The phrase means “The Lord Wept”.
The Daily Audio Bible on April 19 speaks about this place, based on Luke 19: a little chapel to commemorate where Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He knew the consequences that would come to those who reject the Lord's salvation. His tears extended beyond Jerusalem to all those who reject the things “that make for your peace.” (Luke 19:42)
A recent sermon spoke about emotions that may cause us to doubt God. Too often we forget that God also weeps. The Scriptures say that Jesus was a Man of Sorrows, well acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). The verse following, Isaiah 53:4, is sometimes translated as “He carried our sorrows”, and “It was our sorrows that weighed Him down”, and “He took up our pain and bore our sorrows”.
Are you disappointed, sorrowful, even in pain? Jesus weeps
with you. It is not ungodly to sorrow, for Dominus Flevit; Jesus wept.
Isaiah 53 goes on and says, “But He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace
was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
In context, this well-known passage seems to indicate that
His wounds were not merely to pay the penalty for our sins, but more profoundly,
that His bearing of our transgressions, iniquities, and chastisement was for
our peace and our healing.
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| Dominus Flevit, a chapel shaped like a teardrop, is built along the descent to Jerusalem, a memorial to the place where Jesus wept. |
In other words, He suffers and grieves with us, not with mere sympathy, but empathy. If we hurt, He hurts, and when God Incarnate hurts, weeps, and cries, He shares and carries and lifts our hurts, our tears, our wails.
I have wailed in sorrow. I’ve been dazed by hurts. I’ve seen
griefs from afar and pains so point blank it burned a forever scar. And so have
you.
But Jesus never sees a hurt from afar. Every hurt, every
senseless tragedy and horrifying pain is as close to Him as it is to those in
humanity who are the closest to that suffering.
And if we can fathom it, He stands even closer.
He bears the sorrow of the victim and bears the blame from
the mourners. He listens alongside of those who are anguished beyond being able
to bear the pain. He gives breath to those who otherwise could not breathe
because of the weight.
And He carries them and the weight of sorrow. Luke 19 says,
41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city
and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially
in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now
they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon
you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and
close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your
children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone
upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
In Hebrews 5, the writer records that Jesus offered up
prayers with vehement cries and tears. The marvelous hymn of “My Savior’s Love”
misses a profound point. Jesus indeed did have tears for His own griefs. Yes,
He did indeed “sweat drops of blood for mine” but He very much a human. He felt
pain as we do. That does not diminish His marvelous and wonderful love for us.
It makes Jesus, the Son of God, more human.
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who
was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8
though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
Let the Son of God bear your sorrow and the Son of Man share
and carry your grief.
