Luke 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.
Your Greatest Potential
Have you ever met a little kid with a big name? Maybe you meet a three-year-old whose name is Caesar or Napoleon. You think, “How many countries must he conquer before he ever lives up to that name?” When we talk about living up to a name, we are talking about living up to potential, what might be, what could be. We grow into our potential as we seize our opportunities. Sometimes our name, or the potential it represents, and our actions are two different things.
Jerusalem is a perfect example. The Lord Jesus had entered Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry, yet the Pharisees, the most religious of His countrymen, told Him, “Rebuke your disciples. They are making too much of You.” Jesus famously answered, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Even the rocks would praise the Lord if these people did not.
In response to that attitude from the Pharisees, Jesus “beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” He says, “You have no idea what belongs to your peace, yet you have turned that peace away.”
The irony is that Jerusalem was a city with great promise. It embodied the special and chosen people of God Himself. Its very name means “house of peace,” yet Jesus talks about a time when Jerusalem’s enemies would surround her and lay her flat to the ground. Jerusalem would blend in with the earth, and not one stone would be left unturned. Jerusalem was called the “House of Peace,” yet her actions led to anything but peace.
Sometimes our greatest losses may be the ones we don’t even see. Jesus said, “Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” Jesus said, “If thou hadst known, even this thy day, the things which belong unto the peace! but now…” They didn’t even know what they had lost.
You can learn from this that your greatest potential will always be tied to what you do with the Lord Jesus. God made you for a purpose and with potential, whether your name defines that or not. You are a person with potential and purpose, yet we lose more than we know when we reject the guidance of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus had sent two of his disciples to the city to bring a colt back to Him. If the owners asked what was going on, the disciples were to say that the Lord needed it. That is exactly what happened. The disciples did His bidding, and the colt, a mere animal, served the Lord. The owners, whether they knew exactly what was going on or not, served the Lord. Even the rocks would have cried out, but the Pharisees, the religious men, didn’t live up to their name and potential.
Today when we think of Pharisees, we think of people who were hypocritical and rude. You wouldn’t have thought that if you had been living in the Pharisees’ day. They were patriots, religious, and devout, yet they didn’t live up to their name because they rejected the lordship and leadership of the Lord Jesus.
Today, your greatest potential, though it may come through opportunities, will always be tied to what you do with the Lord Jesus. Be sure you are following His lead just as He created you to do.