The tears of Jesus

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city he wept over it... Luke 19:41

Jesus wept. John 11:35

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears... Hebrews 5:7

Do you cry easily?

We’re all different, aren’t we? I know somebody who was moved to tears by a Tom and Jerry cartoon (I kid you not). There are others who cry never or hardly at all. But certainly tears are a common experience and can be caused in all sorts of ways. No wonder the world has been called a “vale of tears”.

How wonderfully comforting, then, to know that Jesus, the very son of God, shed tears. That fact alone is enough to demonstrate his humanity - he is truly man as well as truly God. When he sees our tears it is not from a detached, aloof distance, but, as the hymn puts it, he “knows our every weakness” from his own personal experience.

Remember that Jesus is God in the flesh. Does the fact that he wept prompt you to rethink your view of who God is and what he is like? It should do!

But why exactly did Jesus weep? 

Well, the references at the start are the only ones the New Testament gives us, so we don’t have all that much to go on. But they’re worth looking at.

In Luke 19:41Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. His earthly life is drawing to its close and he, King Jesus, is coming to his capital city - in order to die a cruel and humiliating death. He knows that he will be rejected and crucified.

And the reason he weeps is because of the tragic blindness and stubbornness of the people who will do this. He doesn’t weep because of what he himself is about to endure, or at the thought of this wonderful city and its temple being destroyed. No, he weeps because the Jewish people, the very people God chose to be his agents of peace and hope, have refused to see that he has come to bring them freedom and joy: “it is hidden from your eyes.”

And still he weeps today whenever a human heart refuses to recognise and trust him.

In John 11:35 he weeps at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. At first sight that seems rather puzzling - presumably he knew that he was about to bring him back to life, so why weep!

But if we read the whole passage we see that in fact his tears were a response to the tears of Mary and the other mourners. He wept because they were hopeless and despairing in the face of death.

Death is always an enemy - Paul calls it “the last enemy”. And we are bound to grieve when someone we love dies. Don’t overlook the fact that the first follower of Jesus that we read of dying, the martyr Stephen, was buried by “godly men” who “mourned deeply for him”. Oh yes, they grieved all right, and so should we. But the vital thing is that as Christians we do not mourn “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

I have conducted many funerals, and experience suggests that there are few occasions more grim than when the hope of eternal life is absent. But a Christian funeral, where the great resurrection verses of the Bible are not only read but believed in - well, that’s a different matter altogether. Deep sadness, yes of course - but deep peace and hope as well.

Do you - do I - rejoice in the hope of eternal life?

Hebrews 5:7 is not linked with any particular event in Jesus’ life, though his wrestling in the Garden of Gethsemane comes very much to mind. Perhaps it serves simply to remind us that walking with God, while it is a great privilege and joy, can also be hard and painful. The way of Jesus, after all, is the way of the cross for us as well as for him.

Are you - am I? - prepared to share in his sufferings?

The tears of Jesus...! If you are tearful today may the thought of them bring you hope and comfort. He is with you in those tears.

And never forget those wonderful words near the end of the Bible: a day is coming for all who trust in Jesus when “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or crying or mourning or pain...” (Revelation 21:4).

Thank you, Father, for the tears of Jesus. Please comfort me when my tears flow, and please help me too, through Jesus crucified and risen, to bring comfort and hope to the sad and despairing. Amen.