The Mother of all What-If's....

Several weeks ago, around Easter time, I was preaching on the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. The text was from the book of Luke. During that sermon, one of the points I made was that Jesus had entered Jerusalem, just as the Old Testament foretold. The people who said they wanted Messiah to come were now witnessing the arrival of the Messiah, but they didn't recognize it because they were Spiritually blind. Because Jerusalem had failed to receive the Messiah, electing rather to turn Him over to the Romans to be crucified, the city was condemned to total destruction, which happened some 35 years later in AD 70. The city could have received its promised Messiah, but instead rejected Him and chose destruction.

Following church that day, my wife asked me, "What would have happened had they received Him? What about His death for our sins on the cross?"

The simple answer to that would be that God knew that Jerusalem would reject Christ, so He worked it into His perfect plan of redemption. That's the answer I gave, and that's how we left it.

Still, does that mean that Jerusalem was doomed from the start? Was there a way they could've received the Messiah, and for the plan of Redemption to go forward? I mean after all, Jesus Himself said in Luke 19:42, "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."

Jesus said "If thou hadst known," indicating possibility. If Jerusalem would've been worshiping and serving God, and thus would have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, things would've turned out different for Jerusalem. AD 70 would've never happened, and the Temple would still stand today because the Messiah would've defeated the Romans. But, what about redemption? Salvation was purchased by the death of Christ on the cross. So, if the Jewish leaders didn't turn Him over to the Romans to be crucified, how would we have salvation today?

Granted, this is a big what-if scenario, and this is all conjecture, but it could be that God would've worked the plan of redemption into Jerusalem's acceptance and obedience. Consider the following possibility:

Jesus enters Jerusalem to the cheer of the crowd. The religious leaders open their Bibles, read the scriptures that Jesus was in the process of fulfilling, and realize that the Messiah has arrived. They proudly and victoriously announce that Christ has indeed come, as God promised in the scriptures, and proclaim that God's Kingdom has once again been restored. Christ arrives in Jerusalem, where a coronation ceremony is held and He is crowned King.

The Romans would not have just accepted that. The Roman army would've marched on Jerusalem, just as they had in previous insurrections, taken the leadership, and crucified them. The result: Christ would've been crucified anyway, and still would've paid for the sins of the world. Once He rose again on the third day, He would've destroyed the Roman army and restored the Kingdom once and for all. Salvation would then have been extended to the Gentiles based on whether they accepted Him or rejected Him. 

Granted, there are holes in that theory. But instead of going into deep theological debates as to how God would've completed the plan of redemption if Jerusalem would have accepted Jesus, let's just be glad we have an all-powerful God who completes His plan no matter what man does, and that His plan called for our redemption, salvation, and inclusion into His Kingdom. Praise the Lord!