Jesus Wept (Jésus pleura) – James Tissot

"Jesus wept." – John 11:36

No two words are as precious as these.

The Lord of glory so identified with our suffering that He came to weep with us – and those tears led directly through Jerusalem and His triumphant entry on Palm Sunday to the Mount of Olives where He prayed through the agony of humanity, to the cross where He bore our sins.

There was a church hearing two prospective pastors or two consecutive Sundays. Neither had a great deal of time to prepare sermons, as they were farmers. So, without realizing it, both discovered the same old sermon by a pulpit master on the subject of hell.

They both figured that it was something that would work with this country church, the first because he knew he could preach it loud, long, and effectively with lots of "amen"s. The second did so because he sensed that there was a real need for this particular message in the community.

On the first Sunday, the farmer-pastor presented his message with great skill, fervor, fire, and delight. He was sure that the church would call him as pastor and he would be able to leave his plowing and preach the gospel full-time. However, to assess the “competition,” he showed up and sat semi-disguised in the balcony.

To his utter shock, the second preacher had “borrowed” the same sermon on hell and preached it adequately if not with all the smooth inflections of the first. In fact, he seemed a little hesitant and stumbled over the hard truths he presented.

The church met and called the second preacher who inquired as to why. “I happen to know that he preached the same sermon as I did and not as well.”

“That is true,” replied the pulpit committee chairman, “I have that book of sermons on my bookshelf, but the second man preached it with a tear in his eye.”

Our Savior weeps with us and for us. He knows our sorrows and cares.

And His heart is broken over every lost soul, wounded heart,  severed relationship, death, sickness, and injustice.

His desire is to gather all people to himself forever.

“Hallelujah! What a Savior!”