Courage to Pursue Peace

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Luke 19:41-44  (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

‘Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.’ Luke 19:43

At the end of the Mass on last year’s Easter Sunday, my church choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. At the conclusion of the service I was in my usual position at the south door saying goodbye to members of the congregation. As she left the church, a visitor told me that she wasn’t a regular churchgoer, but that the performance of the Messiah had quite literally moved her to tears.

To be moved to tears is a very common human emotion. Tears can signify both joy and sorrow, and it is the latter emotion which is the catalyst for the tears of our Lord as he looks out over the city of peace, Jerusalem. Sorrow, because Jesus knew that the place and people that He loved would ultimately reject Him, and that rejection would lead to the eventual destruction of the Temple at the hands of the Romans. During his journey to Jerusalem, he had regularly warned of God’s impending judgement on the city and Temple because like the towns of Galilee they had resisted his call for peace. This rejection of the way of peace, would ultimately be the cause of her own ruin.

So, this Lent, let us take the opportunity to pray for courage to live out the things that make for peace, to recognise God’s presence, with openness to what might be hidden from our eyes, and to acknowledge those “ramparts” which are a barrier to our relationship with the risen Lord.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, help us to always be instruments of your peace. Amen.

The Revd Glen Brooks, Vicar of St Annes, St Annes-on-the-Sea.