The great suffering such as has not been
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
Stricken for the transgression of my people. Isaiah 53:8
Read Matthew 24:15—24
Tonight I’m looking at Jerusalem through Jesus’ eyes. He has come to it. And he sees its end. I think he sees Jerusalem at its end. Great suffering such as the world has not seen from its beginning, and such as never will be. Yes, this is a vision and a moment in which all the judgements that have come upon this nation, Israel, the many judgements pronounced by the prophets and borne in bleak exile, all now come to their climax. The Temple at the centre, that must have been at the heart of what Jerusalem was about. He has said that will go. It will be destroyed. Destroyed and raised again in him, in his death and resurrection.[1] This fearful judgement upon Jerusalem and upon all the history of the people of God: it is about to come. It is about to be gathered up. It is about to be borne. It is about to be endured on behalf of the people of God by their Godforsaken Messiah when he suffers at Jerusalem.
Lord, my Lord, you saw the judgement of the world before your eyes when you came to Jerusalem. You saw what I have not seen. You entered in. You bore the sin of the world in your own body on the tree.[2] I pray for Jerusalem still. I pray for all those who suffer, who feel it still as the judgement of God and the end of their hope, but do not know you as the despised one, the rejected one who has borne their afflictions. Oh, you are such a Saviour.
[1] John 2:19
[2] 1 Peter 2:24