Tears are Temporary
April 17, 2024
(The following was published in the bulletin at St Charles Bible Church – October 14th, 2018, St Charles MN)
Her sorrow ran down her cheeks and made muddy puddles on the dusty ground. Her brother, Lazarus, had been in the tomb four days already; the mourners moved slowly to the tomb to pay their respects and comfort the sisters. Then Jesus came, and the funeral was over!
Until we come to the gates of heaven itself, God’s people shall know how to cry. We may forget how to laugh; we shall never forget how to cry. Until we come to the pearly gates that enter the New Jerusalem, it is not until then that God shall wipe away the tears out of our eyes. In the meantime, God has given us tears to drain the sorrows of the soul.
Charles Spurgeon said, “If I had my choice between being raptured at the coming of the Lord and taken up into glory and changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump – if I had my choice between being raptured to the Lord and dying and resurrected, I would choose to die the agonies of death, for,” said the great preacher, “my Savior suffered, and my Savior died, and my Savior experienced the power of God in His resurrection.”
God says that heaven is a place where there are no more tears (Revelation 21:4):
“God shall wipe away our tears“: what would that mean to someone who had never wept?
“There shall be no more death”: what would that mean to someone who never stood by the side of an open grave, seen somebody you love like your own soul and heart, laid beneath the sod?
“Neither sorrow”: what would that mean to someone who had never bowed under the weight of care?
“Nor crying, nor pain”: it’s because we have known these things in this life that heaven is sweet!
“For our light afflictions,” says Paul, “which is just for a moment, worketh for us a far more and exceeding weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). — Sermon Central
I observed my father crying only a few times—never for his physical pain, although he had his share. Somehow, we boys concluded that tears were outcomes for being weak, immature, cowardly and sentimental. Mothers cried, not men. But tears were familiar friends for men and women of faith through the ages—Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul, and Mary, at the garden tomb.
Our church family this week has had a mixture of joys and sorrows. Some folks are determined to stay optimistic; but they cry in the dark. I have been impressed with the thought: God isn’t simply wiping tears; He is removing the reasons for which we cry—pain, death, sorrow, sin, etc. O Happy Day!
Pastor Jim B
’47 / ’56 St Charles MN
Doris Jean H
’44 / ’55 Manheim PA