Graced With Tears

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 13, 2016

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Graced With Tears

John 11:35

“Jesus began to weep.”

“Jesus began to cry.”

“Jesus burst into tears.”

“Jesus wept.”’

This is our text from John’s Gospel,

in different translations.

It is a text that is often referred to as

the shortest text,

the briefest verse to be found in the entire Bible.

That distinction misses the point of the text, though:

Jesus wept.

Jesus, the Son of God,

the Son of Man,

the Messiah,

the Savior,

found emotion overwhelming him

until tears began to run down his face,

tears washing the dust from his cheeks,

tears soaking his beard.

Tears of grief, profound, wrenching grief.

This is not the only time

we read of Jesus weeping.

Luke tells us that as

Jesus approached Jerusalem,

on that first Palm Sunday, he wept,

wept, for the city and its people,

“saying, “If you, even you,

had only recognized on this day

the things that make for peace!”

(Luke 19:42)

But they didn’t;

the people didn’t care.

They were too caught up in their own lives,

chasing security, comfort.

So, Jesus wept in despair.

Our Lord felt deep emotion,

reflecting his full humanity:

He felt joy;

He felt anger;

and Jesus also felt grief;

Jesus also felt despair.

Jesus wept,

wept as we all do.

Jesus shed tears,

as we all do,

for tears express our deepest emotion.

Tears come most quickly

when we’ve suffered a loss,

especially the loss of a loved one:

the death of a spouse,

a parent,

a child,

a sibling,

a dear friend,

even a beloved pet.

Women cry

and yes, men cry,

there is nothing unseemly

about a man crying;

Jesus shows us that.

Tears are not a sign of weakness;

they are sign of feeling,

of emotion.

Tears are a gift God has graced us with,

not a burden to be overcome.

Tears reflect love,

Tears reflect our connection with one another,

our intimacy, one person to another.

our hopes, our dreams, our fears.

Tears reflect the godliness that is within us,

given us by the grace of God;

the godliness that is love,

that is compassion, that is concern

for ourselves and one another;

that is hope, that is joy,

for ourselves and one another.

Tears don’t come just with grief,

sadness, or despair, of course;

They can come with joy,

elation, happiness:

The birth of a child;

a daughter’s graduation;

a father’s retirement.

I suspect that there were tears of happiness

shed last Sunday for the fictional Lady Edith,

when she finally stood before the altar

and exchanged vows with her Bertie

in the final episode of Downton Abbey.

After 6 years of unhappiness, misfortune,

and lost opportunities, loyal viewers were

moved to tears that Edith,

at long last, stood beaming in joy and hope.

Tears can transform us.

When Peter heard the rooster crow

in the cold dawn following Jesus’ arrest,

Jesus’ words to him from the night before

came flooding into Peter’s mind:

“This very night,

before the cock crows,

you will deny me three times.”

(Matthew 26:34)

When Peter remembered those words

he broke down and wept,

“wept bitterly”

(Matthew 26:75)

despairing of his cowardice,

his weakness.

        

And yet, the tears were surely cathartic,

washing away a part of his cowardice

washing away more of his doubts, his hesitancy.

Peter’s tears surely helped transform him

for what Jesus had hoped he would do:

“strengthen his brother apostles”

(Luke 22:32)

strengthen them for the mission

and work that lay ahead,

work that could not be slowed by fear,

by doubt,

by cowardice.

The mighty King David wept in despair

numerous times,

as those of you who are reading

through the Psalms as part of your

Year of the Bible reading

have already found out.

Tears for David were cathartic as well,

for he knew that God was with him

even in his despair,

saying as much in Psalm 56:

“you have kept count of my tossings;

put my tears in your bottle”

(Psalm 56:8)

David held hope,

confident that with God

his tears would in time give way to joy.

This is God’s gift to us

that hope will sprout from tears,

even the most bitter tears of despair and grief,

even tears shed in the face of death.

Jesus showed us just that

as the sun dried his tears,

when he called his beloved friend

Lazarus from the grave,

reminding Lazarus’s sisters Mary and Martha

that he was “the resurrection and the life.”

For Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

This is the gift we are given by God

in the Risen Christ,

the Christ whose life and resurrection

we will joyfully celebrate

in just two weeks.

This is the gift of hope,

the gift of grace given us

in the One who is grace.

So come up and take a stone,

a stone that says “Grace,”

a stone to remind you

that grace abounds in your life,

the grace of God given you in Jesus Christ.

Come up and take stone to carry with you,

to remind you that

even when you shed tears

from the deepest grief

there is hope, there is life

through the grace of the One who is

“your foundation stone,

your precious cornerstone,

your sure foundation.

(Isaiah 28:7)

Come take a stone to remind you that

in the One who is grace

the words of the Psalmist will always come true:

“May those who sow in tears

reap with shouts of joy.

May those who weep,

come home with shouts of joy.”

(Psalm 126:5)

And they will;

And you will;

And we will;

Our tears will give way to joy

through the One who is the grace of God,

the One who is the resurrection and the life.

AMEN