Jesus Meets the Weeping Women

Very few words fell from His mouth that day.

Why didn’t He speak up? Defend His innocence? Fight evil with all His God-given power?

The thought of losing Him for good overwhelmed my whole nervous system.

My stomach churned, uncontrollable sobs flowed out of me like a raging river.

The mob's shouts hushed down to a distant roar in my head. My eyes could see nothing but His blood-smattered bones through wells of tears.

I’ll never forget the moment He called out to us, “Daughters of Jerusalem,"

pulling an anchor from the depths of my bowels up into my throat.

I’m not sure how I can say what I felt when He spoke “daughters.” It’s as if the most barren parts of me were seen in all their depravity, and yet completely covered by the tenderness in his voice.

“Do not weep for me."

My cheeks grew flush. Not weep for Him? He is my best friend, the oxygen filling my bones and bursting through my soul, the heartbeat in my chest. To not weep... for him would be to suffocate. He went on,

“But weep for yourselves and for your children.”

I’ll never forget that stark warning that followed; the clarity in His speech, and the implication that life would get much harder. And what pressed upon my heart was that He cares about the difficulty. He cares about the corrupt parts of us that do what we know we ought not to do, but do anyway. The parts of us that will have us begging for mercy, and clinging to repentance.

Tears are not just for Him but a gift from Him.

And while I knew at that moment I would no longer get to walk with Him daily, my tears and the yearning of my heart suddenly shot in a different direction, as if magnetically pulled into alignment with His vision for His people. To those who didn’t hear their name fall from His lips, or witness the sincerity of His eyes as he gazed through all the hurt.

I continued to weep that day but not for Him, not for losing Him--what a joy that I got to be in His presence for even a moment.

But for all those who have yet to know His goodness, His kindness, His Mercy, I weep.