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April 2, 2003
Midweek Lent
Luke 23:26-31
Pastor Robert Raasch

The Way of Sorrows: A Place of Tears

1. Tears of Pity
2. Tears of Repentance
3. Tears of Gratitude

In our Lenten services this year we have been kind of retracing the steps of Jesus on the way to the cross. Each Wednesday, we've stopped at a different place associated with our Lord's Passion. We've been to the Upper Room; we've been to the Garden of Gethsemane; we've visited the Palace of the High Priest. And last Wednesday we spent time in the court of Pontius Pilate. In each one of those locations, you might say that we were given front row seats, with all the action going on right in front of us.

Well, that's not exactly the situation this morning/tonight. No, today, if we want to be part of the action, we're going to have to go on the road. But not any old road. Today, if we want to follow Jesus on his way to the cross, we're going to have to travel a road, which in Latin is called Via Dolorosa, or in English, the Way of Sorrows. Today we turn to the Gospel of Luke to see that the Way of Sorrows was:

A Place of Tears

And we'll see that there are a number of kinds of tears associated with Jesus' trip down the Via Dolorosa. There are:

1. Tears of Pity
2. Tears of Repentance
3. Tears of Gratitude

First, let's understand that the Via Dolorosa is not an actual street running through the city of Jerusalem. No, that term, the Via Dolorosa, is a term that was applied to Jesus agonizing journey long after it actually occurred. And even though modern day tour guides may try to tell you that this is the path that Jesus walked carrying the cross, the fact is, we don't know where that transpired. Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times since Jesus' day that it is impossible to know the exact location of Pilate's Court or Calvary's hill-or the path between them.

And yet, even though we don't know exactly where Jesus walked, Scripture does record for us some events that occurred along the way. The first thing that Luke tells us is that at some point along the way the Roman officials forced a man named Simon to carry Jesus' cross. One would imagine that by this time Jesus has been so worn down by the beatings, the crown of thorns and 40 lashes he had received, that he is physically incapable of carrying the weight of the timbers that formed the cross. When one considers that prisoners often died from being scourged with that whip tipped with pieces of bone or metal, it shouldn't surprise us that Jesus' knees buckled under the weight of the cross.

Secondly, Luke goes on to describe this funeral procession that accompanies Jesus. Luke writes, "A large number of people followed, him, including women who mourned and wailed for him." It was not uncommon for Jewish people to express their grief in a very physical way-sobbing, wailing, beating the breasts. But notice what Jesus says to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children." Now what did Jesus mean by that? "Don't weep for me?" Apparently, the overriding emotion these women were expressing was one of pity. They were crying because they felt sorry for Jesus. It pained them to see him suffer so. They were maybe thinking to themselves, "This is not right. It's not fair for a good man to suffer like this. I feel so sorry for him."

I expect that you or I have experienced some of those same emotions in our lives. If you saw any of the video footage of those American soldiers by being held as prisoners by the Iraqi government. To see them looking dazed and scared, some of them obviously wounded and bleeding-man, my heart went out to them.

Or you think of the families of the men and women who have been killed in Iraq. I mean, when those families are being interviewed on TV, and they're trying to be brave, choking back the tears. But it's hard. It's hard on them. It's hard on us. Our hearts go out to them. When you think about the pain they're going through, it's not hard to shed tears for them.

The question is, Is that the emotion that Jesus would have us feel as we look at his suffering and death? Does Jesus was us to feel sorry for him? I think that Jesus' words to the women of Jerusalem answer that question. He says to them, "Don't weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children." Basically, Jesus is saying, "Don't be too concerned about what is going to happen to me. Instead, be concerned about what's going to happen to you."

Jesus then goes on to say, "The time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' Then, 'they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" What is Jesus talking about here? Well, actually, he's looking ahead to the Fall of Jerusalem. Approximately 40 years after Jesus' death, the Roman army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. The inhabitants of the city became so desperate for food that they resorted to cannibalism. It was during that period that Jesus' words were fulfilled. It was a time when people basically said, "It would be better to have no children at all rather than have them suffer through this horror."

But now, someone might ask, "Why would Jesus choose this moment to offer this very ominous view of Jerusalem's destruction? Two reasons: first, to warn his listeners that there would be dire consequences for their rejection of him as Messiah. Because the people of Jerusalem, especially its religious leaders, had all but turned their backs on God and his anointed one, God was going to rain judgment down on them. In fact, that's what Jesus is referring to when he says, "If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" Do you catch the analogy there? A green tree is a tree that is still alive, still growing. It still has some value. A dry tree is one that is dead. It's lost its usefulness. It is good for nothing except for throwing into the fire. In Jesus' parable, the green tree represents Jesus. And the dry tree represents Jerusalem. Jesus' point is this: "If you people think that what I am enduring as an innocent man is bad, then imagine what is going to happen to you who are truly guilty of so much greater sins! You haven't seen anything yet!"

But Jesus was not just offering a warning about their future. He was also calling them to repentance. He was trying to lead these women to see that there are consequences for their sins as well. He was trying to lead them to understand that he was not suffering for his sins-he was suffering for their sins. These women had not really made the connection between what Jesus was enduring and what they had done to require Jesus to endure that. You might say that they didn't see where they fit into the picture.

My friends, aren't we tempted to do the same thing? To kind of watch and mourn for Jesus from a distance, but not really put ourselves into the picture? Just for a minute I want you to make a mental list of all the times over the course of your life that you did something displeasing to God-and were never punished for it. No one ever said anything to you about it. You never suffered any consequences for it. You might say that you basically got away with it.

Maybe it was that nasty e-mail you sent or the note you passed in class. Not only was it mean, it was vulgar. But because the note never fell into the wrong hands, you feel like you got away with it. Or maybe it was the extra income that you failed to report on your tax return. You thought, "Oh, they'll never know the difference." Or maybe it was the sexual promiscuity you engaged in before you were married. You tried to explain away by saying, "Well, everybody is doing those things these days." Maybe nobody confronted you about the lie you told, the bad attitude you nursed or the temper tantrum you threw. Nobody made you pay for the complaining you do, the hurt you caused, the impatience you showed or the lust that you cultivated in your heart. I don't know about you, but as I think about my life, be it yesterday or 30 years ago, I see plenty of time when it seemed like I got away with something. It seems like I've done all sorts of things that were never punished.

But you know that perception is wrong. Dead wrong. You see, even though I might have gotten away with all kinds of sins in my life, Jesus didn't. Every sinful thought, every unkind word, every reckless action-every time we did not live up to God's standard of perfection-Jesus caught hell for it!

Do you realize what that means? Imagine for a minute living in a place where every time you made the slightest mistake, every time you offered one word against someone else, the authorities would come in and beat up your best friend. Every slip of the tongue, every selfish thought, every misplaced priority would bring another bloody welt to your friend's body. As you came to understand the unbreakable cause and effect relationship between your actions and your friend's agony, don't you think that you would be compelled to say, "Friend, I'm so sorry"? Not just sorry for you. But sorry for what my actions are you doing to you. I'm sorry, that in a sense, I'm the cause of your pain. I'm sorry for what I'm doing to you." And as the tears stream down your face, you say, "Friend, can you ever forgive me?"

My friends, isn't that the emotion that the cross of Christ elicits from our hearts? Holy Scripture does not record the details of Jesus' suffering and death so that we can say, "I'm sorry for you Jesus. But rather, "Jesus, I'm sorry for what I'd done to put you through that. I'm sorry that I treated you so poorly. I'm sorry that I used your name to curse my fellow man. I'm sorry that I treated worship with fellow Christians like some kind of burden I had to endure. I'm sorry that I acted like my friends, my money, my free time are all more important than you are. I'm sorry that by my actions, I have put you through hell. Lord, please, have mercy on me, a sinner."

And solely because God is more gracious than we could ever fathom, he has done just that-he has had mercy on us. As heart rending as it is for you and me to admit that each and every one of my sins had to be paid for on the cross, so comforting is it to know that each and every one of my sins were paid at the cross. Or to put it another way, the same God who says, "Your sins put him there," now says, "Your sins are forgiven."

Isn't that why God invites us to repent of our sins? It's not because he wants us to feel guilty for our sins. He wants us to know that we're forgiven for those sins. A moment ago, I asked you to think of a bunch of things you'd done that you should have been punished for, but weren't. Well, I didn't ask you to think about those things so that you could walk out feeling guilty about them. I asked you to think about them so that you could know that each and every one of them has been paid for in full. Your Redeemer has erased them all. God no longer holds anything against you.

Friends, isn't that the kind of good news that brings a whole different kind of tear to our eyes? Not the tears of pity or the tears of sorrow. But rather, tears of gratitude. Tears of joy. When the young mother comes out of surgery and is told by the doctor that he's found no sign of cancer, there may be some tears streaming down her face. But when her 3 year old, asks, "Mom, why are you crying? Are you sad? What does she say? She says, "No, dear, I'm not sad. I'm so very, very thankful. God has healed me. He's given me my life again."

Isn't that what God has done for you and me? In Christ's death, he's given us life. We're free from the guilt we carried; free from the eternal punishment we deserved. May that precious truth, proclaimed during this Lenten season and around the year ever elicit from our hearts not only the tears of sorrow for our sins, but more importantly, the tears of gratitude and joy for a love so great as his. To God be our thanks and praise! Amen.