Sermon - Trinity X 2024 - Luke 19:41-48

Jesus Wept, James Tissot, ~1886-1894

The Tears of Jesus

1. They show us His love for the lost

2. They teach us the seriousness of sin

3. They give us hope in His grace

Men are typically not given to tears in the same way as women. It’s simply not considered manly to cry, although that doesn’t mean men don’t cry. Given the infrequency of a man’s tears, it can signal a notable moment in his life. Thus, we see Jesus crying three times in the Bible, and it’s worth noting; He cried at the death of Lazarus, in the garden of Gethsemane, and here outside Jerusalem. 

It says, “When Jesus drew near and saw the city, He wept over it.” It’s worth noticing the intensity of this moment. It’s not simply that Jesus became teary eyed or a little choked up, but He wept. Great sobs of sorrow welled up in Him as He spoke. When we read those words we should hear them as great emotional pleas, blurted out with sobs and tears. “Would that you,” He sobs, “even you,” another sob comes out, “had known on this day,” He cries, “the things that make for peace!” This is such a powerful and emotional moment I’m sure you can all picture because you’ve experienced this sorrow before.  Given this emotional image before us, today I would like to ponder the significance of Jesus’ tears. 

In the first place, the tears of Jesus show us His love for the lost. The artwork on our bulletin today shows Jesus looking fierce and with righteous anger over the defilement of the temple. God often looks this way to us throughout the scriptures, since we can see His powerful wrath over sin. Liberal christians will claim that their god would never be as mean as God shows Himself to be in the Bible, so evidently their god is not our God, since the Lord does show forth His just judgments on the children of man. A few images spring to mind: The great flood, killing all except Noah and his family; Sodom and Gomorrah, sparing only Lot and his daughters; and now today the image of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.

What is most visible in all of these acts of destruction by God is His anger and wrath over sin. We’ll talk about that in a moment, but first let’s talk about the thing often unseen, which the tears of Jesus show us, namely God’s great love for the lost. When we’re faced with evildoers, our desire is usually justice or even revenge. Just take for example our normal response when watching a movie and the bad guy dies or is somehow defeated in the end: we cheer, we pump our fist, we say “Yes! He had that coming! Finally!” But never, or rarely, do we find ourselves saddened and disappointed by the villain’s demise.

While it is absolutely acceptable to rejoice that the Lord has rescued us from our enemies, it’s worth recognizing that God’s not so thrilled that He had to punish the evildoers. Instead, in the person of Jesus we see God’s heart of sorrow over sin and love for the sinner. It did not make God happy to flood the world or rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah or destroy Jerusalem. These necessary actions of judgment give Him sorrow over those who have betrayed Him and turned away from faith in Him. As He says: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Death and damnation give God no pleasure, instead He is filled with love for all, even His enemies.

Jerusalem was filled with crowds of people who hated Jesus, wanted to kill Him with stones, mocked Him, spit on Him, betrayed Him, slandered Him, flogged Him, strippedHim naked, pounded nails into His flesh, and watched Him die by asphyxiation. In spite of all this He wept for them and suffered all to forgive their sins. 

This great love for the sinner is shown to you as well. “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” Remember this: your sins deserve God’s wrath, make you His enemy, and are like spitting in His face while He is hanging on the cross for you. In spite of your enmity with, He has laid down His life for you so that you would be forgiven and saved eternally, because He loves you. Your sin doesn’t make God want to punch you in the face, it brings Him to tears and in love drove Him to Golgotha.

In addition to showing us God’s love, His tears also show us the seriousness of sin. He cries because of the consequences of unrepentant sin: “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” The wrath of God upon Jerusalem is a vivid depiction of God’s wrath against all who don’t repent and have faith in Jesus Christ.

Our sin is no light or laughing matter. What we deserve for our sin makes God wail in anguish. Just consider the might and eternal weight of God’s divinity, consider all of His glory and majesty, and yet this almighty God weeps over sin. This really ought to make us think twice about our life choices and bring us to our knees. This should be a powerful warning to us!

Do we know the things that make for peace? Does our life of faith, our family, our congregation, our neighborhood need cleansing? Do we make our church a robbers’ den, trusting in membership in spite of our sinful lives and hearts which despise preaching and His word? Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price, do we treat it as such? Jesus is continually teaching, do we fill our bodies with prayer and meditation on Jesus’ teaching? Are we at all negligent in the Christian faith? Jesus takes our sins seriously enough to weep, do we care? We should.

We should care about our sins and our life of faith in Jesus, not because we have cause to despair, but rather a reason to hope. The tears of Jesus also give us great hope, because in His tears we see that He hasn’t forsaken us. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, God hasn’t given up. Just as Jesus continued to weep over Jerusalem, He continues to weep over us. He is still present with His abiding word to warn us and to comfort us. His word of warning and His tears means that He cares enough not to abandon us.

Jesus cleansed the temple, drove out the den of robbers, and remained in it to daily teach His word. By the grace of God, He cleanses us of our iniquities and then abides with us to teach us. God is present with you daily, continually, in order to rescue you from the wrath to come. That gives you hope.

Surely the day is drawing near when His wrath and judgment will be poured out on all who do not know the things that make for peace, who do not know the Peacemaker, Jesus. Eventually the flood, brimstone, and Romans came. But until that time, there is hope for you and for all, this is the time of His visitation and the time to find comfort in Him. See from His tears that there still remains some time, much love and compassion, and forgiveness for all of your sins.