WHY DID JESUS CRY
JOHN 11 vs.35 & Luke 19 vs. 41
? One of the themes running through the entire Gospel of Luke is the compassion Jesus Christ had for people (all kinds of people). Jews, Greek, Gentiles, name them.
• 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 always second best, you were a candidate to receive Christ’s compassion.
• This is why Jesus says, I came for the lost.
? It was only Jesus who had a tender heart toward others.
? We all know that 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”.
• It is in the eyes that you see joy, or sadness.
• Other times, when we look into another’s eyes we see “a deep sadness” that comes from seeing your fair share of troubled days.
• Sometimes tears of joy.
• Sometimes tears of sadness.
? Today I want us to look on the subject: “What Made Jesus Cry?”
? There are two instances recorded in the Scripture where Jesus cried.
• And not just a little. But actually burst into tears and wept.
• One of those instances occurred while Jesus stood at the gravesite of a friend (Lazarus) (John 11 vs. 28-35)
• The second recorded instance was of Jesus crying over Jerusalem (Luke 19 vs.41-44).
? I want us to look at what it was that made Jesus break down into tears.
• Maybe you’ve never heard that Jesus Christ cried.
o Crying may be something that you are not used to.
o Other’s cry at church to look holy
o Other’s cry because they are sorry for their sins
o Yet the smart (youth) would say, I’m not the crying type you know
o You may associate crying with weakness.
o But I want you to know that there never has been a man like Jesus Christ.
? 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 worried the disciples that were with him.
? 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?
? Luke 19 vs. 41-44
• “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 why JESUS cried was, 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.
• Yet the people he was about to die for, were actually rejecting him.
• He had come that we may have life, but we were actually rejecting him
? I then look at our lives today
• Jesus weeps over us
• I wonder how he feels when he looks at his hands
o The scars in his hands
o The scars on his feet
o All scars of healing
o All scars of an abundant life
o All scars of living a good life
• Some of us do not have that life
o Because we do not believe
o Jesus weeps at you today
o Because of un belief
o Today you hear the word of God
o Tomorrow you are looking for other solutions somewhere
o When God says you are rich, he means it
o But you, you do not believe
o And so Jesus is pained
o He weeps
? The bible 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.
• The bible 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
• “If you had known” as Jesus saying, “Oh, if only you had known.”
o The way Jesus says it implies that they could have known, if they had so chosen.
o But that they did not choose to see the truth or to take advantage of the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
• You have that opportunity today
o An opportunity to choose what is best in you
o An opportunity to choose life
o To accept the good that the Lord has given you
o To stop the doubting and follow faith
o 2014 is your year
o Stop doubting and follow the way of faith
• Without faith it is impossible to please God
o God is never pleased at faithless people
o God weeps when he sees the good you are supposed to have and do not coz of doubt
o You hear someone today saying, this is my sickness
o I will ask you, did you bring to the world
o Did you bring a seed of that disease
o Develop faith and start pleasing God today
? The people in Jerusalem had that opportunity but chose to reject it.
• Jesus says that they rejected the things that make for peace.
o Jesus used a word here for peace that refers to bliss or happiness.
o He’s saying that you had the opportunity to be happy and to have real joy in your life
o The people of Jerusalem were offered peace and happiness, but they said, “No”.
o The people of Jerusalem were visited by God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ but chose not to accept Him.
o They were given the opportunity of a lifetime.
? Jesus looked at them and burst In tears
• He would soon die for their sins and yet…
• They rejected him.
• And it broke his heart.
• And it made him cry.
• He had come that they may have a life in abundance but hey
• They refused that opportunity
? MISSED OPPORTUNITIES was what the people of Jerusalem got
• They made Jesus sad then and they still make Him sad today.
• Hebrews 13:9 “Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
• MISSED OPPORTUNITIES STILL BREAK JESUS’ HEART!
• For some of you, it has become a nick name.
• It has become a story of your life time
o If I had done this that time
o If I had gone there during that time
o It is a story of “if” I had
? The Second Reason why JESUS CRIED was 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.
? Someone may 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 Saviour or our Lord.
o We suffer from unhappiness.
o There is no peace in the house
o Fighting every now and again
• 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.
• If you want to be truly happy and know real peace of mind, you need to know today that you won’t find it
o at the bottom of a bottle or
o at the end of a joint, or
o Even in the arms of another person.
• You can only find it in knowing Jesus personally.
? 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.
? 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.
• When you and I say, “No” to Jesus, we say, “Yes” to His enemies.
o You have become vulnerable to the enemy.
o You open yourself up to your enemies when you decide not to take Jesus side.
? Today, maybe you’re here and you’re suffering.
• Suffering from grief, loneliness, depression, anxiety
• You need to know that Jesus knows what you’re a feeling.
• Heb 4vs. 15 say “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.”
• 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.
