Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you for our very Salvation through your dear Son, bring us now we pray to humbleness of heart and a willingness to seek a close relationship with you than we ever thought possible. To your Glory and in Jesus name. Amen. When was the last time you cried? Really cried? Some of you may have cried because you laughed so hard. I remember a number of times sitting around our kitchen table making up silly jokes with my kids or listening to a 3 rd grade joke,like, how did the frog cross the road. Answer: it was stapled to the back of a chicken. Now that by itself is not too funny until you begin to use your imagination. And then for some reason someone would might start to laugh, and then it was contagious until the tears came. How could such a rediculus joke be so funny. Then there was the day when my father had to go to work at Kodak. We had about 30 acres of wheat to combine before the rain came. Before Dad left, he said; make sure that you tell the man I hired to combine to cover the load of wheat on the truck so it doesn t get wet since rain was forecast.
Well, the rain came fast, not a downpour but rain non the less. My older brother Dick was doing something in the house, probably watching baseball, and as I remember it, I ran in the house and yelled, the rain is coming we have to go tell the combine driver to cover the wheat. Well, Dick ran out of the house and instead of using the tractor, chose to use dad s car, (Dad rode to work that day with a friend so the car was rather handy). Dick did not have a drivers liscence, and did nt need one since he was going to drive it down the lane out to the back acreage. Problem was, he had to cross a creek, problem with that was we didn t have a bridge. So, he drove through the creek until the engine quit. Right in the middle of the stream. By this time the water was already seeping inside, so as he opened the door, as the creek water licked the floorboards. He was yelling at me to get the tractor, I was yelling back saying something like, your going to get it now! Ha. But first I ran to tell the man to cover the wheat which he was doing already anyway.
Then running to the barn getting the Ford 8n tractor to pull out my bright brother..ha! When we pulled it up next to the barn, and opened the door, out came the water. Somehow that was funny! Cars aren t supposed to have water inside. And when your 12 years old, the whole thing was a hoot! And we cried laughing for awhile. Of course that all ended the next day, because that car never ran again, the hot engine block cracked when the creek water hit it. So much for saving the wheat crop! We laugh at some of the events in our lives, and we also cry, sometimes we simply cry out because of the load of our burdens or the pain of tradgedy. Lets take a look at Moses the man who was called by God to lead a troubled people,a people who knew both joy and hardship. You might remember that Moses wrote the essential content for the first 5 books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, these 5 together are called the Pentateuch.
In Numbers we hear Moses crying out, the burden is too heavy for me. Who is he crying out to? Yes, God the Father. What Moses did was to cry out to the Lord saying, I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. What were those burdens? The burdens were people complaining, wailing and wining about the food- meat to eat, they said, we had free fish before, we even had vegetables, melons,leeks,onions garlic, now all we get is..this crummy manna! And it was not just a few of the people, they all, standing out in front of their home tents were complaining to Moses to fix everything. It s as if someone got on the Moses phone chain and each complained to one another until everyone was grumbling. What was Moses response? He was troubled, frustrated, and perhaps angry at a situation he did not create. He might have thought, How am I supposed to fix everything? Remember last weeks message folks about the church that closed because the people expected the pastor to fix everybody else!
Moses said, I cannot carry all these people by myself, the burden is too heavy for me. And he cried out to the Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes- and do not let me face my own ruin. What then did God do? He told Moses to gather some men, seventy plus two and God placed his Spirit on them. They were you see to help Moses with the Spiritual needs of the people. They would speak the Word of God, not their own words or opinions, but what God would have them do for God s will. The two that were not among them at the moment were also blessed, and began speaking God s Word. After some complaining Moses cleared the air by saying, are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord s people were prophets. Moses was not jealous for the help, he knew he needed help and he cried out to God and the Lord God brought forth the people to assist, to lift some of the load from Moses.
What did Jesus do with his burdens? What did he do with all that was expected of him? Did you ever think about that, that Jesus though the Son of God had burdens. What were some of those burdens? How about our complaints? How about our anger because my life just isn t going the way I thought it would or want it. Come on Jesus, fix my life so that I can have more fun. Give me more time to enjoy what I have, improve my health so I can work twice as hard and make more money. How about our complaints? What does Jesus do with them, with us? How about Jesus crying? Did you ever think that God cries? Not crying from complaining because who can he complain to? But crying tears because of you and me. Because of our missing the mark, SIN, of our thinking more highly of ourselves than we should, of being doubleminded, meaning saying we forgive but, not really. Of hurting each other,killing each other with words.
Matthew tells us the Jesus had compassion, that means sorrow for the suffering of others, he writes 9:36, They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Yet, Jesus was never moved to tears for himself. He hungered, had no regular home as we know a home, bore insults, accusations of madeness and demon-possession. Instead of recieveing honor from the world, he knew he was hated,despised and rejected. Men threatened his life, tried to stone him, yet in all this he never wept. He looked instead to his hevenly Father for strength to lift the load. He knew what kind of death he would suffer. In Gethsemene he confided in his close friends, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. (Matt. 26:38). But even his friends fell asleep. He fell face to the ground and prayed that the cup of suffering would be taken from him. But he shed no tears for himself. He was abandoned..from his friends yet he said, I am not alone, for my father is with me (John 16:32) leaning completely on his Father, by enduring his trial, flogging
which could tear flesh of his body, through the whole ordeal he never succumbed to weeping. So why did I say Jesus cried. Because on two occasions Jesus did weep. One was on the way to Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, where he knew the crowds were gathering and expecting the onset of the Messianic kingdom, when they Jews thought Jesus would kick out the Romans and return their country to them. But Jesus reminded them, The Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost (luke 19:10). Jesus Cried as he approached Jerusalem, He wept over it and said, If you even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes.( Luke 19) Yes, here Jesus wept, not for himself, but for the likes of us. We see each others sin we want something else rather than what God the father has provided. We want peace from someplace, yet God, just like when Jesus approached Jerusalem, has already provided it in Christ Jesus. He wept
because God s own people refused to comprehend Him as the light of life. He wept because we refused to see Him for who and what he really is. Your saviour able to lift your load of sin and anger or whatever else keeps you from his true peace. The other time Jesus wept when he cried was at the raising of Lazarus from the dead. When he arrived Lazarus body was already decaying, so When Jesus saw Martha and the other Jews weeping he was deeply moved in spirit. He was not saddened by the tears of others nor his own feelings for Lazarus whom he loved, but because they did not believe that Jesus was indeed life itself. They did not really believe that Jesus was able to provide such an enormous relief as to raise someone from the dead. So Jesus cried. How about us. When do we let the load of sin or the boredom of our workplace or the troubles you see in your life doubt that Jesus is able to lift your load and give you peace?
When we doubt its like seeing Jesus weep because of our unbelief. And Yet, what does Jesus do. he teaches us. Today it is through the disciple James. He tells us to humble ourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up! James reminds us that, We are like a mist that appears for awhile and then vanishes. The Gospel teaches us that those things which come between us and our savior, we should cut them out, get rid of them, because nothing, nothing is so important as to separate you from Jesus who is the life, and the way. Satan would like to throw things into your life, troubles, doubts anything that might cause you to stumble. But you know what happens when we stumble. Where do we find ourselves? On our face. Humbled yet again,repenting once again and we do this day. Jesus, knows you, your heart, your stubbornness, and your faith. As he lived and died and rose again defeating death so that we face only life with him. What a gift we receive today. Forgiveness, total and complete erasing our sin away, pure as the driven snow. And all because of Jesus
who came to lift us up out of our dirty pit, and into his glorious presence. We have that already, we have life forever, which means we have Jesus because of his promises and his saving work accomplished for you and me. Because of His Grace, and the faith given you we have cause of Joy, peace, and freedom from every earthly and worldly vice. Praise God for His Mercy. Let us pray; Dear Heavenly father, your Son Jesus teaches us to come to you for our burdens for our peace and to find true peace as we walk this life. Help us to see your Son always as our prophet, to tell us what to do, as priest, who is our Lord and who gave himself up deafeating death for our peace, and King, who rules over creation and judges all things. To His Glory. Amen