It has no major river running through it and no other geographic feature that sets it apart. It is set in arid, rocky hills and suffers blistering summers and often freezing winters. It’s a city where secular modernism rubs shoulders uneasily with ancient faith – not one faith, but the three major montheistic faiths. It is never long off the front pages - never for good reasons. It’s future is one of the major issues to be addressed in any Middle-East peace process. It is, of course, Jerusalem.
On Palm Sunday Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19). He was not the first to do so and neither will he be the last. Perhaps no other city of the past or present illicits such strong emotions in people. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem he did more than weep for its tragic past – he mourned its rebellious soul. Time and again the inhabitants of Jerusalem had ignored God’s word mediated through the prophets (Luke 13:34). In rejecting the prophets Jerusalem turned its back on God. But then, like Jerusalem, we also can easily ignore God’s word. The good news is that God has not turned from Jerusalem, and nor has God turned from us.
God has a glorious future in mind for a New Jerusalem – a heavenly City (Revelation 21) that will be a part of a new heaven and a new earth. In the NewJerusalem there will be no temple, and no need for it as God will be in all and through all. The light of the sun and moon will be redundant as the glory of God will light the City with luminous clarity. This new City will be the home of all those who call on the name of the Lord. This will be, can be your eternal home! To God be the glory!