Why Have You Shed Tears?
Good Morning Friends,
God’s love, Jesus’ love, our love comes with a burden…Life comes with a price…death… and in that it brings us to tears we are to share. Some are about repentance and those little deaths of life. Other tears are about pain and sadness and still others about joy. Why Have You Shed Tears?
Scripture: When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:32-44 (NRSV)
The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:61-62 (NRSV)
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:15-19 (NRSV)
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
Psalm 126:1-6 (NRSV)
Message: Yesterday we were talking about how appropriate it is during Lent to experience it through the eyes of tears. And in particular Peter’s tears. The well-known adage, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone,” is surprisingly true in most situations but there are occasions when the opposite is true. When Michael Jordan first won the national basketball championship he cried. When cleanup crews at ground zero found crosses in the rubble they cried. When those in our choir experienced the loss of a member we shared a tear and we became surprisingly closer. Jesus cried three times in the Bible. He cried when he heard about his friend, Lazarus’ death. He also had tears of sorrow for the city of Jerusalem. And finally Jesus had tears of struggle in the Garden, known as Gethsemane. Jesus cried in sympathy for the loss of a friend. He cried in sorrow for a Jerusalem that would be crushed into the ground because the people of this place did not accept the opportunity for salvation in Jesus. Jesus cried in suffering because he was heartbroken at the prospect of being painfully separated from God the Father. Some things are worth crying for…. and Jesus understands them all. He understands the power of tears and their worth in making us whole; in bringing us home …in bringing us together….He understands the healing power of tears. Here in our tears, Jesus connects to our pain and the very powerful human experience and emotion of grief. He knows every heartbreak and headache we have ever had. He even knows the joy that surprises us when He comes to comfort us. Friends, when we hurt, God is right in the middle of the experience. God turns our pain, the tears of our fears and failures into joy. It is a surprising harvest that our tears help us to see. The Bible is filled with great people who have wept. Their tears spoke to them. Joseph, Hannah, David, Hezekiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, Mary, John and Jesus wept. We can discover a number of things in the story of their tears and our own tears: tears of intercession, tears of worship, and tears over our own shortcomings. The point is this, tears will mark us for the rest of our lives. Tears of reconciliation, hope, love and a hunger for the Lord can prompt us to act. And if we do, then the pain of our tears need not last forever. If we do our part, if we plant the seeds of our tears, in the end, we will reap the promise of a harvest of blessing.
Pray we understand the blessing of sowing tears in the context of loving others in need. Pray this Lent that when we are confronted with tears that we use the experience to remember the lives of those we love, review our own life and then refocus our attention on the purpose God has for us in ours. Pray that we would be willing to sacrifice our pride and arrogance in favor of bringing comfort, joining others in the burden and pain of their crosses as we share tears. Pray that God shares our tears. Pray we like Jesus weep for our friends. Pray we like Jesus weep for our country. Pray we like Jesus weep for the world. Pray we like Peter weep in repentance. Pray that God would wipe our eyes with tears so we might see. Pray that we listen to the groaning of our hearts as we sow the seed of God’s Word with others. Pray that our tears prevail in heaven and that we reap a harvest of joy. Pray that we cry tears of joy for the redeemed and tears of grief for the lost.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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