March 21: The Compassion of Christ
♫ Music:
Monday, March 21
Scripture: Luke 13:33-34, John 11:32-36
“Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST
One of my dearest friends just lost her father. Tragically, suddenly. There are no words to say that can give her the comfort I so desperately want to give. And so in the absence of words, how can I grieve with her?
Grief, whether it’s near or far from us, is difficult to enter. At some point each one of us will experience it firsthand. And many more times, we’ll be called upon to bear someone else’s grief alongside them. In fact, we cannot be compassionate toward others unless we are able to share their grief, to suffer with them at their side.
When we look to Jesus, we see God’s suffering servant well-acquainted with our sorrows. We see the compassionate heart of God on display as Jesus shares our suffering and weeps for those whom he loves. And even though we know he weeps, sometimes we lose the weight of those simple words.
Colin Booth’s artwork, Jesus Wept, captures this well. We all weep. It’s as common as neon signs in midnight Hollywood, but somehow we can still turn a blind eye. Even though we all weep and experience the pain of loss, we sometimes need this truth shouted from the rooftops. In the midst of our hectic lives, we need God to remind us of the severity of our pain by weeping alongside us.
Even though the small, simple verse “Jesus wept” is well-known, we still need to see it flashing in giant neon letters. Jesus wept. Jesus weeps. Jesus longs to hold us. But Jesus’ weeping can also repulse us. Do we want to watch him weep without looking away? Can we enter into his grief and let him enter ours? It’s a question that both attracts and repels us as decisively as these neon letters.
To share Jesus’ compassionate ministry, we need to grieve fully. We must enter into Christ’s passion, take up our cross and follow him through grief and death. That is our calling. To suffer with Christ as he suffers, is the way, the only way, that we receive life with Christ as he restores life to the world.
As this Lenten season draws toward the sharp reality of the cross, let us enter into and share Christ’s grieving. By sharing his grieving, we can enter into his healing ministry, uniting our hearts with his compassionate heart. In Christ, we can weep together and become his gifts of comfort to one another. We can weep with Jesus for the brokenness of the world as he gathers us together under the shelter of his care.
PRAYER
Lord, give us grace to weep with you. Amen.
Rachel Glazener, Networking Coordinator, Conservatory of Music
Artwork #1
Jesus Wept
Colin Booth
Neon lamps, glass, and steel
St. Leonards Warrior Square, Hastings, England
About the Artist and Art #1
Colin Booth (b. 1951) lives in East Sussex, in the south of England. He has had numerous exhibitions in art galleries and museums in the UK and his artwork can be found in international collections. Booth makes conceptual installations: objects and combinations of objects that express a variety of ideas that are both clear as in Jesus Wept, as well as ideas that are much more ambiguous.
www.colinbooth.com/studio.htm
Artwork #2
He Wept Over It
Enrique Simonet
Oil on canvas
Museum of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
About the Artist and Art #2
Enrique Simonet (1866-1927) was a Spanish painter whose childhood desire was to pursue a religious vocation. Although that did not happen, Simonet used his talents to reveal deep spiritual truths through his biblical narratives. Simonet’s monumental masterpiece Flevit Super Illam or He Wept Over It was completed during a trip to the Holy Land in 1890. In ensuing years, this work traveled to major cities in Europe and the United States where Simonet received numerous medals and awards for it. Simonet’s allegorical works can be found in the Palaces of Justice in both Barcelona and Madrid.
About the Music
“Tears of the World”
Lyrics
In any split second of a moment in time,
In the blink that is one single day,
The sum of the sorrows that wrap round the world
Could catch every soul up, and sweep them away.
As vast as the ocean, as deep as the sea,
Swept up in one toxic tide,
By warm, salty waves, the world weeps it woe,
So how could it be that my own eyes are dry.
So open my eyes, and open my heart,
And grant me the gift of Your grieving,
And awaken in me the compassion to weep,
Just one, of the tears of the world.
When God walked among us in the fullness of time,
He wept tears as old as the world.
Acquainted with sorrows, He took up the cup,
And drank every drop of the poison that heals.
And so comes the call of this sorrowful man
To set our small sadness aside,
To come now and follow, no matter the cost,
To follow Him boldly
And weighing the time.
About the Musician
In a career that spans over 30 years, Michael Card has recorded over 31 albums, authored or co-authored over 24 books, hosted a radio program, and written for a wide range of magazines. He has penned such favorites as El Shaddai, Love Crucified Arose, and Immanuel. He has sold over 4 million albums and writing over nineteen number 1 hits on the Christian music charts. The popularity of his work seems in stark contrast to his original goal to quietly teach the Bible and proclaim Christ.
www.michaelcard.com