Luke was writing ten or more years after the actual destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in the year 70. In hindsight he was able to fill in details that Jesus would have known nothing about.
Jesus attributed Jerusalem’s destruction to two factors:
In Jesus’ mind the destruction was not direct punishment from God. It was simply the outcome of their unwillingness to respond to Jesus’ message of universal love and non-violence. The intervention of Rome had been triggered precisely by the armed revolt led by Zealots. (Had Israel recognised and accepted Jesus, its eventual political fate might still have been uncertain. The structures of the world, particularly of Roman imperialism, had little time for a people who took seriously the invitation to love radically and universally – as the Christian communities around the empire eventually found out.)
Israel’s rejection, exemplified by the Pharisees’ opposition to his theatrical entry, was a source of profound sorrow for Jesus. The definitive rejection by the ruling elites would continue during the days that followed.
Probably those who rejected Jesus did so because they believed that they had perfectly good reasons to do so, drawn from what they saw as their religious fidelity to Israel.
They were blinded by the power of the religious and cultural system. They gave their allegiance to the system rather than to God, though they mistakenly assumed that the two coincided.
How could they have broken free from the system’s power to brainwash? Jesus had called for repentance, a whole change of mindset from the familiar to the uncertain. What could trigger such a step? Obviously the answer is the Spirit of God. But how do people who already consider themselves religious, indeed who pride themselves on being so, tune in to the Spirit of God that sings a different tune?
Luke’s answer would seem to be
Only in that way can people recognise “the time of God’s intervention on your behalf ... what would secure peace.
Next >> Luke 19:45-48