If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be taken captive. – Jeremiah 13:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 9, 2017): Jeremiah 13

Santosh Kalwar writes “If I can see pain in your eyes then share with me your tears. If I can see joy in your eyes then share with me your smile.” Of course, there are two processes involved here. First, I have to be willing to show the pain or the joy in my eyes. But then, you have to be interested enough in me to see my joy or my suffering. In our culture, sometimes it seems that neither are possible in our contemporary world. I hide my pain, and in those moments when it does shine through, you refuse to see it.

There is an argument in theology about the “passion of God.” According to some, God is God, and he will not be moved by our circumstances. This is the passionless theology that believes that every moment of this world is already set, that we pray because we are obedient, not because we feel that our prayers will in any way change the world in which we live. God is passionless and unmoved. He has set the days before him, and he knows everything about the future. There is nothing in this world that can surprise him.

Others of us aren’t so sure that this passionless theology exists. We read passages like this one and believe that maybe not everything is written. And sometimes, we surprise God. Not only that, sometimes God wants to be surprised.

According to this view, the story of God seems to be a story of the movement of God, and even of the tears of God. As the people cried out to God in Egypt, God was moved and met with Moses to develop a plan to free the slaves. When Gideon cried out to God, God was moved and used Gideon to change the world that existed in that day.

And God cried over the disobedience of the people. He sent his prophets into the world to try to modify the minds of the children that he loved. We know that Elijah cried out to God in that cave as he waited for God to move, and it would seem likely that both Elijah and God cried over the unmoving disobedience of King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. This is the passion of our God

But often it seemed that God tears went unnoticed. So he tells Jeremiah, often referred to as the weeping prophet, that the time is coming when God will hide his tears. He will no longer be moved to send his prophets into the world. It is not that God will not be crying, but just that, at this time, God will hide his tears. He will cry in secret as his children are led into captivity. Because his children refused to see his pain, the tears will be hidden from their sight.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 14