Imagine a young man who is in love with a young lady. He has been saving and planning and one evening he pulls a box out of his pocket and asks the young woman to spend the rest of her life with him and exposes a gleaming ring in that box. And she bursts into tears!
Or imagine a married couple that has been trying to have children for several years and they have been repeatedly disappointed. Then one day they take a pregnancy test and hesitantly look at it and see the positive indicator. They fall into each other’s arms with cries and tears.
Or consider some at the other end of life — a family has a surprise celebration for a couple’s 60th wedding anniversary. There are cards, pictures covering the decades of their lives together, and verbal tributes of affirmation. All through the evening the couple is seen with tears rolling down their cheeks.
Ask any of those people why they were weeping and they would invariably say something like, “I’m crying because I’m so happy…” Happy events produced tears of joy and gratitude.
An event that appeared to be similarly happy also produced tears. Two millennia ago, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, promising peace to the people of Israel. The crowd waved palm branches, asserting allegiance to the King of Israel. Messianic tributes were repeatedly shouted — “Hosanna (‘our salvation has come’) — blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord…” (John 12:13). The long-awaited King had arrived. It was a joyful and noisy celebration.
And while the crowd rejoiced, Jesus wept (Lk. 19:41).
As he rode across the Mount of Olives and down through the Kidron Valley, up to the gates of the city, Jesus lamented while the crowds sang.
But His tears were no tears of joy. They were tears of sorrow and godly lament.
These tears were not the sometimes unnoticed tears softly rolling down a cheek. The word suggests tears that are sobs. His shoulders may well have been rising and falling in harmony with his tears and grief. Against the backdrop of celebratory palm branches akin to our streamers, confetti, and patriotic flags, Jesus was obviously grief-stricken. Why?
Luke tells us in the following verses. While the people appeared to be accepting Him and following Him, the leaders of the nation rejected Him. They implored (commanded) Jesus to rebuke His disciples and this loud crowd (Lk. 19:39). In refusing to rebuke the followers, Jesus declared, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (19:40).
And later that week, the crowd that adored on Sunday was shouting “crucify, crucify Him” on Friday. The “joyful” shouts on Sunday were revealed to be a false belief and a faulty adulation.
So Jesus lamented lost opportunity. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did not comprehend the peace He offered — a reconciliation with God for their sin. The people were concerned about Rome and unconcerned about their sin and the forgiveness Christ offered. And the leaders were concerned for their own honor and not the honor of God. The complaint of the Pharisees revealed and summarized the true spiritual condition of the city.
So Jesus wept, providing a graphic picture of the grief of God over the sin and sinfulness of man!
As one writer has noted, “On Sunday [this day] He lost the ‘holy city.’ He sat on a hill overlooking its hallowed halls. His eyes picked out the magnificent temple and other familiar landmarks, and His cry became a sob of unwanted love…Before His prophetic eyes, the stately temple and the homes suddenly became a mass of rubble. He saw the coming judgment of God, and His was the agony of rejected help.” [Herbert Lockyer]
So on that Sunday, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, wept with the tears of God, who takes no pleasure in the condemnation of the wicked (Ezek. 18:23; 33:11).
Words of Grace 