After reading and being reminded again this past week how Jesus WEPT as he approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, I meditated, asking myself the question “Do I and other Christians today – WEEP over the lost – the way Jesus did?”
Sadly, as I survey my own present heart and much of what I see on the whole in the life of the church, I confess my answer is “No.”
I come to this conclusion after comparing Jesus’ example with my own recent thoughts and track record, with that which I observe in the lives of those I regularly read or communicate with, along with those things in the church as a whole which seem to consume our time, direct our attention, occupy our passions, fill our conversations, and form our service and labors of ministry.
While the things I speak of do not apply to all, it seems that while many of us in the church have become adept at doing things like doctrinally defending God’s justice against the non-elect while extending his redemptive mercies and grace to the elect, and preaching and explaining how the gospel is to be held out to all, and how the reach of missions is to extend to the ends of the earth, … that at the level of our hearts – we do not tend to be as broken, caring, warmhearted and concerned as Christ over those who lack peace either temporally and/or eternally and who experience difficulties of various kinds and measures on a daily basis because they fail to recognize God’s coming to them in Christ.
After meditating on this question this past week and praying, I went for a run to get some exercise on a bright and beautiful day. In God’s providence in the course of my three mile run, I was interrupted and called over to talk to three individuals (one of which I never met before, another which I only spoke to once in passing on a former run, and the other a man of whom I had become aware of the presence of some personal issues but whom up until this day I had never spoken with directly about these problems) who ended up asking or accepting an offer for me to pray for them or a family member.
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