stories like the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France. Detailed analysis of many other claims by Brown in the Da Vinci Code in the programme showed them to be unverifiable or unhistorical.”[2]
I could’ve used something from Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel or another leading Christian apologist, but then we’d all know where they were coming from. I won’t bother with the details criticizing The Da Vinci Code’s claims about Jesus, since even secular sources have done a thorough and marvelous job at it. But it does bring up something Jesus said in John 5:
“Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”
There is absolutely no way to underestimate a motivated man. The passion to promote his ideals is only surpassed by his passion to deny weakness or chinks in the armor. In the human mind, people see weakness in others as an opportunity for themselves…and that isn’t too far off the mark. That goes for believers and non-believers. But in the case of Dan Brown and those who believe his book is based on historical facts, the level of self-deception has exposed itself to new depths. If it were simply a fictional book without any touch to history, then the sting is taken out of the criticism. However, Dan and his book unapologetically and boldly claim these ideas about Christ as historically supportable. Even after folks who deny the resurrection or the supernatural, like J. Dominic Crosson, agree with Lee Strobel, that the DVC is ‘piffle’, there is no retraction. Why? Is it for the money? There’s nothing new under the sun and DVC is simply a rehashing of the same struggle for the past two thousand years…to once and for all destroy the Gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of a makeshift human derivative. The book as been discredited by scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, and the movie has been considered a passing ship.
But the book has sold millions of copies and when fans are interviewed about the questionable history, they dismiss all the criticism and consider what Brown outlays in his book as history, nonetheless, with a relishing leap of blind faith that Christians are always accused of engaging.
The fact is, Jesus dealt with the same problems in the 1st century. If you think denial of Christ as Messiah or anything other than an itinerant preacher is new, guess again. Those who wanted Him to go away then would probably be at the forefront today, championing the cause of DVC. Why? Because He provokes honesty within us and we either embrace it and turn to Him, or defy it in anger and use our energy to make Him go away quickly.
Jesus wept for those who wouldn’t come to Him. He desired they see what He brings for them but couldn’t. He agonized over the consequences of them not seeing Him for who He is.
Jesus Wept for Them
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it
Anyone who believes that God is not heartbroken over those who want nothing to do with Him, are incredibly mistaken. Any father who has a son that wants nothing to do with him may know a tiny bit of what God goes through with Dan Brown or those in Jerusalem in the 1st century. Peter wrote that God doesn’t wish anyone one to perish but for all to be saved. In this text, Jesus, being one with the Father, weeps over the skepticism and blindness of the very people He came to save.
In Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus makes more remarks about the blindness and hardness of the same city, desiring to gather them together like a mother hen gathers chicks. But it wasn’t to be. Instead, they would cheer on His execution while His words for the same were “Forgive them, Father….” There is no tyrant in the heavens. The only tyrants that exist are on earth. They are their own worst enemy and the very God who created them sends the only antidote they have to find real peace, but instead, there ideas are much better than His.
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Why did Jesus say, “You, even you, would’ve seen…”? Why was Jerusalem considered to be the more indicted than most at His coming? Jesus explains that elsewhere, very plainly. Again, going back to Matthew 23, you can see where He is coming from. Jerusalem was so knowledgeable about God’s will and God’s plans. They were given the very oracles of God and God had sent them prophet after prophet after prophet, and they were ignored, abused or killed. If any city of people were to recognize Jesus, it was Jerusalem. They were given the promises and what to look out for. They should’ve known Him the minute they saw Him enter the city. But they were blind to Him. And because of this, Jesus’ heart was broken. He didn’t come to tyrannize them or create a new hegemony over their lives. He came to offer them peace….to heal them and make them whole….and they wanted nothing of it.
Dan Brown and other like him have heard His Gospel over and over and over again. Like the city Jesus wept over, they are blind to the peace and healing He offers us too. Men are accused of being stubborn about stopping and asking for directions. That’s sort of true. But it isn’t a man-thing. It reflects a human capacity to declare themselves independent of everything, plan their own destiny and threaten anyone or anything that gets in our way, regardless of the consequences or the lives affected in the process. We are determined to achieve something that will deliver the ultimate for us and yet, after thousands of years of thought, invention and upward mobility, we have now decided to spend our energies trying to keep ourselves entertained as best as possible, while we wait for the inevitable. Even science itself has turned into a process of keeping our minds busy with either minutia or ingenious ways to help us stay comfortable before cancer eats us up. And the entire time, we wave the banner of independence and freedom, when what we do is simply find ways to keep our minds off of our situation. And we take that over His peace. We’ll buy into myths and complete fabrications over the truth for one reason only: to make sure that nothing out there invades or interferes with our quest for whiling away the hours the way we choose to do it, right or wrong.
No wonder He wept. No wonder He still weeps.
When Cannibals Eat Each Other
“For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Many scholars conclude that all the synoptic Gospels had to be written after AD 70. Why? You’ll be surprised at the answer. The hold that simply because of statements like this in Luke….they believe there is no way that anyone could’ve predicted an event to happen such as the destruction of Jerusalem, with so much accuracy, unless it was written after the fact. That’s it. Years of school and study and that is the basis behind the dating of the Gospels. This all happened to the very city Jesus wept over. He knew they wouldn’t take His peace. He also knew what was going to happen because of their rejection of it. They would be destroyed.
Now, some might take this as a way to point to God’s tyranny over us by whacking us into little pieces simply for not doing as we’re told. Read that text and read it again. Jesus was not saying that they’d better believe Him or suffer at His hands. What He was saying is that He offered them real peace….and if they wouldn’t take peace, they get violence and destruction. Folks, that is exactly what He is saying to us all today. Dan Brown, if you do not take His peace, you will face nothing but strife and eventual destruction. God isn’t waiting to torch disobedient people. He is bending over backwards to save people from torching themselves.
What happened between 76 and 70 AD? The Roman government, led by Vespasian and his son Titus, came into Jerusalem and utterly destroyed it. They took the entire Temple down, stone by stone, and used those stones to build pagan buildings and pagan temples. They made Jerusalem a pagan town and, out of spite, renamed Judea Palestine, which is the Latinized version of Philistine, the Israelites enemy from the Old Testament. In the end, there was no common bond between unbelievers, but common strife and struggle for power.
That happened, not because God zapped them, even though it could be argued that He did. That happened for the reasons Jesus warned….because they didn’t see the real peace He offered them, they would die by the sword….and they did….by the sword of those who, like them, didn’t desire His peace. In time, that empire fell into the hands of vandals. History is cyclical, in that respect. Empires and movements come and go, except His reign.
I am not sure how familiar you may be with Dan Brown’s publisher or the legal battle they rapped up last April, but it applies. Brown drew heavily from a book entitled, Holy Blood Holy Grail. The book was published in the early 1980’s and it is that book, rather than ancient documents, that Brown derived his ideas about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Holy Blood Holy Grail has been dismissed by scholars just like Brown’s book. However, even though Brown heavily leaned on the book for his own work, the authors of that very book took Brown’s publisher to court and sued them over copy write infringement. You would think these guys would’ve been buds, sharing a common goal…to dispel the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make a name for themselves. But there is no honor among thieves and no honor among human beings, period, when it comes to vested interests.
It isn’t a bloody battle, like that in Jerusalem, but it does point out what Jesus meant….you can’t find peace among yourselves. His peace is the only real peace there is, and unless you take it freely, you won’t ever have it. Dan Brown is the man of the moment. His book is on top of the charts. But Dan is mistaken if he thinks that is because people love him and consider him a great guy. They are all self-motivated people too. We’ll see how wonderful the public is to Dan with future books and see if his status as a best seller remains or if he considers his current fan base his Judas when Solomon’s Key and other books start to hit the shelves. But no matter how ugly and disappointing it may turn for Dan and his wife…Jesus still stands at the door and offers real peace.
He still weeps for the city and for all who don’t see His peace and are blinded from seeing it. He doesn’t offer us a conditional peace with strict limitations. He offers us unconditional acceptance and rest in His presence and power. He hasn’t rode in on a colt for us, but because of the commission He gave those who chose to follow Him, we’ve heard Him. Some of us have given up our futile projects at self-rule and have taken His peace. Many others are sure victory is around the corner for them. Victory is illusive, unless it is in Jesus. For us, that fact will go hard or easy.
He isn’t interested in Vespasians, Gates or Trumps. He’s interested in the weary and heavily burdened…not because they represent a percentage of the human race….the weary and heavily burdened are the human race. The only weary and heavily burdened who decide to take His easy yoke and find rest for our souls are those who own our weariness and burdened selves. It’s refusing His peace that is hard, rather than His yoke.
[1] http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/articles/pub_weekly.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci_Code
“(Dan) Brown, who hadn't seen the special (ABC News) before it aired, said he doubts scholars ever will reach consensus over whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene married. ‘There is simply too much contradictory documentation in existence... much of which seems to spring from reputable sources.’”[1]
“In 2005, UK TV personality Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, "The Real Da Vinci Code", shown on British TV Channel 4. The programme featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists cited by Brown as "absolute fact" in the Da Vinci Code. Arnaud de Sede, son of Gerrard de Sede, stated categorically that his father and Plantard had made up the existence of the Prieuré de Sion, the cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory - to quote Arnaud de Sede in the programme, "frankly, it was piffle". The programme also cast severe doubt on the Roslyn association with the Grail and on other related stories like the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France. Detailed analysis of many other claims by Brown in the Da Vinci Code in the programme showed them to be unverifiable or unhistorical.”[2]
I could’ve used something from Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel or another leading Christian apologist, but then we’d all know where they were coming from. I won’t bother with the details criticizing The Da Vinci Code’s claims about Jesus, since even secular sources have done a thorough and marvelous job at it. But it does bring up something Jesus said in John 5:
“Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”
There is absolutely no way to underestimate a motivated man. The passion to promote his ideals is only surpassed by his passion to deny weakness or chinks in the armor. In the human mind, people see weakness in others as an opportunity for themselves…and that isn’t too far off the mark. That goes for believers and non-believers. But in the case of Dan Brown and those who believe his book is based on historical facts, the level of self-deception has exposed itself to new depths. If it were simply a fictional book without any touch to history, then the sting is taken out of the criticism. However, Dan and his book unapologetically and boldly claim these ideas about Christ as historically supportable. Even after folks who deny the resurrection or the supernatural, like J. Dominic Crosson, agree with Lee Strobel, that the DVC is ‘piffle’, there is no retraction. Why? Is it for the money? There’s nothing new under the sun and DVC is simply a rehashing of the same struggle for the past two thousand years…to once and for all destroy the Gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of a makeshift human derivative. The book as been discredited by scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, and the movie has been considered a passing ship.
But the book has sold millions of copies and when fans are interviewed about the questionable history, they dismiss all the criticism and consider what Brown outlays in his book as history, nonetheless, with a relishing leap of blind faith that Christians are always accused of engaging.
The fact is, Jesus dealt with the same problems in the 1st century. If you think denial of Christ as Messiah or anything other than an itinerant preacher is new, guess again. Those who wanted Him to go away then would probably be at the forefront today, championing the cause of DVC. Why? Because He provokes honesty within us and we either embrace it and turn to Him, or defy it in anger and use our energy to make Him go away quickly.
Jesus wept for those who wouldn’t come to Him. He desired they see what He brings for them but couldn’t. He agonized over the consequences of them not seeing Him for who He is.
Jesus Wept for Them
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it
Anyone who believes that God is not heartbroken over those who want nothing to do with Him, are incredibly mistaken. Any father who has a son that wants nothing to do with him may know a tiny bit of what God goes through with Dan Brown or those in Jerusalem in the 1st century. Peter wrote that God doesn’t wish anyone one to perish but for all to be saved. In this text, Jesus, being one with the Father, weeps over the skepticism and blindness of the very people He came to save.
In Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus makes more remarks about the blindness and hardness of the same city, desiring to gather them together like a mother hen gathers chicks. But it wasn’t to be. Instead, they would cheer on His execution while His words for the same were “Forgive them, Father….” There is no tyrant in the heavens. The only tyrants that exist are on earth. They are their own worst enemy and the very God who created them sends the only antidote they have to find real peace, but instead, there ideas are much better than His.
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Why did Jesus say, “You, even you, would’ve seen…”? Why was Jerusalem considered to be the more indicted than most at His coming? Jesus explains that elsewhere, very plainly. Again, going back to Matthew 23, you can see where He is coming from. Jerusalem was so knowledgeable about God’s will and God’s plans. They were given the very oracles of God and God had sent them prophet after prophet after prophet, and they were ignored, abused or killed. If any city of people were to recognize Jesus, it was Jerusalem. They were given the promises and what to look out for. They should’ve known Him the minute they saw Him enter the city. But they were blind to Him. And because of this, Jesus’ heart was broken. He didn’t come to tyrannize them or create a new hegemony over their lives. He came to offer them peace….to heal them and make them whole….and they wanted nothing of it.
Dan Brown and other like him have heard His Gospel over and over and over again. Like the city Jesus wept over, they are blind to the peace and healing He offers us too. Men are accused of being stubborn about stopping and asking for directions. That’s sort of true. But it isn’t a man-thing. It reflects a human capacity to declare themselves independent of everything, plan their own destiny and threaten anyone or anything that gets in our way, regardless of the consequences or the lives affected in the process. We are determined to achieve something that will deliver the ultimate for us and yet, after thousands of years of thought, invention and upward mobility, we have now decided to spend our energies trying to keep ourselves entertained as best as possible, while we wait for the inevitable. Even science itself has turned into a process of keeping our minds busy with either minutia or ingenious ways to help us stay comfortable before cancer eats us up. And the entire time, we wave the banner of independence and freedom, when what we do is simply find ways to keep our minds off of our situation. And we take that over His peace. We’ll buy into myths and complete fabrications over the truth for one reason only: to make sure that nothing out there invades or interferes with our quest for whiling away the hours the way we choose to do it, right or wrong.
No wonder He wept. No wonder He still weeps.
When Cannibals Eat Each Other
“For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Many scholars conclude that all the synoptic Gospels had to be written after AD 70. Why? You’ll be surprised at the answer. The hold that simply because of statements like this in Luke….they believe there is no way that anyone could’ve predicted an event to happen such as the destruction of Jerusalem, with so much accuracy, unless it was written after the fact. That’s it. Years of school and study and that is the basis behind the dating of the Gospels. This all happened to the very city Jesus wept over. He knew they wouldn’t take His peace. He also knew what was going to happen because of their rejection of it. They would be destroyed.
Now, some might take this as a way to point to God’s tyranny over us by whacking us into little pieces simply for not doing as we’re told. Read that text and read it again. Jesus was not saying that they’d better believe Him or suffer at His hands. What He was saying is that He offered them real peace….and if they wouldn’t take peace, they get violence and destruction. Folks, that is exactly what He is saying to us all today. Dan Brown, if you do not take His peace, you will face nothing but strife and eventual destruction. God isn’t waiting to torch disobedient people. He is bending over backwards to save people from torching themselves.
What happened between 76 and 70 AD? The Roman government, led by Vespasian and his son Titus, came into Jerusalem and utterly destroyed it. They took the entire Temple down, stone by stone, and used those stones to build pagan buildings and pagan temples. They made Jerusalem a pagan town and, out of spite, renamed Judea Palestine, which is the Latinized version of Philistine, the Israelites enemy from the Old Testament. In the end, there was no common bond between unbelievers, but common strife and struggle for power.
That happened, not because God zapped them, even though it could be argued that He did. That happened for the reasons Jesus warned….because they didn’t see the real peace He offered them, they would die by the sword….and they did….by the sword of those who, like them, didn’t desire His peace. In time, that empire fell into the hands of vandals. History is cyclical, in that respect. Empires and movements come and go, except His reign.
I am not sure how familiar you may be with Dan Brown’s publisher or the legal battle they rapped up last April, but it applies. Brown drew heavily from a book entitled, Holy Blood Holy Grail. The book was published in the early 1980’s and it is that book, rather than ancient documents, that Brown derived his ideas about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Holy Blood Holy Grail has been dismissed by scholars just like Brown’s book. However, even though Brown heavily leaned on the book for his own work, the authors of that very book took Brown’s publisher to court and sued them over copy write infringement. You would think these guys would’ve been buds, sharing a common goal…to dispel the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make a name for themselves. But there is no honor among thieves and no honor among human beings, period, when it comes to vested interests.
It isn’t a bloody battle, like that in Jerusalem, but it does point out what Jesus meant….you can’t find peace among yourselves. His peace is the only real peace there is, and unless you take it freely, you won’t ever have it. Dan Brown is the man of the moment. His book is on top of the charts. But Dan is mistaken if he thinks that is because people love him and consider him a great guy. They are all self-motivated people too. We’ll see how wonderful the public is to Dan with future books and see if his status as a best seller remains or if he considers his current fan base his Judas when Solomon’s Key and other books start to hit the shelves. But no matter how ugly and disappointing it may turn for Dan and his wife…Jesus still stands at the door and offers real peace.
He still weeps for the city and for all who don’t see His peace and are blinded from seeing it. He doesn’t offer us a conditional peace with strict limitations. He offers us unconditional acceptance and rest in His presence and power. He hasn’t rode in on a colt for us, but because of the commission He gave those who chose to follow Him, we’ve heard Him. Some of us have given up our futile projects at self-rule and have taken His peace. Many others are sure victory is around the corner for them. Victory is illusive, unless it is in Jesus. For us, that fact will go hard or easy.
He isn’t interested in Vespasians, Gates or Trumps. He’s interested in the weary and heavily burdened…not because they represent a percentage of the human race….the weary and heavily burdened are the human race. The only weary and heavily burdened who decide to take His easy yoke and find rest for our souls are those who own our weariness and burdened selves. It’s refusing His peace that is hard, rather than His yoke.
[1] http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/articles/pub_weekly.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci_Code
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