The only time I remember seeing my daddy cry was when Grandma died. Dad and his brothers sat in the church after everyone but the family quietly trickled out. A deep guttural sob shattered the silence. Sorrow tore from mature male throats in baritone gasps that made me hurt.
The sound of grown men weeping stays with me to this day and forever reminds me of Jesus sobbing His heart out over a city.
The heart of Jesus broke over Jerusalem, where David started his reign, Solomon built the Temple and where the Messiah knew He would die.
The Lord traveled toward Jerusalem that day on a borrowed donkey. The animal’s hooves clicked up the road carrying Him to the Mount of Olives where he could see the city in the valley below. Jesus knew who lived in each house. Some thought He was their King, but the majority rejected redemption from the Savior. Jesus knew enemies would soon descend on Jerusalem and lay the whole city even with the ground, killing many, including children.
Jesus slid off the donkey, dropped to His knees, and wept.[1] “The word ‘wept’ in Greek means more than shedding tears,” writes Bible commentator Donald C. Stamps. “It suggests a lamentation, a wailing, a heaving of the bosom—the sob and the cry of the soul in agony.”[2]
I wonder if Jesus weeps over my city. I’ve wept over cities myself.
In the early 1980s, I noticed the waning of faith in our nation, and spent time on my knees praying for revival. When I went back to work as a daily newspaper reporter in 1984 I witnessed first-hand the agony sin causes. It increased the burden. I had been out of the news business nearly 20 years and it seemed evil bubbled to the top of our nation in my absence.
I saw children in hospital mental wards in danger of suicide because of physical and sexual abuse. I saw babies mentally and physically affected by fetal alcohol syndrome or drug addiction.
A group of 12-year-old boys were in court for gang raping an eight-year-old girl. I asked the juvenile judge whether she thought the boys would change.
"Usually when they end up in my court they are too damaged to recover,” the judge said. “They haven’t had proper parenting.”
I interviewed unwed teen moms, most of them angry at their former boyfriend, their parents and the world.
An estimated 20 million new STD infections occur each year, almost half to ages 15-24.
Since 1973, 45 million babies have been aborted in the United States and many of those parents still suffer emotionally from what they did. I’ve interviewed some of them.
Once a year, I reported health statistics for our county, along with murders, suicides, divorces. This generation has trouble making relationships and marriages work, multiplying grief.
More heart-breaking is what is happening spiritually. Many of our youth say the church is no longer relevant and they proceed to destroy their lives and their eternal future.
No wonder Jesus wept when he prayed for Jerusalem. He loved them, as He loves us today. The cross demonstrated his deep love.
Some of my Sunday school students couldn’t understand why Jesus had to die and innocent animals were slaughtered on the altar in Old Testament days.
Blood is required by God to forgive sin[3] because sin is so terrible,” I explained. “Breaking any of God’s commandments will hurt you or someone else.”
Love caused our Savior to be willing to die for us and deliver us from sin. Love caused Him to weep over those who rejected Him.
He told the folks at Jerusalem, "You who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”[4]
He waits to enfold us into His arms, deliver us from sin and make us into new creations—cleansed by His blood-- save us from our sins and eternal damnation. His goal is to allow us to be changed and swallowed by eternal life so that we will be forever with Him. Sometimes we need to weep over sin ourselves, but He stands near--ready to give us joy unspeakable and full of glory. We're told out of our belly will flow rivers of living water so others may know the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What a Savior!
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