The Bread of Tears: Introduction
The Bread of Tears: Introduction.
“Those who sow their tears as seeds will reap a harvest with joyful shouts of glee. They may weep as they go out carrying their seed to sow, but they will return with joyful laughter and shouting with gladness as they bring back armloads of blessing and a harvest overflowing!” (Psalm 126:5-6, TPT).
All My Tears – The Petersens (LIVE)
The Miracle of Tears. Each of us as human beings share a spectacular miracle… We each have been gifted by our Creator God with the ability to shed tears. And not merely one type of tear, but three kinds of tears, all of them benefitting us in different ways that, being so common, are easily taken for granted. First there are the Basal tears which are constantly produced to keep our eyes lubricated and moist, and which also provide much-needed nutrients to the cornea. Secondly are the Reflex tears that are triggered by irritants which wash away debris like dust and foreign objects, sooth our eyes from smoke, and prevent further irritation by giving our eyes time to heal up from the irritation. Amazingly too, Reflex tears contain antibodies to fight bacteria and avoid infection in our eyes. Finally, there are the Emotional tears which are released during times of strong emotions both positive and negative, such as anger, joy, sorrow, relief, fear, high stress, grief, and when something is felt deeply and needs expression. Emotional tears are a special gift of our creator God, because they contain protein-based hormones that act as natural painkillers; a higher protein content to strengthen the eyes and keep them healthy; neurotransmitters that effect the ability to remember, to learn, to focus and pay attention, and release harmful stress. Emotional tears are a divine gift because it helps us express ourselves in healthy ways that are difficult to express any other way. Regardless of the kind of tear, they all contain enzymes that promote healing and maintain the health of our eyes. All tears are basically a water-based liquid that contain .3 mg of salt which have electrolytes and salt particles like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. God is certainly the Lord of the Details when it comes to something as common yet complex as human tears.
Joy and Woe. Life blends together the bitter and the sweet. “Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine,” said William Blake. And tears are a part of each. Tears will come in heartfelt repentance, as James said in 4:9, “Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” But then with the miracle of forgiveness, tears may come soon after in the midst of rejoicing in God’s mercy. We weep with sorrow, we weep with joy. We grieve in tears, and we laugh with tears. Tears are one of the most expansive and articulate expressions provided to mankind. One minute Jesus tells His followers, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” And the next minute He tells them, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:21,25). Joy and woe are woven fine…
The Language of Tears. Weeping has a distinctive voice, with a language all its own. Tears are an articulate expression of sorrow and grief, of repentance and guilt, of pain and suffering, of fear and distress, of joy and wonder. And fortunately, “Tears are a language that God understands.” (Robert Smith). When Ishmael (which means “God hears”) and Hagar began their seemingly hopeless trek in the wilderness, God reached down in mercy because He heard and saw the boy crying (Genesis 16:11). When David reveals that he soaked his pillow with tears and drenched his bed with weeping (Ps. 6:6), he doesn’t need to talk about the depth of his distress. When Job states that his face is flushed and swollen with weeping and his eyelids look like the shadow of death, his grief and pain are obvious to all (Job 16:16). On the day that Yahweh asked the people of Israel to shave their hair off in humiliation, to wear sackcloth and to mourn with many tears, it is clear to everyone that Israel needs to repent of their sinfulness. When the priests were ordered by Yahweh to stand between the Temple courtyard and the altar and do nothing but weep, they graphically expressed their fear of God’s judgment, for all to see (Joel 2:17).
Jeremiah certainly earned his nickname, the Weeping Prophet, as he lamented over the self-destructive sins of his people and grieved over the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as God’s punishment for their rebellion… “My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears. My soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will sweep bitterly and run down with tears.” (Jer. 8:18, 21; 9:1; 13:17). When Jeremiah personally witnessed the desolated Jerusalem, he described the city in poetic terms, Jerusalem sobbing through the night with tears streaming down her cheeks. He profoundly laments the fall of God’s city, and asks Jerusalem to cry aloud before the Lord, to let her tears flow like a river, giving no relief to her eyes. Could Jeremiah have expressed his sorrow over Jerusalem’s demise any better? (Lam. 1:2, 2:18). But the Lord didn’t allow Jeremiah to be forever stuck in his grief as He promised him that the children of Israel would eventually return from exile, “Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord; they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord.” (Jer. 31:16-17).
Paul. If Jeremiah was the Weeping Prophet, then St. Paul wins the award as the Weeping Preacher. In his meeting with Ephesian elders in the church there, Paul spoke of how he “served the Lord with all humility and tears” (Acts 20:19), and that for three years he “did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” (20:31). To the Corinthian believers he wrote to them “out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears,” not to cause them pain, but “to let them know the abundant love” that he had for them. (2 Cor. 2:4). To the church in Philippi, Paul lamented over the rebellious ones in their midst, “many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.” (Phil. 3:18). And to the Roman Christians he spoke of how he experienced “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart over his Jewish brethren who did not accept Jesus. (Romans 9:1-2). Tears would come naturally to Paul in his missionary journeys, what with numerous imprisonments, countless beatings, five death-defying whippings, a stoning that left him unconscious, three shipwrecks, adrift at sea for a day and a half, in constant danger from robbers and hostile enemies of the gospel, many sleepless nights, going without food and drink, dangerous exposure to the cold in the wilderness, to say nothing of the daily pressures from his anxiety for all the churches. (2 Cor. 11). Yes, tears were undoubtedly a daily companion to St. Paul.
Liquid Prayers. When Hannah was in deep anguish over her barrenness, she cried bitterly to the Lord at the Tabernacle. She was pouring her heart out to Yahweh, and she didn’t need words. The priest Eli watched her as she kneeled in grief, and he saw her lips moving without hearing a word. Hannah was offering “liquid prayers” (Rev. James Larson), and the Lord understood. He answered her with the miracle boy Samuel, who was Israel’s last judge and first prophet. During the destruction of Jerusalem much later, Yahweh called for the designated Weeping Women to come to the city and mourn, and to teach their children a lament, and teach their neighbors a dirge. Bring in the professionals, the Lord says, so the Weeping Women can lead the city in crying as at a funeral. Cry in despair and let the tears flow from your eyes! Teach the women how to wail because the city is absolutely ruined and desolate (Jer. 9:17-20). God knows there is no better way to express these things than with tears.
The Man of Sorrows. “During the life and ministry of Jesus on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions, crying aloud and shedding tears, to the One who had the power to deliver him from death, and He was heard because of His godliness. Even though He was the Son, he learned obedience through His sufferings.” (Hebrews 5:7-8). As prophesied in Isaiah 53:3, Jesus Messiah was “a man of sorrows and well-acquainted with grief,” and He proved it for all to see at least three times according to the Gospels. The first time, He wept over Jerusalem, a deep lament over how the people there were not responding to their loving God. (Luke 19:41). The second time occurred before he raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wept in grief (John 11:35). He wept in solidarity with Mary and Martha and all their friends. He wept in anger and indignation at sin’s consequences, the very existence of death itself. Jesus wept and thus demonstrated that it’s okay to use tears to communicate. It’s okay to talk with tears. Then, of course, He wept in unspeakable anguish and misery while fully prostrate on the ground before His Abba Father God, which is often called the “Great Agony.” (Matthew 26:36, Mark 14:32 and Luke 22:4). Jesus thus joined Himself with all those who would weep, with all those who would use tears to express their anguish.
Tears of Grief into Tears of Joy. God is in the business of turning our distress into joy, our grief into laughter. According to Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Jesus to “comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” (Is. 61:3). The tears of sorrow and brokenness are temporary, even for those who are trapped in daily distress. For God yearns to redeem our brokenness eventually for good, to the point of wiping away every tear from our eyes in the next life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 7:17). For at that time, “He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from every face.” (Is. 25:8).
The Eternal Tears of Christ. Japanese artist Makota Fujimura has proposed something wonderful, noting that the water we swim in and drink is the same water from 4.5 to 5 billion years ago! Yes, science has proven that God has created a water recycling program to support life on the earth, a continuous loop between the earth and the atmosphere… Water is brought to the earth through precipitation (rain, snow, dew, moisture), which is then evaporated into the sky, condensing into clouds, which then causes that same precipitation to fall to the earth again. Over 90% of the water that is evaporated into the atmosphere returns to earth! Observing that earth’s water has been constantly recycled for centuries, perhaps even since the dawn of time, Fujimura asks if the very tears of Christ are being recycled right now, at this moment. “Jesus’ tears are still with us. Physically in the air. We breathe them every day. Thus, in my studio, I paint with Jesus’ tears. I pretend that the very waters I use in my Nihonga technique are literally Jesus’ tears. All of us should be connected deeply to the mysteries of the tears of Christ. Archaeologists have discovered that in biblical times, there were things that we now call “tear jars.” Tears were so coveted that people kept them, in a jar. Jesus’ tears were not collected. They dropped one by one onto the hardened ground of Bethany and Gethsemane and Jerusalem. They evaporated into the air, and they are still with us today. We can collect them by faith today. Our institutions, and our lives, should be made up of these jars of tears. This is the miracle of the intuitive, to invoke the mystery which no analysis can tap into. Jesus’ tears were ephemeral and beautiful. His tears remain with us as an enduring reminder of the Savior who weeps.” It is not too fanciful to suppose that the tears of Jesus remain literally a part of the atmosphere and perhaps sanctifying it in some divine and wonderful way.
Tears in God’s Bottle. “You have counted up my sorrows, and you have collected my tears in your wineskin. Are they not in your Book of Remembrance?” (Psalm 56:8, a psalm of David). There is a traditional rabbinic teaching that “our compassionate God gathers the tears of the sufferers in a celestial flask and counts every single one.” Yes, our merciful God is a God who sees, who takes notice of our weeping and will eventually wipe away every tear from our cheeks. “Not a sigh uttered before Him will go unremembered.” (Rev. Patrick Reardon). After all, if He is able to number the hairs on our heads, He certainly is able and willing to collect our sacred tears in His memory bank.
Crowder, Buddy Miller – All My Tears (Official Audio Video)