By Herb Montgomery
“As he came near and
saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized
on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your
eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts
around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you
to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within
you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your
visitation from God.”—Jesus, Luke 19.41-44
Let’s look at prophecy number six in our eight-prophecy
lineup. For me, this one is the most gut wrenching. Jesus is fully aware that
Jerusalem is rejecting her only chance at life. In rejecting Jesus – this
prophet of nonviolent, enemy-embracing love – she is sealing her fate. Her feet
are sternly set on the path of retaliation, eye-for-an-eye, and violence toward
her enemy, Rome; and this path will not end well.
Jesus sees where their violent path will end, and he weeps:
“Your enemies will set
up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They
will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will
not leave within you one stone upon another.”
Jeremiah had promised that God would change his mind if
there were a change of path by those who had been warned.
We see this over and over again in the narratives of the Old
Testament:
From the history of Isaiah and King Hezekiah:
“In those days
Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of
Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in
order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his
face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, “Remember, LORD, how I have walked
before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good
in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to
Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, this is what the LORD, the God of your father
David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen
years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the
king of Assyria. I will defend this city.’” (Isaiah 38.1-6)
To Jonah’s angry rant after the repentance of Nineveh:
“When God saw what
they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his
mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. This change of
plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the
LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD?
That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and
compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are
eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather
be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” (Jonah 3.10-4.4)
What Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Jonah present to us is the
picture of a God who actually does change his mind, a God who repents and
changes what He has foretold if we choose a different path. A great example
within the Gospels is in Jesus’ dialogue with Peter, just hours before Peter’s
denial.
But Jesus said, “Peter,
let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will
deny three times that you even know me.” (Luke 22.34)
Once Jesus prophesied this outcome of events for Peter, was Peter’s future now set? Was Peter trapped within a fate beyond changing, or was Peter on a path with a certain and definite end? What if Peter had heeded Jesus’ forewarning and changed the path upon which he was traveling? Perhaps the denial would also have been avoided.
Jesus words in Luke 22.31 make the point clearly:
“Simon, Simon, listen!
Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you
that your own faith may not fail.”
Jesus was praying that Peter would change paths and not end
up in the fate of thrice denial. Jesus was actually prophesying toward Peter,
in the hope that Peter would change paths, and what Jesus had prophesied would
never come to pass. Much like when the Lord told David that the men of Keilah
would turn him over to Saul, so David fled and that which the Lord foretold
never came to pass.
What all of this indicates is that the intended purpose of
threatening prophecy is fulfilled most profoundly when its threats do NOT come
to pass, rather than when they do come to pass. For if the destruction takes
place that has been foretold, in this, the prophecy has failed even though it’s
predication came true, for the purpose of the prophecy was that paths would be
changed and the predicted destruction would never take place.
Take a moment and reread Jesus’ words in Luke 19.41-44 with
all of this in mind. As final as Jesus’ words sound, they were not beyond hope.
Jerusalem could still, like David, Hezekiah, and Nineveh, change paths, repent
of their violence, and embrace the way of nonviolent, enemy-embracing love, and
live.
Today, the most conservative experts once placed their hope
in being able to deter global violence escalating into a potential global
annihilation. Today, they are saying that ever since the mid-’80s, humanity
today has reached, through political structures coupled with technological achievement,
a point of no return; guaranteeing that at some point soon in the future the
human race will cease to exist.
The political structures to which I’m referring to include
monopolies on resources that cause those who are hungry and oppressed around
the globe to rapidly grow desperate, thus producing, to the same degree,
various forms of terrorist threats around the globe.
By technological achievements I am referring to the rapidly
advancing, daily scientific breakthroughs that allow violence to be used so
massively, so efficiently and effortlessly. The mere creation of such
technology simultaneously brings into being the risk of it being hijacked and
potentially used by the desperately hungry and oppressed, against their
oppressors.
The most conservative experts, once again, are now
expressing that the fears of the Cold War are miniscule compared to what will
(note, not “could”, but “will”) happen once terrorism is combined with nuclear
warfare.
Yet, I refuse to change “could” to “will.” A future
annihilation of the human race is still simply a possibility, not a definite. I
still hold out hope that Jesus and His Kingdom of nonviolent, enemy-embracing
love will win in the end.
Jesus is, today more than ever, the last great hope of this
world. Just like with Jerusalem of old, our turning from violence and injustice
would fulfill the purpose of every Biblical and Secular prophecy regarding
global annihilation.
Remember, prophecy is not intended to simply predict the
future, but to warn of a possible future that we will definitely meet if our
choices are not altered today. Are we beyond hope? I do not believe so. But I
will say we have one – and only one – hope left: we can embrace the nonviolent,
enemy love of the God revealed in the person of Jesus the Savior of the World.
Again, the condition for us is the same as that which Jesus
presented to pre-70 A.D. Jerusalem of old: “To know the things that make for
peace”, to recognize the “time of our visitation from God” in the invitation to
join Christ’s nonviolent Kingdom.
For most of us, we don’t have the resources at our disposal
to make global change. But we do have
within our power, the ability to create local change. We can start today,
wherever this finds you. Within your family, within your circle of friends,
even if it is simply choosing to immediately forgive the driver in front of you
who will cut you off on the way home from work after an exhausting day. One
person at a time, we can change the world. The revolution starts right now,
with you, with me, with each of us in our daily lives.
Jesus said it best:
“God did not send his
Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to heal the world through
him.” (John 3.17)
In Luke 9.2, Jesus tells us our first job in proclaiming the
arrival of this new nonviolent Kingdom is to be a conduit of healing! “Then he sent them out to tell everyone
about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”
Certainly our world is sick, infected with the disease of
retribution, retaliation, demanding eye for an eye, punitive justice rather
than the Godlike healing of restorative justice. As Gandhi solemnly admonished
us, “We must be the change, the change we long to see in the world.”
I close this week with a statement regarding Einstein’s
theory of relativity I found recently from Gandhi’s secretary:
“Einstein has given us
his well-known equation setting forth the relationship between matter and
energy which states that when even an INFINITESIMAL PARTICLE of matter attains
the velocity of light, the maximum velocity attainable in the physical world,
it acquires A MASS WHICH IS INFINITE.”—Pyarelel (Gandhii's secretary,
emphasis added.)
Reminds me of Jesus
words in Matthew’s gospel:
“For AS THE LIGHTNING
comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of
the Bar Enasha, the new Humanity, the nonviolent Kingdom, on earth as it is in
heaven.”—Jesus (Matthew 24.27, personal paraphrase)
Who said one "infinitesimal" person empowered by
nonviolent enemy love, can't "infinitely" change the world?
Wherever this finds you this week, keep living in love
toward one person, one heart at a time, putting on display the Father’s
character of love as seen in Jesus, until, like lightning that shines in the
east and can be seen, all the way as far as the west, the only world that
remains is a world where love reigns.
Thanks for the hope, Einstein!
-Herb Montgomery
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