Luke 19:41 - William Styles

Luke 19:41, “He beheld the city, and wept over it,” etc. “The tears of our Lord over the perverseness of Jerusalem,” says Dean Alford, commenting on Matt. 23:37, are witnesses of the freedom of man’s will to resist the grace of God. They are indeed currently regarded as manifesting that Christ would have saved the souls of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but could not; and similarly that He now strives by His Spirit to save all men, but cannot do so.” This is, however, an unwarranted view of the passage. Christ was made in all things like unto His brethren, and as a sinless man He felt the sincerest love for His country. As God, the future lay open to Him, and He fully foresaw the woe that would so soon overtake them. His tears therefore witnessed to the love and pity of His perfect humanity; and to His patriotism and real affection for the Jewish nation, but they do not teach that His sovereign will to save sinners was then, or has been since frustrated, or that “the Holy Spirit strives in many a heart in the name of a weeping Christ—but in vain.”