Jesus Wept

Did the human Jesus utter

a cosmic ‘why?' at Lazarus’ tomb?
Were His tears a gift from heaven
meant to baptize the holy gloom?
Or was His grief a token,
just an off-hand, stagéd nod
to sanctify...to sanitize
an anguished, weeping God?

I ask, for Jesus surely knew

His friend would soon arise;
He planned to ‘rob’ that grave before
those mourners’ very eyes.
So, why the crying? Why the flood
washing my Saviour’s face?
He felt the rending we all feel
when loved ones leave this place...

Perhaps it was at Joseph’s tomb

Jesus first learned to mourn,
separated from the man who
guarded Him since He was born.
O yes, He knew the God of life
rules, likewise, over death:
the only fitting answer for
our rank unrighteousness.

It was to bear that very sting
that he was born at all--
to offer His unblemished life
as payment for our Fall.
‘When you see Me, you see the Father,’
Jesus clearly said.
What kind of tears eternal fell
when from Him Adam fled?

...when David took Uriah’s life

...when Jonah ran away...
and what a cloudburst when His wrath
pours out on Judgment Day!
His awesome plan...His glorious plan
includes this bitterest cup.
We’re loath to look into its depths;
we blithely doll it up...

But this monstrous thing’s a picture

of a severed heart divine--
of a paradise forsaken
by a lost and loved mankind.
Christ prayed, ‘My will, My Father,
is for mine to be with Me--
all the lost and found believers
I shall hang for on that tree.’

What if Jesus was not weeping

that His dear Lazarus was gone?
What if He truly was grieving
that His friend was now at home,
and must now be called back earthward,
must abandon heaven’s bliss,
only then to die a second time...
What a paradox is this!

We are told a second death

awaits beyond the grave:
a separation...fiery wrath
from which none can ever save.
And yet, an endless paradise
awaits our souls as well,
where tears of grief give way to joy--
more joy than tongue can tell!

So many feelings filled His breast

that day when Jesus wept;
that heart is full of passion still--
promises made...and kept:
‘I go to prepare a place for you
to come and be with Me.’
So...death is but a doorway for
the blind who finally see.

When our loves are interrupted

by this fearsome, fatal foe,
we are wise to recall Jesus:
separated here below
from eternal praise and worship
to endure abuse and scorn.
On the cross He was forsaken
as the temple veil was torn...

But, alive again, ascended,

our victory is now won,
and the Father’s flock shall gather--
joined by His belovéd Son.


MNA
1/23/14
in honor of Ed Withrow and Dennis Hoskins