Week 4: Chapter 3 — Yearning

1.Ortlund highlights two moments where Jesus weeps or laments — over Jerusalem in Luke 19 and his cry in Matthew 23 ("O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often would I have gathered your children together"). What do these moments reveal about Christ's emotional life?

2.The chapter argues that Christ's yearning is not passive wishing but an active, aching desire — a word Ortlund connects to the Hebrew and Greek terms for the deep interior of a person (the bowels, the womb). Why do you think the Bible uses such visceral, bodily language to describe God's longing?

3.Jesus weeps over Jerusalem knowing Jerusalem will reject and crucify him. What does this tell us about the relationship between Christ's love and human rejection? Does his love diminish or intensify in the face of rejection?