Building a Theology of the City

It is interesting to note that 3x in the Gospels, it is recorded how Jesus felt about the city of Jerusalem.  I am currently in the process of writing out what a Theology of the City is, according to the model of Jesus.  I will share just a few thoughts here today. Jesus loved Jerusalem.  Can you imagine what it must have been like for him to walk the streets of the Holy City he had chosen before all eternity?  The emotions and thoughts must have been overwhelming for him to see its inhabitants and worship his Father in the temple.  Luke records this simple, yet profound verse in 19:41 - "And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it".  It is one of those verses we have a tendency to skip over and get to the better parts.  Don't do that here.  Those 13 Words highlight how we can have impact in our city.  Here they are:  Draw Near, See the City, and Weep.  We should intimately know our city and you do that by walking the streets, knowing your neighbors, and talking to people.  There is no way around that truth!!  We also have to see and PERCEIVE the truth of our city.  Do we see the reality its lostness?  Does it move us?  It did with Jesus.  He walked the streets and saw the oppression and captivity that people lived with and it all led him to weep.  Could it be that we do not really know our city if we never weep of its condition.  When you do not know anyone or really ever look into the faces of those in the Strassenbahn, how can you truly see how desolate and broken the city is.  Knowing lost people will naturally lead to our being broken over their condition.  It happened to me today - the brokenness and lostness of Duesseldorf led me to cry.  It was totally unexpected, but real. That is the best kind of experience though isn't it?  Where we have not conjured the emotion up, but we are simply being "carried along by the Holy Spirit".  My prayer is that would happen more often in our lives.  We need it, or at least I do.