Remember that even Jesus’ most scathing denunciation – a blistering diatribe against the religious leaders of Jerusalem in Matthew 23 – ends with Christ weeping over Jerusalem (v. 37). Compassion colored everything He did.
The Book on Leadership, 2004, p. 132.
After all the high-blown theories are offered about why Jesus wept, we finally come down to the simple truth: Jesus wept because He cared. When He heard the sobs of the sisters of Lazarus, Jesus simply could not hold back His own tears. I doubt He tried. And the Holy Spirit, along with the New Testament writers, seems proud of that (Lynn Anderson).
They Smell Like Sheep, Howard, 1997, p. 104-105. Used by Permission.
It is hard to imagine anything more tiresome and provoking than the conduct of Thomas… But it is impossible to imagine anything more patient and compassionate than our Lord’s treatment of this weak disciple… Our Lord has many weak children in His family, many dull pupils in His school, many raw soldiers in His army, many lame sheep in His flock. Yet he bears with them all and casts none away.
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.
See the contrary disposition of Christ and Satan and his instruments. Satan attacks us when we are weakest. But Christ will mend in us all the breaches sin and Satan have made. He “binds up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1). And as a mother treats most tenderly the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully bend down to the weakest people. He puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely for support on something stronger than themselves. So the vine clings to the elm. The church’s awareness of her weakness makes her willing to lean on her Beloved.
The Bruised Reed, Works, I:46.
I tell you, if He were to shut you out, dear soul, whoever you may be, if you go to Him, He would deny Himself. He never did deny Himself yet. Whenever a sinner comes to Him, He becomes his Savior. Whenever He meets a sick soul, He acts as his Physician… If you go to Him, you will find Him at home and on the look-out for you. He will be more glad to receive you than you will be to be received… I tell you again that He cannot reject you. That would be to alter His whole character and un-Christ Himself. To spurn a coming sinner would un-Jesus Him and make Him to be somebody else and not Himself any longer. “He cannot deny Himself” [2 Tim. 2:13]. Go and try Him; go and try Him.
He sheds tears for those that shed His blood.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 112.
