Grief can come and overwhelm at times, opening the floodgates. This past Sunday, we discussed one of the shortest verses in the Bible, Jesus Wept. It made me think more about the times I have experienced someone weeping, especially when that person normally does not. The only time I remember my dad crying is when I was ten, and he took my brother and me on a 6-week cross-country trip. We did not know all that he had in store, but we were up for the adventure as we lounged in the camper on the truck bed while he did all the driving. The goal was to get out to California, starting from Connecticut. But that trip took a turn in Detroit. A blown transmission was an expensive fix that altered our journey. We got to a campground the next day, as my brother and I played catch, I saw my dad crying in the front seat. At that moment, I saw that all the plans he had for us on that trip were not possible. He was weeping for what he thought would be our limited joy. This, in the end, was a better gift than the entertainment of a ten-year-old. Our cries reveal the anguish of our hearts. What has made you cry recently? Your own physical pain, not getting what you desire, the suffering of others?
Christians are commanded to "weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15) to share in the burdens, sorrows, and losses of others. Weeping can be a godly reaction to the devastation of sin in the world, or your own broken-hearted repentance. Unfortunately, there is a discussion today on whether empathy is a sin. Yes, we do not need to so empathize with people that we embrace or condone their destructive, sinful behavior, yet we are in more danger today of just lacking the empathy that God calls us to have.
There is a Biblical pattern of weeping in intercession for God’s people. Jesus wept over the hardness of heart in Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). Nehemiah wept over the broken state of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:4). Jeremiah, known as "the weeping prophet," prayed that his eyes would be a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jer. 9:1).
We can weep for others even if they are in a situation because they have made some very poor choices. We are all sinners. When evil is defeated, and men and women are thwarted and no longer exercise their evil deeds, we can rejoice. Yet Ezekiel 33:11 says, “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather desires that they turn from their ways and live.”
Charles Spurgeon refers to “weeping his way into men’s souls.” We need to serve the Lord with all our mind, heart, strength, and with tears. We need holy tears. Ones that flow from an abundant life in Christ, filled with compassion and peace in a world of turmoil and disasters. When my eyes are dry, I listen to his old Keith Green song:
My eyes are dry. My faith is old, My heart is hard, My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be Alive to You and dead to me
Oh, what can be done for an old heart like mine?
Soften it up with oil and wine. The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew in the wine of Your blood
