Weepers in the Way

Weep not for Me

What a distressing scene! A great procession is walking through the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus of Nazareth has been condemned to die the most painful and shameful death the heathen Romans could invent. Bloodied and weak, He crumbles under the weight of the cross He is forced to carry. Who would not be moved with compassion? In a certain sense it is no surprise that we read, “And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him.” Yet, is not the reaction of Jesus a surprise? “But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.”

Would the Lord not welcome such pity and compassion? Was that not His desire in the woeful hours of the evening past when He crawled as a worm and no man? Did He not ask His beloved and devoted disciples, “What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?” Is it not said by Him prophetically in Psalm 69:20b, “I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none”? They had by now all forsaken Him and fled. Thomas’ willingness to die with Him, and Peter drawing his sword was not deemed too great for them then, but where are they now? At least these women were following and weeping. So, who would not commend these women? The Lord did not.

The Lord sees it entirely differently, and how blind we remain unless we are made to see! He did not desire those tears. Yea, rather they were a hindrance, a snare for His soul as He trod the way to do the will of His Father and to deliver His Church. Those deeply affected daughters of Jerusalem not only stood in His way but stood in the way of their own salvation. They were, perhaps unknowingly, instruments under the influence of the devil. Here, while unleashing all the torrents of his hellish scorn from the mouths and actions of the devilish mob, he, as an angel of light, also influences these sobbing women. Oh, who can fathom the temptations that entered into the human soul of the Mediator? On the way toward His deepest suffering, what an indescribable and unseen onslaught of attacks was unleashed by the entire kingdom of darkness on the Son of Man. How much the devil knew of the way of reconciliation cannot fully be known, but he knows much, and did the devil think that he would be the victor if Christ only died a natural death? Oh, no! He knows sin causes eternal death.

The devil is the murderer from the beginning, and his aim is always to provoke to sin—to practice and incite to what he delights in, rebellion. That was what he so subtly succeeded in with the first Adam. Therefore, upon all men has death, and the just sentence of death, been passed. Dear reader, have we learned what that really is? What our personal wages are? Now, certainly, the devil’s endeavors would be the same and even more subtle toward the Second Adam to ruin the way of salvation. The devil knows that the way of dying is so against human nature. “Ye shall not surely die.” In other words, “God is not just,” was his lying strategy with Adam and Eve and be sure, also for Christ, the devil assailed Him in this point. To invoke the sins of self-pity and counting God as the unjust One is the devil’s way.

Christ had been condemned to die by Pontius Pilate, an earthly judge, but a type of vice-regent of the heavenly Judge. Every sin of the entire Church had really been laid upon Jesus. He truly stood as a debtor to the whole law and was subject to the unmitigated wrath of the eternal God. This was known by Him and felt by Him. Though He could have presently prayed for twelve legions of heavenly deliverers, He, for the joy set before Him, yea, to do the will of His Father and to save His inheritance, was willing to endure the shame, the curse, and the wrath of God against sin on the cross. He was willing to creep in Gethsemane, stumble to Golgotha, and die on the cross as the Repairer of the breach. This was the only way—the Just for the unjust. Oh, how all the power of hell sought to thwart this. All throughout Christ’s unspeakable way, in the midst of the most severe temptations, He refused to be turned aside. He not only desired to be unhindered and not pitied; He pointed out the real reason to weep.

Weep for yourselves and for your children

Notwithstanding their wrong motives, Jesus was still moved for these women even as He was moved for Jerusalem when He wept over the city six days before. Jerusalem would be filled with the slain; the crosses would be set up and the stakes would burn day and night. The Romans would annihilate the city and its inhabitants. A terrible judgment was coming. There would then be weeping as there had never been before. Oh, what retribution waited for rejecting and denying the holy One and the Just and desiring a murderer. Let us learn what this means personally and spiritually.

Perhaps, earlier, these same women had tears of joy when they saw Jesus’ miracles, when He blessed their children, when they cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bare Thee…” Now they had tears of emotion over His lamentable state, but did they ever have tears of sorrow over their lamentable state? It is to be feared that many in our day make a ground of their salvation by being moved for Christ but have no need that Christ be moved for them. Superficial tears are dried up by thoughts of a mighty, willing, loving God that is in control. That is a false comfort for many. How few need a crucified Saviour, a Mediator, not a martyr. Man is offended at a dying Saviour unless he is taught the necessity for His atoning work. This is learned by the regenerating and convicting work of the Spirit. Then true tears begin to fall where no one can see them.

Friends, what weeping has taken place in the past year in the families in many of our congregations. Oh, that we may learn to weep for ourselves and for our children before the judgment falls upon us. What tears are pleasing to Him?

Those that flow from a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Oh, that we and our children may learn such mourning in this Passion season—to mourn because of our sin and our backsliding—to mourn because we stand outside of everything and it is our own fault. What bitter tears of lamentation when we see what our iniquity cost Him. Are you such a weeper? Then may your mourning at the cross become glorying in the cross (Galatians 6:14).

The payment has been made. Salvation has been wrought. The way has been opened, not by tears but by righteous blood. No devil, no man, no woman, no sinner can close it, but we must be in it. Pray that you may be a weeper in this Way of salvation and no longer a weeper in your own way of salvation. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

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