Luke 19:41-42

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”

From Background Notes [BN] for November 3^rd & 4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Further, Bonhoeffer explains:

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…

From Background Notes [BN] for November 3^rd & 4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

In the Talmud,(1) times of official mourning for the dead fall into four periods:

Matthew 5:4

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

From Background Notes [BN] for November 3^rd  & 4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

 

In Isaiah 61, a passage we considered last week, God’s Messiah promised to bring “comfort to all who mourn (61:2).” Israel, God’s ancient people, knew a great deal about loss through slavery, deportation, and exile.

Isaiah 55:1

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

 

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Salvation is first of all about admitting that we are spiritually poor and desperately in need of God’s mercy and grace. That’s a hard admission, filled with the acknowledgement of our own inadequacy — something that self-assured human beings hate to do. We know that we are thirsty for something.

Hebrews 5:2

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The context of Hebrews 5:2 is Hebrews 4:14-5:10, an extended discussion that compares “Jesus the Son of God” (4:14) to the office of High Priest in Israel, the most powerful position in Second Temple Judaism. Originally created during the days of Moses, the office of High Priest, held by Aaron the brother of Moses, symbolized God’s desire to remain connected to His people through carefully planned rituals that gave extraordinary access to God.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Frankly, the whole idea that weakness somehow was good upended Paul’s culture where things like weakness and poverty were signs of God’s disfavor and people’s dishonor.

Matthew 5:3

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

God is dynamically sovereign, and in the words and deeds of Jesus he makes a royal announcement — Good News — that this reign of God now breaks into the world with fresh power and life.