Many years ago when my family attended our little country church, all the children sat together on the first couple of rows of pews for "closing exercises" following the Sunday School session. This is when we gave our birthday offering (a penny for each year) and recited a Bible verse we had memorized. Some of the boys--was it always boys? I think so--liked to quote the very shortest passage in the Bible. It is found in John 11:35, "Jesus wept." While they gleefully got by with reciting just a couple of words, those words do express a great truth. Jesus was moved by standing at his friend Lazarus's tomb. We do not know whether the tears were for His own sense of loss, or His sympathy for the grieving family and friends, or His sorrow at recognizing the unbelief of those who were gathered there--perhaps the overwhelming burden of all three. I can imagine the great tears rolling down His cheeks, dripping off His beard as He looked up to heaven and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me."
The Scripture records another time Jesus cried. Riding on a young donkey into the city of Jerusalem, with the crowd joyfully proclaiming Him as the King coming in the name of the Lord, He wept. (See Luke 19:37-44) But the Greek word used this time for weeping, my commentary tells me, did not mean a quiet shedding of tears. Underneath the loud voices of acclaim was the sobbing of a broken-hearted Messiah who knew the people within that city rejected Him as prince of peace and would suffer terrible judgment. We call this the "Triumphal Entry," but only because Jesus' followers were triumphant. It is not hard for me to imagine that, for Jesus, it was more like the "Entry of Lamentation."
The most remarkable reference to Jesus' tears, I think, is Hebrews 5:7. "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission." This crying is even stronger: outcries of tumult or grief. Some scholars think this refers to His agony in Gethsemane, but the context leads me to believe the description is broader than that. All during the days of His life, He prayed with loud cries and tears for desperately needy, hopeless people and for His own followers who were weak and uncomprehending. We don't read accounts of those prayers; perhaps it was during those nights alone on the mountain that Jesus did that kind of praying. The writer adds that God could have saved Him from death; God did hear Him pray but still didn't spare Him. On the day Jesus died, His tears must have mingled with blood and sweat until He finally said "It is finished," and gave up His spirit to the Father.
That was the only way to heal and rescue us--broken, lost humanity.
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Scripture quotation is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Scripture quotation is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
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