Daily Devotion
Jesus Wept
By
Dan Betzer
Guest Columnist
CBN.com
-- I recently watched a television preacher gleefully condemning
a crowd of gays to hell. He laughed as he did it. While the Scriptures
certainly teach against homosexuality, I could not understand
the preacher’s apparent pleasure in his condemnations.
Jesus took no delight in such pursuit. He wept as He saw the
disintegration of society. He agonized over what He knew was soon
to happen in Jerusalem.
Two weeks ago, I visited once again the famed “tear drop”
chapel on the slopes of the Mount of Olives facing the Temple
Mount. The building commemorates the place where Jesus wept over
Jerusalem.
He moaned, “How often would I have gathered thy children
under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate.” Jesus knew it was a matter of only four
decades before Vespasian and Titus would arrive with the Roman
armies, congregating on Mount Scopus on the north for the death
thrust into the city.
The death tolls would be staggering. Not one stone of the entire
city would be left standing. It broke our Lord’s heart.
The Bible states simply, “Jesus wept.” There was
no gloating in His knowledge nor His firm proclamation. I truly
believe the non-Christian world is turned off by the all-too-common
gloating of Christ’s followers.
Jesus always exhibited passion, not pride. Again and again, Scriptures
tell us that Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion.
Maybe that television preacher should weep more and laugh less.
Perhaps the people he’s trying to reach would be more accessible
to the Gospel. Perhaps they would be moved more by his melancholy
than they are by his mockery.
Used with permission by author, Dan Betzer. Previously published on ByLine OnLine, copyright © 2005 Media Ministries of the Assemblies of God.
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