And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Luke 19:41-44 ESV
I have become quite skilled at weeping this past year. I can probably say that in the past year, not one day goes by where I do not weep over the losses of people and things that hold dear to me. It is a lonely place, the place of tears. Sometimes i have had to run into the bathroom at the gym because of the sudden eruption of tears as I lift weights. I have been out surfing and had to paddle away from the guys because all the sudden tears will erupt. Almost every week at my Tuesday study I find myself weeping during worship. As a man, I try to keep my tears private and in my moments alone because it isn't considered manly to cry. But what do you do manly or not when the tears come? I have been very encouraged that there is one I can come to in my lonely, broken hearted, sad tears, Jesus, the savior who wept.
If you read the story of Palm Sunday, it was a great day in Jerusalem. People are believing that the messiah has come in Jesus and are waving Palms as Jesus passes them by on a donkey and shouting out joyous praise while quoting the Messianic Psalm 118. It is the greatest moment in their lives. But during this time something very strange happens. Luke is the only writer who tells us about it. At the height of the celebration Jesus begins to weep. When Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem, He began to weep.
On three separate occasions, scripture speaks of Jesus weeping. The first we find in John's gospel. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is also the most poignant. Those words are like a window pointing to the nature and glory of Jesus. It cuts the heart out of any view of God that places Him in some distant universe looking down dispassionately on His creation. Jesus wept. Maybe that surprises us, or frightens us, or threatens us, or embarrasses us. It is all too easy for me to think of Jesus always as unemotional and always serene facing danger and crises without even flinching. But Jesus wept. Never has so much been said so succinctly. Here is the love, mercy, passion, compassion, grief, and anger of Jesus chiseled down into two words: Jesus wept.
The second occasion of Jesus weeping is found in 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.”
The third occasion is in Luke 19:41, where we have what is commonly called “Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem ” or Palm Sunday. Luke tells us that as Jesus entered the city to the tumultuous welcome of the people, His own spirit was not festive. When He saw the Holy City, He wept over it. We must never forget this. The Greek word for "wept" is poignant with meaning. It comes from the Greek word, "klaio”, which means to sob, to wail aloud." This is much more than just a few tears; it was loud and deep sorrow. The sorrow of mourners after someone died in Hebrew culture. Imagine the Lord of the universe wailing over Jerusalem!
Why was Jesus crying? What pain was in our Lord’s heart? With all this joy, praise, emotion, and enthusiasm about Him from the people, why is Jesus weeping? This does not make sense! This is His coronation as King. This is His moment of glory. Jesus was weeping, not for himself, but for the city that was about to reject him. Jesus saw beyond the cheering crowd to the mob that would soon crucify him. they did not get it. They were right about Him and oh so wrong. Their elation will turn to deep disappointment and Jesus is brokenhearted. Jesus knew on Palm Sunday that Good Friday was only five days away. And through the dim mists of history, he saw into the future, to the time when the Roman army would sack Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and destroy the city stone by stone, killing men, women and children by the thousands. Because the nation would reject its Messiah, such awful judgment would soon fall. Why? God’s Son had come and they did not recognize him. “He came unto His own, but His own received Him not.” (John 1:11). . These are his words: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:42-44)
Oh what a revelation of the tender heart heart of Jesus! Jesus really feels the sorrow at what He sees. This does not mean his sovereign plan has wrecked because of man. It means that Jesus is much more emotionally complex than we think he is. Jesus is the Lamb and the Lion; He is the Savior and the judge; He is full of mercy, love, and grace and full of wrath; He is kind and severe. Jonathan Edwards said, "He is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies."
Oh how I savor the beauty of Jesus tough in proclaiming a coming judgement on the holy city, but oh so tender in feeling and weeping over what is to come. Don't you just treasure this Jesus? Jesus is well acquainted with tears. Isaiah 53:3-4, tells us "He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."
Jesus has borne and carried upon Himself all your sorrows, grief, and tears. He knows, understands, and weeps with you as you cry. Jesus can be in control of your life, yet weep over your griefs, pain, and loss. The Psalmist says, "You have kept count of my tossings;put my tears in your bottle.Are they not in your book?"(Psalm 56:3)
I pray this passion week that God would give you tears and that you would be free to give Him your tears. There is so much pain in the world this Passion Week. So much suffering far from you and so much suffering near you. And maybe this week there is much sorrow within you. Pray that God would catch your tears and help you be tenderly moved like Jesus. pray that your tears would be rooted deep in what John Newton calls "Habitual tenderness of spirit".
Today our sovereign Christ is a sympathetic High Priest who knows our grief. Jesus weeps! He wept over a friend who died and he weeps over a nation who wanted its own way and died as well. He also called both out of their tombs. Lazarus came forth and lived. Jerusalem did not and was destroyed.
Do we weep? Is there anything about Jesus that will touch your heart and teach you to love Him and others? He is God, who became a man, a real, vulnerable, touchable, man. Entering into all the grief and suffering you know including tears.
Oh how we need his heart and his care. Oh how we need for the Spirit of Jesus to melt our selfish, cold, and indifferent with the fire of His true love. That we might weep with him for the lost, the poor, the suffering, the broken, the hardened, and the blind. Jesus felt enough compassion for Jerusalem to weep. If you haven’t shed any tears for somebody’s losses but your own, it probably means you’re pretty wrapped up in yourself. Jesus tears cause me to repent of my own hardness and callousness to human suffering, pain, grief, and loss and to ask God to give me a heart that is tenderly moved like my savior.
Weeping with tears of sorrow and gratitude and longing to weep for others and with others this passion week,
Pastor Bill
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