“Jesus wept”. By definition the word ‘Weep’ means to lament with tears. I was taught in Catechism School (that catholic upbringing) and in CRE class (for those who remember what CRE is, you are legends! LOL!), that this verse, “Jesus wept”, is the shortest verse in the Bible. It comes just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11.
For the longest time, I thought this was the only time Jesus wept or shed tears in the Bible. Turns out there are two other instances of Jesus crying in the Bible. In Luke 19:41 and in Hebrews 5:7-9. For real, look it up….. now you might wonder what made me think of this in the first place.
I’m a crier, like seriously, I cry at sappy movies, I cry when I’m sad, I cry when I’m overwhelmed, I cry when I’m really pissed off, but after a good cry, I feel so much better but I’m a woman so mostly it’s okay for me to cry because women are ’emotional’ right? I was watching something in TV the other day and a little boy was being told not to cry because it’s not manly and it really got me thinking; The Bible, for Christians at least, is the book of life, that gives us guidance and hope for our everyday life. The son of God, who takes away the sins of the world, cried at least 3 times during his ministry which lasted about three years. Now, if Jesus, fully man, fully God, can cry, shed tears, why do we hold ourselves, especially our men and boys to standards even our God does not hold us to? Why do we tell people that crying is a sign of weakness?
I genuinely wonder where the notion of men crying being unmanly came from. Are they not human, should they not express emotion? Then why did God give them the same tear ducts that He gave women? Why does the word of God show us that it is okay to cry and then get up and get things done? Scientifically, crying has a lot of benefits but in these really difficult of times, maybe the best reason is as an outlet for anger, frustration, pain and all other pent-up emotion, which we all, as human beings, really need every once in a while.
Increasingly, even women are being told that crying makes them look weak and they shouldn’t do it and that not crying makes them tough. I have been to funerals where people are told to stop crying because they are making others cry (This is literally what my aunt said to me at my own mother’s funeral). If grieving the loss of a loved one is not the time and place to cry, tell me what is. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, the bible says there is time for everything, a time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to be born, a time to die…… and on and on it goes. And for whatever it is worth, crying is not always an expression of negative emotion, people cry from positive emotions too. It is one way of expressing something that words cannot express.
I think that part of the reason mental health is becoming an increasing challenge in today’s world, is that most people have no coping mechanisms to process emotion and yes, we all as humans have emotion and not allowing people to comfortably express emotion means people are walking around with bottled up emotions that have to, one way or another, come out. Is crying the only answer? No, but it is a good start. If crying is considered being weak, being a sissy or any of those other words, I wonder, what does that make Jesus?
Jesus wept. Who are we mere mortals, men or women, not to cry?
The Musings of a Wandering Mind 