Weep Again

“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,” (Lu 19:41 AV)

The LORD warned us there will come a time when we will be emotionally challenged.  In Matthew, our LORD states there will come a time when sin abounds to the point the love of many will wax cold.  In other words, our own indulgences or even our environment can cause emotional callousness towards the reality of a situation.  Above, we see the LORD weeping over the city of Jerusalem.  Not that things would change anytime soon.  Rather, because of the situation at hand.  He is weeping not that those tears will change the inevitable.  Jerusalem would still reject Jesus and the vast majority will reject Him.  He is weeping because He cares.  He has not allowed the situation and the inevitable to callous Him.  He weeps because of reality.  Not because of a hope or because of a regret.  He weeps because that is what people, and a God who cares, does.

I have been watching documentaries on the Civil war and World War II.  The later is not so much the history of each battle and the demographical changes this war brought.  Rather, this documentary looks at the war through the eyes of three small towns cultures and the people who lived there as it effected their town and lives.  This documentary looks at the history of the war, but it does so as it impacted individuals.  One perspective that really strikes me when I watch things like this is how the men who fought dealt with the realities of violent war.  World War I, and then the second World War are unique in the fact they turned warfare into an ever increasing violent and destructive affair.  In the Civil war, the most destructive of all weapons was the cannon.  There are pictures of dismembered solders.  But they are few.  In the aftermath of both world wars, the extreme of what destruction occurred makes the Civil war look rather placid.  So, the thought continues.  How can those who are living it deal with it?

One veteran who was interviewed simply stated that it was so common, one got used to it.  In one particular reel, there were servicemen laying out the corpses of their fallen solders for processing.  Most were stiff with death.  This comment went back and forth in my mind.  We are getting too used to the reality that most will die without Christ.  We are getting used to failed families and failed health.  We are getting used to destruction from sin to the fact that it doesn’t bother us anymore.  We have lost the ability to weep.  We do not care.  When that happens, we cease to try and help the ones who want to be helped.  We need to do what it takes to care again.  We need to see a city wholly given to wickedness and weep.  May the LORD do a work in our hearts that only the Holy Spirit can do.