Why? Well, little children cry all the time. It’s part of what makes them children. They cry when they’re hungry or thirsty, when they’re sick, startled, or need a diaper change. When they’re frustrated or afraid, sad or angry, they cry. In fact they may learn to cry just to get what they want. Imagine that.
So to become an adult is to put a lid on it. Stifle. Zip it. Suck it up. Quit whining. Man up. Stiff upper lip. Swallow your blood and walk into the cannon smoke.
I sort of believe all that. But when a true adult, a real man or a real woman, does cry, you take notice. When someone lives a life of responsibility and maturity, when she square her shoulders and walks the hard road without complaining, when he accepts pain as part of life and gets on with it…if a person like that ever breaks down, you take notice.
Remember when Clint Eastwood’s character teared up in the 1993 film “Line of Fire?” It got my attention, at least. I saw my dad cry only one time, and I’ll never forget it.
So now I think of Jesus. The most mature, responsible Man who has ever lived. The strongest, wisest, bravest Man we’ll ever know. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence (Hebrews 5:7, ESV).
Christ shed some tears. He cried at the tomb of His friend Lazarus (John 11:35). He wept over the city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).
This ought to get our attention. He wept for the unfathomable separation He would endure from His Father. He wept for the price He chose to pay for His sheep—a ransom that included being covered by our moral filth as if it were His own. He wept for the wrath He must endure.
But then He swallowed His blood and walked into the cannon smoke.
But then He swallowed His blood and walked into the cannon smoke.
