And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children –Luk 23:27-28.
Our Lord began his preaching ministry in a rather usual fashion: in a church, reading from a passage of scripture, …And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears –Luk 4:21. Many sermons from parables to prophecies flowed from the lips of the Lord’s Anointed over the next three years, but never would we guess that His final message would end in such an abnormal fashion. The bruised, beaten, and bleeding Christ, upon being thoroughly molested and mocked, began the painstaking journey up the Via Dolorosa pathway to Golgotha. Tradition would tell us that He fell beneath His cross, but scripture does not confirm this. It is here that Jesus slows His pace to offer His last public address to the women at the side of the road bewailing His plight.
Luke is the only evangelist whose insight records this, as he often takes greater notice of the ministry of women in the life of Christ. It is from him alone that we learn of …Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance –Luk 8:3. It is from him that we learn of Gabriel’s visit to Mary and her inner thoughts concerning the virgin birth and her visit to Elizabeth; Anna the prophetess; the widow of Nain; the Lord’s anointing by the woman who was a sinner; and Mary and Martha’s sibling rivalry at Bethany. So it is little wonder that notice is made of the fulfillment of prophecy by the female gender—…they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem … And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; … and their wives apart; … and their wives apart; … and their wives apart; … every family apart, and their wives apart –Zec 12:10-14.
These wives apart being of the gentler nature are traditionally more capable of offering sympathy and tears than their male counterparts. Thus, who in time of sorrow could refuse their gentle touch, their passionate condolences, and their empathetic pity? Our Lord! He whom we oft find bestowing great compassion on the multitudes, certainly can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Yet herein is found the resisting and rebuking of the offerings of lamentation from His female encouragers. Has He become insensitive in His last hour? Since He is God’s own Son, the Lamb without blemish, we must not reckon it so.
Though their tears would seem rather to be chosen than the rabble cry for crucifixion, Christ pronounced their offering defective. We must distinguish this crowd of women to be a different sort than the …many women [who] were there beholding afar off… –Mat 27:55. I would suggest that these are Jerusalem sympathizers: professional weepers who would forget tomorrow that they had wept today. These fickle ladies, adept at making loud wailing, found their way to the house of Jairus before Christ’s arrival. When He pronounced that the dead was not dead, but [that she] sleepeth –Mar 5:39, they immediately ceased their weeping ado; And they laughed him to scorn… –Mar 5:40. This, of course, is but personal surmising, but the prophetic injunction consummating this discourse concerning the impending destruction of Jerusalem, and the evil days to come, were not directed to His followers (they were instructed to flee) but to the resistant Jews.
And so, He deftly rebukes them—Weep Not!
One will not decry their natural empathy. Our emotions are as fleeting as the environment that creates them. We can feel so tender at a given moment without an ounce of the Holy Ghost. We may assume that our passionate tears are flowing from a heart of flesh, but moisture may as well be condensed upon a cold heart of stone. Jesus admonishes them soundly for their weeping. This is not just a gentle reminder, “You shouldn’t worry about me, I’ll be OK.” We see here a forceful rebuke commanding them to weep not. Their well-meant tears were falling on unfruitful soil and Christ will not have it so. Jesus does not condemn sentimental expressions, and certainly does not denounce sympathy and weeping with and for others in their time of suffering. But the tears of these women were only muddying up the path, for they were shed for the injustice, personal loss, and pain they felt. They liked this man. He went about doing good deeds. They hoped that He would free them from Roman tyranny.
“A moment to give a loose to grief,
Let grateful sorrows rise,
And wash the bloody stains away
With torrents from your eyes.
Oh, come and mourn with me awhile;
Oh, come to the Savior’s side.
Oh come, together let us mourn:
Jesus, our Lord, is crucified.
Have we no tears to shed for Him,
While soldiers scoff and Jews deride?
Ah! Look how patiently He hangs;
Jesus, our Lord, is crucified.”
While these shortsighted ancient words call us to weep over our Lord, He himself does not. So oft we find ourselves in parallel situations and refuse to see our own renegade tears. We cry from the depths of pain wrought by emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental anguish. This is but natural. A Hollywood film or a frivolous novel may move us to the same condition of heart. Emotional sympathy excites no sin, but the farewell address of our Lord bids us to look elsewhere to plant our tears and so he beckons us to “weep not for me.”
When we behold the suffering of our Lord, we must look to something else—The Cross!
In His suffering for us, we must see that He is doing exactly what He voluntarily came to do—I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep … Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again –Joh 10: 11-17. While the band of women wailed and grieved, God looked down and smiled—Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied… –Isa 53:10-11. This current scene had long ago been instated …by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: –Act 2:23. Though Peter’s quick feelings rejected the mention of it, …but for this cause came I unto this hour –Joh 12:27. Like Peter, we weep and resist Christ carrying the timber for fear that we should have to shoulder it as well. Here is the God-ordained apex of human salvation and it was being met with regret. The Son had ‘set His face as a flint’ to conquer the sin of the world. Shall we dilute it with our tears? Herein we are called to a major paradigm shift.
Weep not over the crucifixion but consider our transgressions that nailed Him there. Weep not over the dying Savior but bewail the sinner. Shed no tears upon the surgeon’s knife but grieve the spreading tumor which that knife must cut away. Bewail not the remedy for sin but mourn for the root of it. Cherish not the old rugged cross but lament the old ribald cause. Christ willingly endured the cross for the joy set before Him. Spiritual wisdom will demand that we fling our intuitions to the wind and shout for joy. The cross in not an emblem demanding our sympathy but is the divine expression of His love for us. Jesus chose the cross, came for the cross, prayed for the cross, then ultimately conquered sin by personally experiencing the cross. This is no cause for weeping. Nowhere are we instructed to feel sorry for our Lord.
Our dying Lord exhorts us, Weep not for me, but weep for...
…Yourselves
We are the cause for such a livid scene, and every honest heart will lament and feel the sting for the pain that we have caused. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (Mar 15:34), is resting upon our own heads. His God forsook Him because of our transgressions. Our pride-stained relationships, presumption, and rebellion drove Him to such a plight.
‘Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were.
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.
‘Twas you that pulled the vengeance down
Upon His guiltless head:
Break, break, my heart, oh burst my eyes!
And let my sorrows bleed.
Strike, mighty grace, my flinty soul,
Till melting waters flow,
And deep repentance drowns
My eyes in sorrow and in woe.” –Watts
Funerals are a traditional cause for weeping. Each of us shall slowly pass by the bier and numbly stare into the corpse of our own sinful nature staring back at us. All the vain things that have charmed us most lay mortified within the vault. Our final tear-stained farewell must be said to self-love, self-interest, self-centeredness, self-confidence, and self-pity as we stretch to entertain the final words of our Lord.
Thus, might I hide my blushing face,
While His dear cross appears.
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears. –Watts
…Your Children
Not only are we accountable for the Roman spear that pierced His side, but we must consider the Jews who spoke on our behalf that notable day—…His blood be on us, and on our children –Mat 27:25. How little we have considered the thundercloud of divine wrath that we have evoked upon our children. Many parents will pass off the neglected responsibility that they have toward the spiritual wellbeing of their offspring. None of us can change the mistakes that we have made in the training of our children, but the least we can do is spend our days weeping over the poor example we have been and difficulty we have created for their conversion. As the environment around us continues to decay and crumble, we should carefully and tearfully consider their future at every turn. Job did. How much more should we? …when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof … Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness –Eze 14: 13-20.
…The Sin of the Nation
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? –Luk 23: 29-31.
In the remnant portion of His message, Christ prophesies of the coming national destruction of Jerusalem. This abomination brought Jerusalem to desolation in 70 A.D. and no atrocity has surpassed it since. Our own nation stands on the brink of the judgment of God and what shall our portion be? Shall we spend our hours lobbying for better leaders, religious perseverance, and anti-abortion/anti-gay agendas? We would better spend our time alongside Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, and countless others confessing our sin and the sin of our people Israel, and presenting our supplication before the LORD our God. (see Daniel 9:4-20)
…Fellow Believers
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people –Jer 9:1. We need not look far to be disappointed by the lives of our fellow believers, for some are already turned aside after Satan –1Ti 5:15. It takes no spiritual mind to judge and label such folly. It is perfectly natural to become sarcastic, shake the head, and proclaim their error unto others. It takes love and concern to shed the penitential tear on their behalf. King Saul had turned back from following the Lord and …it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night –1Sa 15:11.
…Impenitent Sinners
Those of us who can find tears for the dying Saviour should indeed reserve them for the souls to whom death is but the beginning of evils. These souls carry in their bosom the instrument of their own destruction. Sin is the cross to which the soul will be fastened, and habits and depravities are the nails! The soul is bearing its sin, and loving to bear it! Look, it is going to execution, but at each step it laughs! Every step it takes is bearing it towards hell, and yet it makes mirth! Lo, the infatuated one scoffs at the voice that warns him, and every scoff he utters is increasing his guilt! Look forward to its end, its never-ending end; look forward to it steadily, with calm and tearful gaze – is it not an awful spectacle? But what if you should be beholding yourselves as in a vision, or seeing your child in the glass of prophecy? If it is your case, I beseech you repent of your sins, bewail your condition, and fly to Christ for shelter! And if it is your child, give heaven no rest; plead continually at the throne of grace till you have brought down a blessing from God upon your offspring! Never cease to pray until your sons and your daughters are safely landed on the Rock of Ages, and so secured there that they will need no other rock to hide them in the day when Christ shall come. –unknown
…Eternal Tears
Several years ago, hordes of humanity flocked the theaters and wept at Mel Gibson’s motion picture—The Passion of Christ—but few wept over their own sin. Many will say, “Lord, Lord, did I not weep at the scene? Did I not bewail your pathetic condition?” Jesus wept in Gethsemane, over Jerusalem, and at the tomb of Lazarus. But Christ’s tears were eternal and void of every wrongful motive and selfish intent. How natural to soak our couch with tears when our feelings are hurt. We fight pangs of pity at the loss of a loved one or our reputation. These are earthly tears. If God were to …put thou my tears into thy bottle… –Psa 56:8, what would He label it? For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death –2Co 7:10.
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