Behold Jesus’ Selflessness
Today let's behold Jesus' selflessness. Luke writes: "A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, "Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!" Then "they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?'" (Luke 23:27–31 NIV11)
Don't weep for Me, says Jesus, in His most awful hour. Don't weep for Me.
Many people see themselves as victims. Many people want people to weep for them, want people to feel sorry for them. They get so engrossed by their own pain that every conversation, every action, every thought becomes about their struggle.
Jesus could have done that in this moment, as He faced a brutal beating and a torturous death. He could have said "daughters of Jerusalem, weep for Me, for such an injustice the world has never seen." But in His very worst moment, He takes the attention away from His suffering and says "weep for those who will suffer a fate worse than Mine."
Selfless in His Darkest Hour
Bible teachers and scholars generally believe that Jesus' words here were pointing towards the destruction of Jerusalem that would come a few decades later, and that His words about the dry tree refer to Israel - the Jews who rejected Him. What a terrible fate awaits those who reject Christ. Jesus says "weep for them." Let your heart be shattered at the thought of people rejecting Me, He says. Because what happens to them is far worse than what is happening to Me.
Do you weep for the lost?
I know a good many Christians who have stopped using this type of language. They don't like referring to anyone as "lost" or "found." They think it's judgemental. But I believe firmly that Jesus has taught us that all people are lost without their faith in Him, and that all people are offered His saving grace to be reconciled to God.
Jesus looked over Jerusalem a short time before He died, and wept. He wept because the people rejected His offer of God's grace.
Do We Weep for the Lost?
Do we weep with Jesus, at the fate of the lost? Leonard Ravenhill, in his book Revival Praying, wrote these words that startled me: "Where is the going forth and weeping? Where, oh where are the tears over this lust-bound age of sinners, over the lost millions in heathen lands, and over the cultured pagans on our own doorsteps? We would like to weep, but we are too busy and at the moment have too much of the dust of Time in our eyes to get the tears of Eternity moving."
I'm not suggesting that we sit around all day weeping and wailing. I am suggesting that instead of sitting around being sorry about what happened to Jesus on this day, we get up and we do all we can to bring people to Jesus!
If this means spending nights on our knees praying with tears in our eyes for those we can do no more for, we do it.
Behold the Son of God - not weeping at His own fate, but weeping as He contemplated those who die rejecting Him.
In His darkest hour, Jesus turned from His own suffering to weep over those who would reject Him. Ask God today to give you His heart for the lost, and let it move you to action.