Cry!

[AI translation] This is one of the scenes of the shocking events of Good Friday that I have just read out. The death sentence has already been pronounced, Pilate has delivered the mocked Jesus to be executed. The sorrowful group marches through the gates of the holy city, out onto the hilltop called Golgotha. Amidst insensitive Roman soldiers, mocking crowds, crowds of all sorts, Jesus carries the cross in a tattered heap. In the throng, a few women also stumble in, no one wanting to miss the spectacle. But the sight is obviously so heartbreakingly sad that the more sensitive souls of women are moved to tears. It is a natural human emotion that empathises with the sufferer who is being cruelly treated. One could almost say that the only truly human expression is this weeping in the midst of all the gross inhumanity! And then Jesus says: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your own wombs" (Lk 23,28).Why does Jesus say "weep not for me"? For He is the one to mourn! He is going to death, He will be executed! They're going to drive big rusty nails into his hands and feet, and his whole body will go into spasms! Unimaginable physical and mental agony awaits him, until finally, after long hours, his heart will beat its last beat on the cross. Is it not possible to weep for one who suffers so? Is it not good for the sufferer to feel human sympathy and compassion? Does Jesus want to reject this most natural expression of human emotion? Does it not still happen today that, during a sermon on Good Friday, when the horrific scene of the execution is re-enacted, someone's heart is moved and tears well up? Isn't it a good sign if someone can mourn for Jesus? Is it not a good sign when one can relive what happened on Calvary with tears in one's eyes? Why then does Jesus say, "weep not for me"?
Well, it is because Jesus does not consider His suffering in death as mere suffering, but as a vocation! He, when He suffers and dies in the most excruciating agony, is fulfilling His vocation! However bitter one's vocation may be, it is not to be mourned when he is fulfilling it. A mother suffers when she is about to give birth, yet it is not fitting to mourn. Yet she is in terrible agony, she is on the brink of death, every moment is a threat to her life. But it all goes with motherhood. Soon she will have a little child in her arms, and it will be worth all the agony! So it's nothing to mourn, even though she's suffering so much! This is her vocation! Well, Jesus is not to be mourned when He suffers on Calvary. No need to weep when He is hanging there on the cross. He is fulfilling His vocation! He was made for it by design, that's why He came to this life on earth! It was the Father's will that sent Him away that determined this suffering. He told us beforehand that it would be so! This is His mission, His task: this suffering, this cross! When He is mocked, tormented with a crown of thorns, tortured with a whip, crucified, when He is plunged into the hell of crucifixion, He Himself takes upon Himself this service which He must perform: He suffers, He suffers a terrible divine judgment.
For the cross, and all the agonizing Good Friday, everything that happens on that terrible day, means that someone has to go to judgment, someone has to incur the wrath of the Lord God! Yes, the judgement and wrath of the living God will be carried out there, on the cross of Jesus! It is a far more terrible thing that happens there than is seen by eyes teary with human compassion. Let us understand it well: that cross there on Calvary means that God is angry! Jesus' suffering and death speak of God's judgment! That hellish suffering proclaims that one cannot sin with impunity, that there is obviously the wrath of God against all the wickedness of men! And Jesus takes that suffering! His writhing, tortured being is a great plea without a sound: let all your punishment fall on me, O God, let all your wrath be mine, let me be the judge instead of men! And if we now reflect personally on what is happening there on the cross, let us understand: terrible is the wrath of God against our sins, against the lies of our lives, against the falsehoods of our tongues, against the secret and crooked ways of our feet, against the unloving or fornicating feelings of our hearts, against the failings of our hands! And behold, for my transgressions, for my wickedness, and for yours, this wrath of God is taken up by Jesus, our judgment He suffers - for us! Do not mourn Him, but love Him! Jesus is fulfilling a divine mission by suffering for us! Do not mourn Him! What is happening here is much more, and much greater, than we should weep with sentimental emotion. The significance of Good Friday is not that we pity Jesus, but that He pities us! He does not need our pity. We need His compassion! And that is what He makes us share when we suffer! He removes the shadows over our heads, He removes the thunderbolts of God's wrath from our lives. That is why He says, "Weep not for me."
But there is another part of his sentence that goes, "Weep for yourselves". What a strange statement coming from Jesus, who was the preacher of the gospel, the preacher of joy! Who came to bring joy to sad people, who wanted to bring joy to the prisoners, the sick, the sick with an intestinal ulcer, the mourners. Who also called the weary and burdened to Himself with the promise of giving peace and rest to their souls. Who wanted all people on earth to rejoice! Why then did he now say, "weep"? Surely he has a great reason! Who then shall weep? First of all, let those who love Jesus weep! Why should those who love Jesus weep? It is to comfort you. It is because this weeping leads them to the true benefits of the cross of Jesus. Do you know what kind of weeping Jesus wants those who believe in Him to do? Well, the weeping for our own sins! He wants them to be able to weep honest, true tears over their sins. Jesus is not asking for the tears of a heart that has been moved by His suffering, but for the tears of a heart that has been broken by my sins! For these tears are already witnesses of forgiveness of sins, of grace. So happy indeed are those who have a heart to weep! To mourn, to be relieved of their life's wicked feelings, their heart's desires and thoughts, with which they have sinned against God and man! For their words and their behaviour, by which they have caused harm and sorrow to those around them, for their emotions, which they could not control in time... Yes: happy are they who can weep thus, for they are men of grace! For the consolation of God is for those who have repented of what they have done and thought wrong. And God's liberating forgiveness is for those who can mourn their past! Weep for yourselves! There is much to mourn! Those who weep in this way will no longer be condemned by God, those who condemn themselves will no longer be judged. God will no longer reproach them for the wickedness of their lives! For them, Jesus has suffered everything! "Blessed are they that weep: for they shall be comforted" (Mt 5,4) Weep therefore, weep for yourselves, that you may be happy!
I know well from experience that there is no time in our lives when we do not need to weep like this! On ourselves! We always have something to cry about! And we always will, as long as we live! There will always be a downfall in our lives, a slip of the emotions, a falsehood in our thoughts and words. We will always have something to lament. But still, "Blessed are those who weep". And the suffering of Jesus finds its meaning precisely in comforting such weepers. So weep! Do not be ashamed of your tears! To weep before God for the wickedness of our lives: a good thing, a precious thing. "Blessed are they that weep." He who cannot weep outward, let him weep inward. God also sees these tears and blesses them. Weep ye, for they that weep thus shall be comforted. And the more people cry like this, the easier it is for Jesus, let me put it this way: the happier he goes to the cross, the easier this suffering is for him! For that cross can only be made more difficult by one thing: if one's heart is cold and hard. If he is insensitive to asking God for forgiveness for his sins! This is what makes the cross difficult for Jesus. So weep! Weep with outward and inward tears! Weep so that Jesus may fulfil his calling on you too, so that what happened there on Calvary may become a blessing for you too, a forgiveness of sins, a liberating power of God's love!
But Jesus' call to weep is also addressed to those who cannot or will not mourn for themselves. He says to them too, "Weep!" Weep, for you will have reason to weep! You may be thinking: you have nothing to weep for, nothing to fear from God's wrath, no sins to be judged! Perhaps you think so now! But Jesus knows better. That is why he warns you: 'Weep'! Don't be too late to weep! For the time will come when even the hardest-hearted man will say to the mountains, "Fall on us, and to the heaps, 'Cover us'" (Lk 23:30) When God judges, even the hardest heart will melt, and man will hide under the crumbling rocks for fear of God's wrath, if he could. A terrible thing to fall into the judging hands of the Living God!
Hard-hearted men, self-conceited Calvinists, who trust in your own merits, who know not the humility of repentance: verily, weep! For whoever has not covered his sins in the redeeming blood of Christ, whoever has not given his past in Christ's death, will go to judgment! We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ! And that is something to fear! That is something to be feared by those who have never wept for their sins, who have not given themselves into the shelter of Jesus, who have not fled under the cover of saving grace, who have not needed the suffering of Good Friday! Let him weep, let him weep whose life has not yet seen the smile of a forgiving God!
That is why Jesus says there, on the way to Calvary: "Weep for yourselves"! Do not weep on me! Jesus is not to be pitied! Don't say: Oh, poor Jesus! He is not poor! He is the Saviour of the world! He is past the cross, like a mother in pain, when she kisses her child with joy. Do not mourn for Jesus! But we can weep for ourselves. And if He has told us to weep, we must take it seriously! Blessed are those who weep for the depravity of their hearts, for they are now comforted, forgiven! But woe to us if we weep too late, when the cross is of no avail!
Let us understand then, it is not I who say, but Jesus himself, "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves." (Lk 23,28) If only God Himself, by His Spirit, would now make the words of Jesus so truly gospel to us all, that you and I and all of us could say to Him not only with our mouths but with the sincere humility of our hearts: Lord, my Saviour!
All that is painful, a blow,
I have brought to Thee;
Lord, for this suffering
My soul burns with guilt.
Deserving a word of reproof
Here I stand, poor me,
And I pray the grace of thy soul
Shine upon me.
(Canto 341, verse 3)
Amen.
Date: 27 March 1964 (Good Friday).