Today’s Scripture
Reading (December 28, 2017): 1 Thessalonians 3 & 4
Gandalf in J. R. R Tolkien’s “Return of the King” says “I will not say: do not weep;
for not all tears are an evil.” The truth
is that tears are a natural part of life. As we move through the Christmas
Season, this corruption that all tears are evil is what strikes me about one of
our favorite Christmas Carols. “Away in a Manger” contains one line that
bothers me every time we sing the song. “The little Lord Jesus, no crying he
makes.” The line seems to imply that a baby’s cries are not a good thing. Now,
as a father, I understand that sometimes the crying gets out of hand, but I
also understand that a babies cries are
the only way that a healthy child has of communicating. When a baby is cold, hungry,
in need of comfort, or needs a diaper
change, the only way it can get that message across is through the tears that
it makes. Islam contains a belief that the Baby Jesus came out of Mary’s womb
speaking in sentences and explaining the mystery of life. But as Christians,
that is not what we believe. Jesus cried. He cried in the manger, and he cried later in life, and tears
poured out of him at several other spots along the way. He was like us.
It is easy to read words like
these that Paul writes to the Church in Thessalonica, and somehow misunderstand
them, or twist them into a belief that, as Christians, we don’t weep. I have
attended funerals where some well-meaning person expresses that idea that because of our faith and our hope,
that there is no need for tears. But that teaching is misguided.
Yes, we have a hope. We agree with Paul that there is a
difference between us and those who live believing that this is all that we get.
But we also cry at funerals. The hope of what God has promised us in the future
does not mean that we will not miss the person that has died. Our tears reflect
a void that is left in our lives here and not a lack of faith in what God has
promised us in the future. We do not say “do not weep” because we know that “not
all tears are an evil.”
And if you need convincing of
that fact, we need to look no further than the life of Jesus. John tells the
story of the death, and resurrection, of Lazarus. And in the story, Jesus
returns to Bethany and is met by Lazarus’s sister, Martha, and Mary. As Jesus enters Bethany, the sisters are weeping.
They understand that they have a hope, that there will be a resurrection in the Day of
the Lord, but that does not ease the pain of the death of their brother and
void that Lazarus’s absence has created in the present moment. We might think
that this might be a good time for Jesus to chastise the sisters for their lack
of faith, or a teaching moment for Jesus about what death means for a Christ
follower. But Jesus does neither of these things. Instead, even though Jesus
knew that in a few moments he was going to call Lazarus out of the grave, he chose
to cry with the sisters. He feels the pain of Lazarus’s absence, and as that
pain is made real in him, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
There is a difference, and we have a hope, but not all tears are evil. We are the ones who are assured of a future that is beyond this
life that we live. But sometimes, even though we have a sure hope, we feel the
absence of the one who has died – and at
that moment, tears are the only right response.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5
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