'When
the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."' (Luke 7:13).
And yet, Jesus wept.
The more a person
loves others the more they will hate evil. The more sensitive the nature the
greater the pain. No one ever felt pain like Jesus.
"Face to face
with evil, Jesus was outraged; face to face with suffering and sin, he
wept" (Os Guinness).
It's
ok to cry. It's ok to cry over our own pain and it is ok to cry over the pain
of others. We are told to "mourn with those who mourn" (source). If we care, we'll weep.
Jesus was grateful
to God, the Father of us all, yet he was outraged by evil.
Jesus did not thank
God for the hard heartedness of the Pharisees. If Jesus did not thank God for
all things, neither should we.
To suspend judgement on why something is happening is not the
same as denying that something is
happening. The former is faith, the latter repression, which should have no
part in the Christian faith. It is not the business of faith to deny reality but
to order it (Guinness, 1996, p. 192).
One of the ways faith is turned into
repression is by distorted teaching - for example, when faith is turned into
faith-in-faith rather than faith-in-God, or when thanksgiving is misdirected and
strains for praise that is unnatural. At first sight, the emphasis on praise
and thanksgiving is so welcome that it seems churlish to question it. But when
the biblical injunction to "give thanks whatever happens" 45 is
taught with wooden literalism, it not only contradicts much of the Bible, it
can also be psychologically damaging. Yet Christians are sometimes counselled
today to praise God even for evil.
This is a dangerous travesty of biblical
teaching. Jesus did not give thanks for everything. Face to face with evil,
Jesus was outraged; face to face with suffering and sin, he wept. And if it
were not for the anger and those tears and the resolute road to the cross they
marked, we would not realize how outraged by evil God is and how seriously he
takes sin. The dilemma is not the result of tension between the biblical view
of things and our experience of things, as if faith is opposed to reality. The
dilemma comes from the tension between the biblical view of evil (a reality God
hates and is not to be thanked for) and the biblical call for us to trust God
and give thanks whatever happens (Guinness, p.193).
There is no
situation so evil that it is beyond redeeming by God. From this perspective, it
is always right to trust God and give thanks (Guinness, p. 194).
Outrage is appropriate in response to genuine wrong, tears in response to grief, shock in response to unexpected disaster. We mustn't force
ourselves to thank God for these things
or we will be harder on ourselves and softer on evil than God is. It is not
that even Christians need to give
thanks for these things, but that Christians especially should not give thanks for them (Guinness, p.194)*.
We are to give thanks in all circumstances (see 1 Thess 5:18) but not to give thanks for all things. In every situation we can bring glory to God. (This is so important to living a mentally and emotionally fulfilled life that I highly recommend "Let All Your Thinks Be Thanks" in Guinness' book The Call.)
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A word to the Church
What would cause Jesus to weep today?
Many things. Here are some of them.
He'd weep
over the pain expressed in this man's
story, as well as the pain
some of his followers experience day after day. He'd weep about
the indifference many Christians seem to show toward the plight of
others, including the sufferings
of their own brothers and sisters. But I think he'd weep most about
people who call themselves Christians but are not serious about trusting
God his Father, who is the only one who is completely trustworthy.
The Church is in a bad state mainly due to a thankless Christianity, a mindless Christianity and an elitist Christianity (one which may not claim, but acts as if, God's love is not eternal and unconditional. See)
He'd weep that the visible Church is nothing like the real Church and that his Father's name is dragged through the mud because of hypocrisy and the indifference many Christians show to the plight of others. (Though some are not guilty of this. International Justice Mission. )
I think he would weep that women are treated like rubbish and bought and sold as a commodity; while most individuals in the Church look the other way.
He'd weep over all the wives who felt inadequate because of their husband's addictions to pornography, while the men in the Church pretend nothing is wrong.
The fact is most men are not leading because they'd feel like hypocrites. Don't the men know that "The joy of the Lord is your strength"? Perhaps you know it in your head but don't experience it. If this describes you read "Let All Your Thinks Be Thanks" by Guinness. Listen to Decission Making and the Will of God by Koukl and start working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Just because you've said a prayer, been baptised and go to Church is no guarantee you are going straight to heaven when you die. Your only hope, my only hope, is if God gives up on no one. You can be assured of your final destination, but you are foolish if you think upon your death you are going straight to heaven because you've said a prayer and go to church. (See Guilty)
Only when you know how good God
really is, are truly grateful and start putting Jesus words into practice will you be able to do the following in such a way that your children see you are genuine.
These
commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on
your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the
road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands
and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates (Deut 6:6-9).
If the Church remains in its sickly state God will use those who hate Christianity to punish
the Church. Is not the world growing more hostile to Christianity?
(Those who are hostile to Christianity see many of the sins in the Church which "good"
Christians habitually deny. For example, Christian men who left their
wives and children to go to the
mission field did the wrong thing. They were disobeying God by denying
their duty to their wives and children. As a result many of those
children are now bitter toward God and their parents. See)
Give thanks to God for His mercy and turn from your sins. If you are a man seek to be a true man. If you are a woman seek to be a true woman. Make this you conscious goal. I think you will find that a real man would do the things Jesus asks. Seek to be a man and be grateful for the good things God has given you. You have much to be grateful for. Gratitude is a key to obedience.
If you think life sucks you will be easily tempted. When we constantly see the bad things around us we will feel miserable and empty. When one feels that way it is only natural that they should desire to do things which will make them feel better. If this is how you feel, seriously consider the following.
A flower in the garden is just a flower, no matter how beautiful. But if you should give that flower to someone you love or that flower is given to you by someone you love, suddenly the flower is no longer just a flower; it is now a symbol of love.
The more you see you are loved the more grateful you will be and consequently the less tempted you will be. When we know we are loved we do not feel empty and short changed. George MacDonald wrote, "Love makes everything lovely." The birds, the stars, the clouds and the trees are not just birds, trees, clouds and stars. They are a symbol of someone's love for you. God gave them to you because He loves you. The more you look at those things and think about the fact that they were given to you by the creator who loves you the more you will see and the more you will hear. I sometimes think that if I was in prison being tortured for my faith how would I manage to remain sane? The answer is that I would have to look for the good things God has given me (and I would have to work hard at it in those circumstances) so that I could be grateful and hence strong.
You might be saying, "Those things are easy for you to say. I have lost someone I love." Keep this in mind. They are in God's hands and God loves them. You will see your loved ones again.
Jesus wept. But nothing causes Him more sorrow than the misery we bring on ourselves through our own ingratitude and disbelief in Him.
What can we do? We can aim high, be grateful, pray and love. (No pieces of literature
have encouraged me to pray as much as "The Community of Prayerful Love"
in Dallas Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy and Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald. See also, Prayer)
Perhaps that is not enough for you. Perhaps you want to see and end to injustice. So does God. What can Christians do about evil and suffering in the world? Guinness offers some suggestions in Unspeakable and The Case for Civility.
