The Christian’s Tears
Spring 2022
One old Puritan said, “God has given us eyes for two things, at least: one for to see and the other for to weep.” The truth of the matter is, we need to be able to do both. How difficult life would be if we had no eyes to see. And how very difficult life would be if we had no eyes as outlets for the pain, sorrow, and grief of our souls! God has so made us that our tears begin to gush forth when we need to express grief and pain.
In the Word of God we find many references to tears. The last of them all is the great voice from heaven that tells the apostle John, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4). John had been exiled to the bleak and lonely island of Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian. The early church fathers tell us that in his old age John was forced to labor in the mines of Patmos. It must have been a great affliction for the apostle, but we never read any mention of him weeping until chapter 5 when he is shown a sealed book that no man can open. John says that he “wept much.” When we come to chapter 21, John sees how everything is going to end. It must have thrilled his soul to hear the words, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
The Bible does not reveal very much about the heavenly state. When the saints see Glory, they will echo the words of the Queen of Sheba: “The half was not told me.” As John watches the new Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, he hears a great voice. The first thing the voice says is that Christ and His people will dwell together forever and ever, and He will be their God. And the very first thing that Christ will do is “wipe away all tears” from the eyes of His people. Clearly, Christ is very interested in our tears. Our tears are of great concern to Him—they are very precious to Him.
The picture being painted is that of a son who comes home from a long battle. He suffered many a wound and many a defeat. At times he felt he would never see home again, that he would die on the battlefield. But finally, he makes it home and, as he walks up to the door, his face is bathed in tears. There at the door stands his father with a big handkerchief ready to gently wipe away all the tears from his son’s eyes. Samuel Rutherford spoke the truth when he wrote, “Tears will follow us to heaven; unto the very entry of the door our face shall be wet.”
Too often we doubt that Christ is deeply concerned with our tears. Why does He bring all the heartaches, disappointments, and fiery trials into our lives? Why doesn’t God just make us happy all the time, or at least most of the time? We seem to take up the words of the disciples that night on that stormed-tossed sea when they questioned whether the Lord cared for them. But we say, “Carest thou not that we weep?” Oh, if only we knew better the heart of Christ! If only we would cling to the truth that our tears are very precious to Him!
David understood that our tears are precious to God when he prayed, “Put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8) David is referring to a lachrymatory, or tear bottle, in which surviving relatives dropped their tears for their deceased loved ones. David wept many tears in the place of prayer and alludes to God catching his tears in His bottle. We can infer from this that Christ never lets our tears fall to the ground as if they were of no interest to Him. He catches them all and puts them into His bottle, never to forget them. We have shed many tears over the years. We shed tears over things we’ve forgotten all about. But God hasn’t forgotten one tear!
Our tears are written in God’s book. They are written in His book because they are part of His purpose. He determines the kind of tears we shall cry, how long they shall last, and what cause they shall serve. Our tears are also in God’s book because they are part of His providence. All our tears are made to work for our good and His glory. If my spiritual life and usefulness to God at any given time will be increased more by my grief than my joy, then I would be unwise to wish those tears away.
Our Savior knows and remembers what it is like to have sorrow that leaves the face covered in tears! He wept with Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. He wept with “strong cryings and tears” in Gethsemane. He understands what our tears are all about. And they move His hand! In 2 Kings 20 we read that Hezekiah was sick unto death. Isaiah told him to prepare to die. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He “wept sore” (2 Kings 20:3). Isaiah had scarcely left the king when God told him to go back and tell Hezekiah, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee” (2 Kings 20:5). No child of God should ever think that his tears are not precious to the Lord.
Think for a moment of the causes of our tears. Some tears flow from our sin. We must all confess that Peter’s experience of bitterly weeping over personal sin and failure has often been our own. How often have we come to the Lord in tears and asked Him to forgive us for the misuse of our tongues, for our coldness of heart, for our prayerlessness, for our sin of not trusting Him, for our anger, our pride, and our lusts. Through our sin we lose touch with the Lord, grieve the Holy Spirit, and quench His work in our life. Our souls are weighed down with guilt and with guilt there is misery. Out of misery, tears flow and we weep time and again before the Lord. But He comes every time with His handkerchief, wiping away our tears and assuring us, “You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”
Other tears flow from our storms. We just don’t like them and we don’t want them. Our preference would be for sunshine every day of our lives. But God knows what is best for us. He sends the clouds, the wind, the thunder, the lightning, and the waves. Our lives are tossed about, and we fear that we’re going to sink. We come to that place mentioned by the Psalmist: “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end” (Psalm 107:27). Sometimes it’s the storm of bodily affliction or dark turns of providence. At other times the storms occur at home in the marriage or with the children. The believer is not exempt from storms arising at work or in the church. But our unbelieving cries of “Carest thou not?” should and can be turned into a cry of faith where we “cry unto the LORD in [our] trouble,” with the assurance that “he bringeth [us] out of [our] distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still” (Psalm 107:28–29).
The best place to go with our tears is to Christ because He alone is the great tear-wiper! He has all kinds of ways to dry our tears. His handkerchief is quite unlike ours. He dries our tears by bringing us to that place where we are completely resigned to His will, whatever that will may be. Often the reason for our tears is our own self-will. We don’t like (or want) what God is doing and, like the children of Israel in the wilderness, we weep bitterly. But, by grace, we trust our wise and loving Savior and bow our wills to His will. It’s then the tears stop flowing and we can be content with what He gives.
Christ enables us to look away from the secondary cause of our tears and to look at the great end He is going to accomplish through the very thing that is making us weep. The Lord is able to make us think with joy on the truth that all these things are going to work together for our good (Romans 8:28). We will be able then to look at the rod of correction as that divine instrument that brings forth the “peaceable fruits of righteousness.”
At times the Lord will wipe away our tears in this life by removing the very thing that’s causing the weeping. But most of all Christ dries our tears by bringing us into close communion with Himself. He reminds us: “I’m still here. I’m still for you. I still love you.”
Christ Himself encourages us that, though tears flow now, a day is coming when God will use His handkerchief for the last time. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” He will wipe away all tears—not many or most. He will wipe away all tears forever—not just for the time being. This truth is somewhat strange yet sure. It is strange in that we might think that being made perfect would only make tears more likely. Our regret for sin and missed opportunities and the thought of Christ suffering on Calvary because of our sins make Christians weep in this world. But that will not be true in the world to come. It is also a strange truth because we will have hearts that are perfectly tender, and yet we will not weep over lost loved ones who have been condemned to hell. Finally, it is strange that there won’t be any tears of joy either. “All tears” means just that.
Yet this truth is sure. As strange and incomprehensible as it may seem, it is something that is as sure, as certain as the throne of God! The source of all sorrow will be forever removed. “The former things are passed away.” Sin, sickness, and Satan will be no more. Christ, the source of our joy, remains forever. It is being forever in the presence of Christ that will ensure that our tears never return.
Rev. John Wagner | Formerly pastor of Columbia FPC, SC