Life and Times of David. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. VIMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Life and Times of David. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. VI
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
How wonderful! The Son of God groaned and wept. Let us never forget
it. He, though God over all, blessed forever; though the resurrection
and the life; though the Quickener of the dead; though the Conqueror
of the grave; though on His way to deliver the body of His friend from
the grasp of the enemy--sample of what He will soon do for all who
belong to Him--yet, so perfectly did He enter into human sorrow, and
take in all the terrible consequences of sin, all the misery and
desolation of this sin-stricken world, that He groaned and wept! And
those tears and groans emanated from the depths of a perfect human
heart that felt as only a perfect human heart could feel--felt
according to God--for every form of human sorrow and misery. Though
perfectly exempt, in His own divine person, from sin and all its
consequences--yea, because exempt--He could in perfect grace enter
into it all and make it His own as only He could do.
"Jesus wept"! Wondrous, significant fact! He wept not for Himself, but
for others. He wept with them. Mary wept. The Jews wept. All this is
easily grasped and understood. But that Jesus should weep reveals a
mystery which we cannot fathom. It was divine compassion weeping
through human eyes over the desolation which sin had caused in this
poor world, weeping in sympathy with those whose hearts had been
crushed by the inexorable hand of death.
Let all who are in sorrow remember this. Jesus is the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever. His circumstances are changed, but His heart is
not. His position is different, but His sympathy is the same. "We have
not a high priest that can not be _touched_ with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from
sin." There is a perfect human heart on the throne of the Majesty of
the heavens, and that heart sympathizes with us in all our sorrows, in
all our trials, in all our infirmities, in all our pressure and
exercise. He perfectly enters into it all. Yea, He gives Himself to
each one of His beloved members here upon earth as though He had only
that one to look after.
How sweet and soothing to think of this! It is worth having a sorrow
to be allowed to taste the preciousness of Christ's sympathy. The
sisters of Bethany might say, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died." But if their brother had not died, they would
not have seen Jesus weeping, or heard His deep groan of sympathy with
them in their sorrow. And who would not say that it is better to have
the sympathy of His heart with us in our sorrow than the power of His
hand in keeping or taking us out of it? Was it not much better, much
higher, much more blessed, for the three witnesses in Dan. iii. to
have the Son of God walking with them in the furnace than to have
escaped the furnace by the power of His hand? Unquestionably.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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