“Arise, cry out in the night…Pour out your heart like water before the Presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to God for the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street.” Lamentations 2:19
I wonder why we as a community of faith do not shed more tears. The Jesus we follow was a man of sorrow, acquainted with our grief. Seeing the grief of Mary and Martha upon the death of their brother Lazarus, he wept, signaling his pain, compassion and love. He wept over the city of Jerusalem that did not know the “things of peace.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed in sorrowful agony that the bitter cup might pass from him, but surrendered to the will of his Abba God.
We have all known sorrow and loss, but often stifle deep emotional response. Medical research indicates the cost of such suppression: higher blood pressure, heart problems, and compromised immune system, not to mention psychological, relational and spiritual issues.
Have you ever had a time in your life of great loss? Perhaps a time when you lost a companion, dear friend, child, pet, job, marriage, broken friendship, or a myriad of other things that may affect us with that empty feeling of ‘lostness.’ Did you find yourself being emotional, crying easily and even getting a catch in your throat during church while singing a hymn, the reading of scripture or just the hug from a friend trying to share their love during your difficult moment in time. Sometimes, wondrously, the hollow emptied out by loss is filled by an unquenchable yearning for God, an ache which spills over into tearful supplication with the Holy Comforter coming to ease the terrible grief we have been experiencing. Do you, have you, wept in contrition for the ways you have failed to love, in intercessory prayer for the hurting and broken world, in gratitude for God’s mercy and grace? Regular worship, reading God’s Word, praying and contemplating on His ways helps us immensely begin to experience a new infilling of God’s Presence in our lives.
Now it is a time for our tears. As Holy Week approaches, we weep as we journey to the cross – for the times we sleep in the garden when Jesus asks for our presence, for the times we are influenced by the opposing forces of darkness, for the times we deny and betray and even ‘crucify’ the One who taught us the way of faithfulness, love and peace.
Prayer: Move us to tears, O God, for the broken world and our involvement in hurt and pain. Then dry our eyes and move us to action. Amen.
As we move toward the time of reflection for our Savior’s great sacrifice,
I remain your friend,
Mark David Jackson
