Tears, Suffering, Sorrow, & Grief
No tears in heaven
When I was in seminary, there was a friend I had named Charles Tear. His brother’s name was Rusty Tear. Ick, rusty tears! Why would anyone name their kid that! Every time I heard his name I thought of rusty tears! Anyway, Charles once gave his testimony of how he got saved. He said the pastor once preached there would be no tears in heaven. He was so grief stricken that he went to the pastor afterwards and balling and asked why he couldn’t go to heaven? And the pastor let him know that that’s not what the verse meant, and Charles then understood how to be saved and the pastor led him in a sinner’s prayer! Whenever I hear that there will be no tears in heaven, I can’t help but think about my friend Charles Tear! So, yeah Charles and his brother Rusty were both saved and so yes, in a way, there will be Tears in heaven, so to speak.
Brother Suffer
When I was in seminary, there was a preacher, I forgot his name now, but everyone knew him as “brother suffer”! When he preached, he would talk about how it was good to suffer! But whenever he would say the word suffer, he would put a big accent on it like “SuffErrrrrrrrr”! It was sort of comical but weird at the same time. He would say things like we have it too easy these days and launch into many examples of how we should Sufffffeeeerrrrr! One example I remember was him saying that we have it too easy sitting in padded chairs and that in his day, he had to sit on trees that were split in half for pews! Wow! That couldn’t be comfortable. He would give us a history lesson on how hard he had it in his day and how that tempered him into the person he was today! And even though I don’t want to learn good and bad from the school of hard knocks like he did, I can certainly get his point on how suffering had tempered and molded him. Often these days we are all too soft and not strong at all, snowflakes really that melt at the slightest bad thing that happens. If you wanted to, not that I’m advising it, on YouTube you can see an endless list of videos of people freaking out in a temper tantrum like a toddler over the slightest of offense as if the world had ended for them! I hope none of you launch into temper tantrums like that! Perhaps some people need to SuFFFFeeer a bit to mature some!
Sorrow is good?
You know, we have all probably had sorrow in our lives. Even though sorrow is not something I wish to ever go through, the effects of it change us and somehow make us see things we might not have otherwise. Like it makes us recognize that sometimes we don’t know what we have until it’s gone. So tell those around you that you love them before it’s too late! Sorrow can also make us stronger after we have passed through the fire so to speak and the next time, perhaps a situation won’t take our heart off guard as easily. However, being careful not to let things harden our hearts, tho. If you can’t “sorrow”, then there’s something wrong with you! Even Jesus was sorrowful. One of the shortest verses in the Bible tells us how Jesus was so moved and even wept because Lazarus, Mary and Martha’s brother, had died. John 11:35 Jesus wept. In fact it was even prophesied that the Messiah would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”!
Isaiah 53:1-6
1 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
Jesus was a man of sorrows - because He cared!
Isaiah 53 are some beautiful Messianic verses that we see in the Old testament. It’s hard to think about Jesus being a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. We just like to think of Jesus as being all warm and loving and squishy with a beard and long hair. But yeah, he was a cryer! He cared about people. And He cared a lot! But not only that He was strong enough to take it. The Bible tells us that He wants us to share our cares with Him because He cares for us!
1 Peter 5:6,7
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
He cares about our cares! Isn’t it good to know that God cares for us? Of course it is!
So, where does all this suffering, sorrow, and grief come from? I guess it could come from anywhere, however the Bible says there is a “Godly sorrow” and a “worldly sorrow”!
2 Corinthians 7:10
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Godly Sorrow vs Worldly Sorrow - love vs. sin/greed?
Isn’t that interesting. I would like to think that “Godly sorrow” comes from love and we know love is one of the spiritual gifts. So if you love, which you should, be prepared, because true sorrow only comes when there is true love. Even more, we know that God is love, and Jesus was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, because, since we know He is God and God is love, then He loved very much, and sorrowed very much also.
Worldly sorrow, I’m guessing, doesn't come from love but comes from sin and greed like losing all your money and being upset about that. Sort of like what happened to the rich young ruler, he went away sad and wouldn’t be saved because he didn’t want to lose his wealth! You know, if you had to choose between losing all of your money or being saved, I’d think being saved is the way to go!
These sad things tempers and prepares us - drilling a platoon hard
I’ve heard that a drill sergeant was making his platoon drill really hard during basic training. One person watching, seeing this, remarked, how mean is that sergeant is drilling them so hard? He should not be doing that! The person next to him remarked, on the contrary, imagine how terrible it would be if the platoon had it easy and then be put on a battlefield unprepared! Sometimes we have to suffer for a reason. Sometimes we wonder why God lets us go through things like suffering, sorrow, and grief. There may be many reasons, but often these things teach us things we could learn no other way.
James 1:2,3
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Let Jesus be our example! Sorrowful? Maybe. Suffering? Maybe. Grief stricken? Maybe. Suffering? Maybe. Enduring these things, like Jesus did. Even when we don’t want to.
Hebrews 12:1,2
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
At some point, we too must come to a shocking realization that we are sinners! The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. The Bible also says that the wages of sin is death! Of course, death actually even further means the second death which is the place assigned for the Devil and his fallen angels. You do not want to go there!
Jesus sorrows for this dying world - borne our grief, carried our sorrows - godly sorrow
Imagine, that right now, Jesus is sorrowing for this lost and dying world! Imagine the grief He has had to deal with all those who are eternally lost. But also, imagine all the suffering that He went through on the cross and leading up to the cross and was willing to go through it all for you because He wanted to save you and take the penalty for you. I could list how gruesome the cross was that He went through for you but I’ll not do that today. You’ll have to research it yourself if you don’t already know. But suffice it to say it was no small thing He did for you!
He did all He could do to save you because He loves you - turn to Him!
He went through all of that because He cares for you so much! He wishes that none should perish! All you have to do is accept His free gift of salvation. Sin requires a penalty. You can either take the penalty yourself for all eternity or you can let Him be the atonement for your sins. How can you say no to Jesus when He is so sorrowful, grief stricken, and He suffered so much for you? Imagine, His tear stained eyes just for you! He knows that if you won’t accept His salvation, because the wages of your sin requires a penalty, sometimes called the second death. He can do nothing else to help you and your sinful self cannot save yourself and you’d be lost for all eternity. Jesus wishes that none should perish but we also don’t want to see you perish! We are here sharing this message of good news of His salvation because we don’t wish to see anyone lost either! Not only that but he died so that you would no longer be enslaved to sin and are given the newness of life (Rom 6) and bring unity with God and you (Eph 4). There’s a cloud of witnesses above us now that also don’t wish to see anyone lost! It’s all on you. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!
The true peace that passes understanding - comes from knowing what Jesus did!
Peace comes from knowing that we don’t have to work to be perfect! You’ll never achieve salvation or perfection through works. Sorrowful for sin and glad for salvation! Peace comes from knowing that Jesus’ work on the cross paid in full our debt and that we no longer have to worry about being good enough to save ourselves, although we should try to be good regardless Eph 2:10. With his wounds we are healed!
Philippians 4:6,7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Did you see that? Peace that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds? Tears, Suffering, Sorrow, and sadness takes its toll, but peace does the opposite and even guards your hearts and minds! How can you be sad when you are at peace?
There will be peace in Heaven - No Tears, death, sorry, crying, pain
Revelation 21:3,4
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Imagine that someday, if you’ve accepted His salvation, you’ll be in heaven and God Himself will wipe away every tear. There will be no tears in Heaven (except for my friends with the last name Tears)! No more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain. What a day that will be!
