Recently I watched on television the scene where Jesus entered Jerusalem and started weeping. Luke 19 gives an account of that scene. The scripture verse in the Bible goes like this:
“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. …. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” Luke 19: 41-44
I had an unexpected emotional reaction to that scene in particular, and I was unsure at first of the reason for my reaction. Then I realized that the Lord was bringing to my attention the words ‘because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you’. The King James version translates ‘the time’ as the ‘hour of thy visitation’.
In my reaction, what I was sensing was that in this current season, Jesus is once again weeping over His church (His Jerusalem):
‘Jerusalem Jerusalem will you not recognize the hour of my visitation?!?
It was as if I was experiencing in that moment the weight, the pain and the anguish as He asks his church today, ‘Will you once again miss my hour of visitation?’
The Greek translation to the word ‘visitation’ is the word ‘episkope’ which refers to the act of inspecting. The hour of visitation therefore represents a time of inspection, and the outcome of the inspection can result in either salvation or judgement.
As I continued to study the word ‘visitation’, I was reminded of the story in the bible of the fig tree. The bible records that this incident took place during the time of the Passover festival. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem saw the fig tree with leaves, indicating that it should have fruit, but found none and cursed the tree. Having done so, he continued into Jerusalem into the temple and having found traders and money lenders proceeded to drive them out of the temple.
There are accounts in both the books of Mark and Luke that tell the story of Jesus’ travels and activities during the Passover period right before his death. The timeline of his travels during this Holy week indicate that He entered Jerusalem on a colt, wept over Jerusalem. After entering the temple, He inspected it, then returned to Bethany with the twelve. The next day Jesus returned to Jerusalem, on his way he cursed the fig tree and entered the temple again; this time overturning the trading tables.
We have entered a season that is Holy and one of the reasons is because God has selected this season to inspect the fig tree (individuals) and the temple (the church).
The cursing of the fig tree spoke to God’s expectation that individually we should bear good fruit. Similar to the cursing of the tree, the act of overturning the tables in the temple (which represented the collective and institutional worship of the Lord) was a declaration that Jesus had found them wanting. It was an indictment not just on the partakers but also on the leadership, who endorsed the practice of desecrating the temple and turned a holy and sacred festival into a money-making holiday.
God is once again reminding us of his expectation of fruitfulness. He is also reminding us, both individually and collectively, that He still requires Holiness.
To further emphasize this, God chose the holiest of seasons, Passover, to come and inspect His Jerusalem. God does nothing by coincidence. He perfectly selects His times and His seasons. As Christians we now celebrate the week as ‘Holy Week’, but long before this declaration; there was Passover. It was the celebration that God commanded Israel to observe in remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt, when a lamb’s blood on the door marked them for salvation.
It was also the week the Lamb of God Himself came to inspect.
He chose the same week to come as a perfect sacrifice, entering Himself through the city’s gate, that was designated for the inspection of the sacrificial lambs.
He chose the season in which to inspect the temple and once again He has chosen this season and marked it for His visitation.
I believe the Lord is also inspecting the body of Christ today to see what we have done with that which He has designated as Holy and whether we have deemed the Holy things of the Lord as profane.
There is great significance when God declares something to be Holy. When He marks a season, a day, an hour, a celebration, an act. It is not something that man can do or change; He alone can do it.
I sense Him saying that we are in is His hour of visitation and I believe that it will be marked with a divine and holy interruption to man’s agendas and schedules, as He calls us back to His.
My prayer is that we will not fail to recognize the hour that we are in. More importantly, we will not just be casual observers in this season, but instead be filled with fear and trembling and awe of the coming of the Lord.
Scripture verses:
“and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it.”
Mark 11:13-14 KJV
“And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked roundabout upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.”
Mark 11:11 KJV