LUKE 19:41-44: And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “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 answer is likely “yes”, maybe not today, but we have in the past and we will in the future. And there are many types of tears. We shed tears of sorrow, grief, happiness, sadness, pain, and joy to name a few. But what about the tears we observe in the Lord Jesus today?
In today’s scripture, the Triumphant Entry of Jesus is beginning. He is headed to Jerusalem; the city of God, the place where the final acts of His painful work of our salvation are about to occur. But there is another reason for the weeping of our Lord. In less than forty years Jerusalem would be destroyed. One feels His heart aching over what is about to happen and the people’s blindness to this event. Little did they know their beloved city would be invaded and left in ruin.
However, underlying the physical reasons for the shed tears of our Lord is the people’s rejection of Him. A far greater danger looms beyond the literal destruction of their homes. The refusal to embrace Him, the Prince of Peace, and their Messiah would bring eternal consequences of horrific proportion. And the Lord wept over their lost souls.
What about us? Shed any tears lately for lost sinners? Unsaved family members, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers serving us through drive-thru windows, in grocery stores and banks? Not only did Jesus but surely did the Apostle Paul over his lost kin in the physical realm. The text implies so by the condition of Paul’s heart toward the lost, I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh(Romans 9:1-3). It is a sign of healthy Christianity to weep for souls. Conversely, it is a very unhealthy mark of spiritual sickness should we not have a heavy burden for the lost all around us.
So, what do we do? A couple of things. First, if we are “tear-less” and “burden-less” for those outside of Christ, seek the Lord by way of confession and repentance for this self-centered blindness toward lost sinners. Another thing to do in prayer is ask God to let us see sinners as He does; beg Him to give us a heart like His to those outside His Son. And finally, be an answer to our prayers by taking the Gospel to the lost. It might be a tract, book, or other material given about Jesus and His Gospel, or seizing the opportunity to verbally share Christ. Whatever the means, put “feet” or action to our tears and burdens for lost sinners.
Shed any tears lately? I hope we do and not just for ourselves.
PRAYER: “Father, develop within me a burden for the lost; to see the world as You and Your Son do.”
QUOTE: “Christians are left in this world for God’s glory and Gospel; to shine His glory and proclaim His Gospel.”