The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe….
"Jesus Wept"
The shortest verse in the Bible may provide the greatest measure of light regarding the heart of God toward human beings.
"Jesus wept" (John 11:35).
Students of Scripture have long considered reasons for the tears of the Lord Jesus. Certainly He wept because His friend Lazarus died. He also shed tears because Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, so deeply grieved. It may also be the case that our Savior cried because of their unbelief regarding His capacity to do something to help the situation. Both sisters expressed the same mournful resignation to the death of Lazarus: "If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (John 11:21; 32). Certainly these conjectures all offer possible explanations for why "Jesus wept" as they bear witness to His loving and compassionate heart.
However, another way of looking at the Lord's weeping draws us even further into the the wonder of His emotional involvement with us, namely, the simple fact that the Lord Jesus could shed tears. Our Savior had to become human for that physical reality to occur. The Word had to be made flesh and dwell among us (John 1:14). The Lord Jesus left the glories of pure Divinity in order to become the God who became man, and the man who remains God. What sacrifice characterizes such condescension? Indeed, when we rightly ponder the enormity of agony experienced by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary, we do well to remember that His title as "Man of sorrows" also references His departure from a wondrous Heaven to enter a fallen world for our sake (Isaiah 53:3). Yes, the fact that our Lord could weep opens a portal into the heart of God through which glorious light shines forevermore. "We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, and yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
In the Old Testament, Solomon rightly wondered how God could live in a temple constructed of earthly measure and material (I Kings 8:27). Even more, the New Testament beckons us to behold the mystery of Divinity and humanity united in the most wondrous and winsome of all beings.
"Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).
We will never fully know how eternally monumental a sacrifice the Lord Jesus made to enrobe Himself with a humanity He will never relinquish. He will always be human as our mediator between God and ourselves. He will always be able to feel what we feel as human beings, including both our joys and our sorrows. The day will come when the latter will be erased from our heart and the sad things of earth remembered no more. Never, however, will a day come when our Savior will not feel the sacrifice of becoming human for us. Certainly He rejoices in the gain of having done so. However, the wounds of Calvary still mar His resurrected body to bear witness to the wonder of He who has "borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "Jesus wept." Two words, comprising the shortest verse in Scripture. Never, however, will we fully comprehend the meaning and measure of love to which they bear witness.
"Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side, and be not faithless, but believing."
(John 20:27)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath give us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work."
(II Thessalonians 2:16-17)
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