Jesus Wept, by AW Pink, 1950

Tears are one of the many consequences of sin.  When God made man, He did so with the preview of his fall. “Evident,” we say, for the provision of a tear-duct to the eye, shows that it was designed, among other things, for weeping. And what a marvelous production is the human eye. Not only marvelous in the delicacy and complexity of its mechanism but also in its manifold uses and services. That small but expressive organ can glow with pleasure, flash with anger, stare in wonderment, shrink with horror, and be so suffused with the tears of sorrow as to pour out a rivulet of grief.

It is not wrong to weep at certain times.

Nay, God has bidden us do so. “Weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15).  Although that is not to be restricted to the literal and outward act. Nor is weeping necessarily a mark of weakness or effeminacy, for the God-man wept. Weeping is a merciful provision of the Creator.  It has been rightly termed “nature’s safety valve.” As might well be expected, much is said in the Bible about weeping

“Jesus wept.” 

John 11:35 is the shortest and, in some respects, the most wonderful and blessed verse in the Bible. What an awe-inspiring spectacle it presents to us. The Lord of glory, shedding tears! What a mysterious phenomenon. The Maker of Heaven and earth, weeping! The more so since the Prince of Life knew that in a few minutes, He would raise Lazarus! Why then did He weep? Because God’s Son had been made like to His brethren “in all things” (Heb 2:17). He was partaking of their susceptibilities and emotions. As the perfect Man beheld the grief of the friends and sisters of Lazarus, He could not but be deeply moved and weep with them. His tears on this occasion were those of compassion.

The great High Priest of His people was giving proof that He was touched with the feeling of their infirmities. We believe Jesus stood by that grave, looked down the centuries, and beheld each Christian home visited by death. His weeping at Bethany assures bereaved saints, that He sympathizes deeply with them.  And He stands ready to pour the balm of Gilead into their sore hearts.

“Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear” (Heb 5:7).

Those were the tears of anguish…

telling us of the severity of the Savior’s sufferings. The “days of His flesh” signifies the whole period of His humiliation. The “vehement cries and tears” indicate the extent to which Christ felt the terrible burden laid upon Him. 

“Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews…by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Act 20:19, 31).

Those were the tears of ministerial love and urgency.

No merely professional or perfunctory service was that rendered by the apostle [Paul]. He had such a love for souls as made him say, “I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). No wonder the Lord gave him so many “seals” to his ministry! 

Let each servant of Christ who reads these lines, search his heart in the light of Acts 20:19, 31, and ask himself whether the absence of such “tears” is the explanation of the barrenness of his ministry.

It is written…

“Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy.” (Psalm 126:5)

And perhaps the day to come will show that the latter, is in exact proportion to the former.

Excerpt from “Tears” by AW Pink, September 1950