To “see” the resurrection is to “tell” of the good news of the resurrection. And Luke’s narrative guides us to be people who respond to the resurrection by “Going into all the world and proclaiming the gospel to the whole creation.”
Luke 19:41-42 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 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.
Jesus is entering into a city that had rejected him for centuries. And so, even as Jesus comes as “God in the flesh,” incarnated among sinners to seek and save the lost, they continue in that rejection. And as Jesus enters into this city, he enters knowing that he is a “dead man walking.”
He knows that people he loves will turn against him. Whip him so mercilessly that the resulting disfigurement would cause him to be unrecognizable as a human, and then crucify him. Jesus knows this agonizing death awaits as he enters in.
But rather than look upon his would-be murderers with revenge, he weeps for them in compassion and mercy. Weeps. He cries aloud with tears of empathy. He pleads that they might see the only King that could truly bring peace.
I don’t think we can truly be witnesses of the resurrection, unless we understand the heart of Jesus weeping over the wicked.
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