Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
Weeping for ourselves is honesty. Weeping for others is empathy.
Sometimes we are embarrassed by our own weeping. We are uncomfortable with the weeping of others. It is so real, so vulnerable, so raw.
"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 about the judgment of the wicked.
On the first Sunday, the farmer-pastor presented his message with great skill. 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.
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.”
Weeping for ourselves is honesty.
Weeping for others is empathy.
When we take the pain of the world into our hearts, excluding none, not even the wicked, we are entering the realm of Jesus' suffering and empathy. We are standing with Jesus and Jesus is living in us.
Weeping.
Our Savior weeps with us and for us. He knows our sorrows and cares. And His heart is broken over every lost or broken soul.
There is no gloating over our troubles. There is no ridicule. There is no lording over our weaknesses. There is no glossing over our journeys through the valley of dark shadows or the loneliness of the grave.
It is easy to say, "Jesus cares," but it is deeply personal to know that Jesus wept and that Jesus weeps.
“Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
Pastor Tom's Community 
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