Peace

Luke 19:37-38 (ESV) As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

The huge Palm Sunday crowd knew that something special was happening when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem. They showed up in tens of thousands to welcome the One they believed to be their Messiah – their Savior. In honor of his coming, they quoted from Psalm 118, written hundreds of years before prophesying the coming Savior. (Hosanna is a derivative of the Hebrew Hoshia Na! – “Please, save us!” – found in Psalm 118:25) Luke has them quoting Psalm 118:26: “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!” They understood Jesus’ coming as that which was predicted hundreds of years before. They got that part right. They believed he was coming to save. They got that part right, too.

Then, interestingly, their quotations shifted forward hundreds of years to the words of the angels to some Bethlehem shepherds: “Glory in the highest!” (See Luke 2:14) Once again, they got something right. That babe in a manger was born to be the King of Israel. Yet, they made a surprising change to the angel’s words that was more right than they could imagine. Although the angels pronounced peace on earth, the people of Jerusalem shouted, “Peace in Heaven.”

In the very next scene of Luke 19, we see Jesus weeping over the city, foretelling its coming destruction (which happened at the hands of the Romans in AD 70, less than 40 years later). The reason he gave for the destruction was, “You did not recognize the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:44) For all of their outward celebration, the First Century Jews were seeking an earthly savior to grant them a more comfortable life in this world rather than a heavenly Savior who would grant them full eternal life. Had they embraced Jesus for who he truly was, Jesus implied the nation would not have had to suffer the destructions of AD 67-70 and 127-130. They could have had both the earthly and heavenly peace had they welcomed Jesus on his terms rather than their own.

There is much that is good about life on earth. Yet, it will never be perfect. When we pursue earthly peace and prosperity as our top priority and fail to recognize Jesus and accept him as the true King he is, we miss out. When we welcome Him on his terms, we are assured of eternal peace with him in Heaven and good things here, as well.