Introduction
One of the themes running through the entire Gospel of Luke is the compassion Jesus Christ had for people…all kinds of people.
Jews, Gentiles (Non-Jews), different ethnic groups, Government workers, tax collectors, sinners, and outcasts of society.
It didn’t seem to matter who you were or where you had come from, if you were an under-dog, you were a candidate to receive Christ’s compassion.
If ever there was a person with a tender heart toward others, it is Jesus Christ.
It’s been said, "The eyes are the window to the soul."
When you and I look deeply into the eyes of another human being, we can see much about that person.
Sometimes, when we look into another’s eyes, we see “a gleam”.
My mother used to say that some people smile with their eyes.
Other times, when we look into another’s eyes we see “a deep sadness” that comes from seeing your fair share of troubled days.
But perhaps nothing is more revealing than when you and I look into another person’s eyes and see tears.
Sometimes tears of joy. Sometimes tears of sadness.
Today I want to talk with you on the subject:
“What Made Jesus Cry?”
There are two instances recorded for us in the Scripture where Jesus cried.
And not just a little. But actually burst into tears and wept like a baby.
One of those instances, as you might well imagine, occurred while Jesus stood at the gravesite of a friend.
That is recorded for us in John 11:28-35.
The second recorded instance of Jesus crying was under a different set of circumstances.
And we find this record in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 19:41-44.
I want us to look at what it was that made Jesus break down into tears.
Perhaps you’ve never heard that Jesus Christ cried.
In fact, crying may be something that you are not accustomed to.
You may associate crying with weakness.
May be phrases like:
“You quit your crying or I’ll give you something to cry about”
Or “Stop it you crybaby” are things you’ve heard or even said.
But I want you to know that there never has been a manlier man than Jesus Christ.
He was a carpenter by trade, which meant that he was no sissy.
He was physically strong, and his hands were no doubt rough and calloused from working with wood all his life.
He knew how to use a hammer and nails and how to build things.
He was a man’s man.
And yet, we read in Luke 19:41-44 these words:
“Now, as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.”
Just BURST INTO TEARS and cried with such vulnerability that it must have startled the disciples that were with him.
Perhaps there was a little bit of an awkward moment like there is when someone you’re talking with begins to cry and you’re not sure whether to say something or just remain silent.
I’m sure the men and women around him weren’t sure what to do.
I’m sure they wondered what was wrong, what was making their master cry?
Well, let me ask you a question this morning.
What makes you cry?
What sorts of things get to you and cause you to well up with tears?
I know that since Nicole gave birth to Ethan she has experienced a real change.
I’ve seen my wife cry more since giving birth to our son than during the entire time we were dating.
She tells me that ever since she had a child of her own, she’s more sensitive to the pain and suffering of other children.
I’m sure you mothers can understand.
For me personally, thinking about my dad can bring me to tears.
I think about what’s going to happen when he dies and whether I will have known him the way I wanted to.
It’s something I want to work on because I love him.
Jesus was also crying for a reason.
I want to share with you the reasons He gave for his tears.
There are two of them.
Look with me at verse 41:
“Now, as he drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 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.”
The First Reason…
1. JESUS CRIED… BECAUSE WHEN HIS PEOPLE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY THEY REJECTED IT.
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If only you had known…” – V.41a
We know from Luke 19:28-36 that Jesus was riding on a colt into the city of Jerusalem.
His disciples were walking along side of him as he made his way toward the city of Jerusalem.
Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem because that’s where the cross was.
And going to the cross to die for the sins of humanity was the reason for his life.
Luke says:
“Now as He drew near, He saw the city…”
Jesus was coming down a hill that leads into Jerusalem and most likely when he began to descend down the hill his eyes were able to see the entire landscape of the city.
I remember when I was attendeding school at Liberty University, there was a hill that sat next to the University and you could go up to the top of it.
And from the top of the hill you could see the entire university as well as most of the city of Lynchburg, VA.
It was really breathtaking.
And I think that when Jesus made it to the top of the hill he looked out over Jerusalem.
Luke says that when he saw the city, “He wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace’!” – V.42
Some take the words, “If you had known” as Jesus saying, “Oh, if only you had known.”
The way Jesus says it implies that they could have known, if they had so chosen.
But that they did not choose to see the truth nor to take advantage of the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
They had that opportunity but chose to reject it.
Jesus says that they rejected the things that make for peace.
Jesus used a word here for peace that refers to bliss or happiness.
He’s saying that you had the opportunity to be happy and to have real joy in your life.
The people of Jerusalem were offered peace and happiness, but they said, “No”.
The people of Jerusalem were visited by God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ but chose not to accept Him.
They were given the opportunity of a lifetime.
Jesus did for them what he did for no other group of people.
• He chose the Jews to be His chosen people.
• He cared for them like a father does his very own child.
• He came to them and did not make them come to him.
• He would soon birth the church in that great city of Jerusalem.
• He would soon die for their sins and yet…
They rejected him.
And it broke his heart.
And it made him cry.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES…they made Jesus sad then and they still make Him sad today.
Hebrews 13:9 says:
“Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
If they bothered him then they bother him now, because He never changes.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES STILL BREAK JESUS’ HEART!
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES…for some of you, that’s your middle name.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IS THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE.
You’ve had chance after chance to receive Jesus Christ into your heart, but you’ve said, “No” every time.
Whenever a person is given the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ into their heart and they don’t take it, it saddens Jesus.
Whenever Christians have the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus’ death, burial and Resurrection with someone who needs to hear it, but they don’t take it, it saddens Jesus.
Our church is giving each of our members a golden opportunity to invite some friends to church in two weeks.
Are you going to take that opportunity or are you going to miss it?
Look, no one can guarantee that your friend will say, “Yes”.
I’ve asked my friend. But there’s no guarantee that he’ll come.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t at least try.
All of us can do it.
Let’s not shrink back. Don’t cop out. Don’t get scared. Stand up. Speak up. And be bold with your faith in Jesus.
This is an opportunity your friend cannot afford for you to pass up!
The Second Reason…
2. JESUS CRIED… BECAUSE WHEN HIS PEOPLE REJECTED HIM, THEY SUFFERED FOR IT!
Jesus cried, not because He suffered but because His people suffered.
Now, GET THIS…
Jesus didn’t cry because when his people rejected Him it wounded His pride or shattered his ego.
When Jesus grieves over being rejected by others, he doesn’t grieve because of what it does to Him, but because of what it does to the other person.
Jesus wept because the Jewish people suffered.
You say what did they suffer?
The same thing you and I and our family and friends suffer whenever we reject Jesus Christ, whether as our Savior or our Lord.
We suffer from unhappiness.
Jesus said, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!”
They could have had peace, but they missed it.
And because they didn’t have peace, they suffered from unhappiness in the present.
There’s nothing more miserable than not knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior.
As I said in an earlier sermon, every day Americans consume 15 tons of Aspirin.
Why? Because we don’t know Jesus. We’re anxious, stressed and unhappy.
Some of you, the reason you don’t have peace is because you don’t know Jesus.
If you want to be truly happy and know real peace of mind, you need to know today that you won’t find it
• at the bottom of a bottle or
• at the end of a joint, or
• even in the arms of another person.
You can only find it in knowing Jesus personally.
And these Jews suffered.
Not only did they suffer from unhappiness in the present, they also suffered from a hopeless future.
Jesus goes on to say:
“For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another…” – V.43-44
Now, this is actually a prophecy by Jesus of an event that would happen in the near future to the Jews.
Here, Jesus prophecies that an army would siege Jerusalem and that the people would be taken captive and slaughtered.
The book of Luke was written most likely between A.D.60-61.
We know from World History that in 70 A.D, the Roman Army Commander Titus, ordered his soldiers to dig up the city.
And the whole compass of it was leveled except for three towers.
In other words, it happened just as Jesus said it would.
Now, Jesus says the reason all of this happened is “because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Again, you rejected me and that is why you will suffer.
People who reject Jesus Christ not only suffer from unhappiness, but also from hopelessness.
The truth is…there is no future without Jesus.
When you and I say, “No” to Jesus, we say, “Yes” to His enemies.
Rejecting Jesus makes you vulnerable.
You open yourself up to your enemies when you decide not to take Jesus side.
Now, we Christians have a spiritual enemy much more terrible than any Roman army.
His name is Satan.
And he is looking for the souls of men and women.
He is our enemy.
When we reject Jesus, we open our lives up to Satan just as these Jews opened themselves up to the Romans.
Not only that, but our children are affected by our sin.
The enemy is out for them as well.
And all of this, friends, made Jesus sad.
So sad, that the only way He could express His deep emotions was to weep.
Contrary to popular opinion, God does not sit in Heaven and laugh at human suffering.
He is saddened by it. It causes him grief to see people suffering.
Today, maybe you’re here and you’re suffering.
Suffering from grief, loneliness, depression, anxiety.
You need to know this morning that Jesus knows what you’re a feeling.
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15
He knows what it feels like to hurt.
And He hurts with you.
He loves you so much. If you’re His child today, you are so much a part of him and he is so much a part of you that when you hurt He hurts.
Conclusion:
I want to point out one last thing this morning.
That Jesus wept is interesting in light of the fact that all around him, the disciples were rejoicing.
Look back with me at verse 37 of Ch.19.
It says:
“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, saying:
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!”
These disciples were basking in their knowledge of their coming king, but Jesus wasn’t laughing.
He was crying.
While Jesus is crying, the disciples were laughing.
What that tells me is that they did not understand the gravity of the situation.
Have you ever heard the expression:
You can be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good?
Well, these disciples were saying, “Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest”, while Jesus was thinking about the lack of peace on earth.
These disciples were a lot like you and me.
They weren’t thinking of the people in the city, they were thinking only of how Jesus’ coming would affect them personally.
Jesus on the other hand was concerned about the lost people in the city.
Today, so many of us are caught up in our own knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we can’t seem to stop and see that people all around us don’t know him.
We’re caught up in whether or not the Pastor’s sermon is feeding us, while our friends and neighbors and co-workers are spiritually starving.
We’re asking, “Hey, Jesus, what have you done for me lately?”
While the hour is getting late and the opportunity for people to know Jesus is slipping away.
Folks, if there’s one challenge I can offer you this morning it’s this:
Open your eyes to the people of this city.
Draw near to them and let God make you sensitive to their need of salvation.
The bible says:
“Today is the day of salvation.”
Jesus said:
“If you had known, even you, especially in this your day.”
It was their day for salvation.
For some of you sitting here this morning, this is your day to receive Jesus into your heart.
There’s no better time than the present.
Fling open the door of your heart to Christ and ask Him to come into your life and forgive you for the sins you’ve committed.
Trust Him and Him alone to get you to Heaven.
In 1947, a young American Protestant minister named Robert (Bob) Pierce traveled to China to make a movie about the Christian missions there.
He was devastated by the poverty he saw. One child especially upset him – a battered and hungry young girl named White Jade.
Her father had beaten her and kicked her out of the house because she had visited the local mission school. The school could not afford to take her in.
Dr. Pierce gave the school principal his last five dollars, and promised to send more each month to help support the young girl.
Pierce then traveled to Korea, where a war was leaving thousands of children and adults without homes, food, water and medical care. Many children had lost their parents.
Pierce felt called by God to help them. He returned to the United States, and on September 22, 1950, established a new organization called World Vision, to help meet the needs of children and their families in Southeast Asia.
Back in Korea, he began to film the orphaned and homeless children who had so touched his heart - one at a time.
He showed the film to church groups across America, and invited their members to help the Korean orphans the way he had helped White Jade, by making monthly donations for a single child.
This was the beginning of the World Vision child sponsorship program, which each year helps thousands of children in poor countries around the world.
In Korea, Dr. Pierce penned 14 words in his prayer journal that have now become famous throughout the world.
14 words that have been repeated and prayed over and over again by thousands of dedicated Christians.
He wrote this prayer in his journal:
“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”
Does your heart brake for people who don’t have Jesus?
When was the last time you wept for a friend, a neighbor or a co-worker?
I ask you today to ask God to break your heart with those things that break His heart.
Will you pray with me right now?
Communion/The Lord’s Supper
