Tears

I’m not a Star Trek fan.  I only once watched a Star Trek movie.  I’d called on a parishioner who was our local ‘Trekkie”.  Theo had the complete collection of Star Trek movies.  Seeing his collection reminded me of something I’d read some days earlier about the emotions of Jesus.  The writer commented that some people see emotions as undesirable and then referred to Spock, who in one Star Trek episode said: “Emotions are alien to me.”

Well, Theo lent me the Star Trek movie that begins with Spock.  Spock has been undergoing a process of being purged of all emotions.  His goal is to shed all his emotions and be a purely logical person.  Spock is rewarded for reaching this high goal of emotionlessness.  Almost...!  At the last instant it’s discovered that something emotional still lingers.  So, Spock is going to have to go back and work at it some more.

Our human emotions are often treated with suspicion, aren’t they?  Tears are seen as weakness.  Emotions – according to some people – ought to be repressed.  Back when I was growing up it was often said: “Big boys don’t cry!”  Yet on Palm Sunday, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, Jesus weeps.  Read the story in Luke chapter-19.  Luke clearly shows us the emotions of Jesus.  Jesus cries.

Some people find that strange and even question the authenticity of this story.  Jesus should be like Spock in Star Trek.  Big boys don’t cry... and Jesus certainly shouldn’t.  But did you know that in the Bible we find three instances of Jesus weeping.

The most well know is when Jesus returns to Bethany after the death of his friend Lazarus.  It also happens to be the shortest verse in the English Bible.  It’s the verse in John chapter-11 that simply reads: “Jesus wept.”  People have tried to guess why Jesus wept but the point is that Jesus at that moment expresses his emotions.

Another reference to the tears of Jesus is in Hebrew 5:7.  It’s a fairly general comment that may refer to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The writer simply states that Jesus shed tears.
  During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears...!

And of course the third instance is this occasion on Palm Sunday as Jesus enters Jerusalem.  Jesus has emotions... also sad emotions... and he expresses those emotions.

In this instance Jesus’ grief even seems greater than at the tomb of Lazarus.  The two stories use two different words for crying.  In John’s gospel it’s a word that simply means to ‘shed tears’.  Silent tears flowed.  But here we have a much stronger word – a wailing kind of weeping.  Jesus is so overcome by sadness that he actually wails over Jerusalem.

These three instances of Jesus weeping show us that Spock in Star Trek got it wrong.  There’s nothing particularly desirable about being emotionless.  (Incidentally... if we shed all our emotions we’d also be unable to laugh.)  Spock is not the ideal for us... Jesus is.

This is one way in which the Bible highlights the true humanity of Jesus.  Jesus is God in human flesh.  The Bible teaches that he is true God and true man.  Some folk have problems with that.  I read of a Muslim who was considering Christianity.  His problem was that Jesus is called Emmanuel, God with us; God who has taken from the virgin Mary a truly human nature.  This Muslim couldn’t believe in a God who had to go to the toilet.  That would be below God’s dignity, surely?  But if he had thought about it, there are other factors that are just as difficult to accept.  This Jesus – God veiled in humanity – shares our emotions.  He weeps... not just once but three times.  And in this Easter season we remember that this God not only goes to the toilet and weeps but he even suffers and dies.

But consider the reason for his tears.  We shed tears for all kinds of reasons.  We cry when we hurt and we cry when we are sad.  We wail out of sheer frustration and particularly for the selfishness of our own losses.  But when did we last cry for someone else?

Jesus weeps out of compassion for a sin-sick humanity – even as he enters Jerusalem for the last time.  But he also enters Jerusalem to provide the remedy for that sin-sick humanity: His death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

John Westendorp