MAKING JESUS CRY
Have you ever walked in on your spouse or kids and found them crying? You ask, “What’s wrong” and they say, “Nothing!” Now we know something or someone is making them cry.
When we look at the story of Palm Sunday and the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, there were many emotions: joy, celebration, resentment, indignation, hope. But there was one other emotion dominating the scene: Jesus is crying.
Luke 19:41 (NKJV) Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
Today, we will ask “Why” and see what God wants to speak to us individually and collectively. As W. H. Griffith Thomas, the co-founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, has said, “Let us sit at Christ’s feet until we learn the secret of His tears, and beholding the sins and sorrows of city and countryside, weep over them too.”
PRAYER
Luke is the only Gospel author who records Jesus crying at the Triumphal Entry.
John records Jesus crying at the tomb of Lazarus.
John 11:33–39 (NKJV) Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” 37 And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Jesus was weeping over the shallowness of their lives, the unbelief that filled their hearts!
Hebrews tells us Jesus cried in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Hebrews 5:7 (NKJV) who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.
Jesus was weeping over the torture that was to come and the pain of separation from the Father. The thought of becoming sin terrified Him.
But we often don’t think about Jesus weeping at the Triumphal Entry. We talk about the celebration and the joy and the cheering. But we don’t consider Jesus crying. Luke makes it the point of the day.
Luke 19:28–44 (NKJV) When He had said this, He went on ahead, going to Jerusalem. 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples saying, 30 “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”
32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,
The first reaction: Seeing Jesus only as a miracle worker, a need meeter.
38 saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
The second reaction: Seeing Jesus as a future hope to bring freedom from oppression.
39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
The third reaction: Seeing Jesus as a threat to your power.
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
The real issue: Not realizing God had visited them to bring real life and real peace.
42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus had come for them but they didn’t see it!
All of these things made Jesus weep. People wanted His acts but didn’t want Him. They didn’t realize they had sealed their own judgment. Some 40 years later the Romans would destroy the Temple and level the city.
These things make Jesus cry today; they still break His heart. Focusing on gifts instead of the giver; rejecting His Lordship; not responding when He passes by.
He had tried to warn them.
Luke 13:34–35 (NKJV) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
As I was reading these passages, this thought filled my heart: Do I make Jesus cry? Do I only worship Him because of what He can do for me? Am I just looking for a political victory, a social victory, a cultural victory? Am I doubting and indignant, demanding the worship stop? Do I recognize that my time of visitation is here?
We all need to ask ourselves this question: Do I make Jesus cry?
Jesus is visiting us today. He is passing by, wanting to meet us and transform us. Will we see Him? Will we meet Him?
SONG: I Hear the Lord Passing By
MINISTRY TIME
