"Crying For Love"
March 20, 2005

The Old Testament Lesson: Jeremiah 6: 6 - 10
The New Testament Lesson: Luke 19: 37 - 44

We must learn to have the same burden for the world as Jesus did!

I.  When Jesus looked at people, he had compassion for the “lostness”
   A. From the top of the Mt. of Olives, the whole of Jerusalem is seen
        1. You find yourself over looking the east side of the city.
            a. You can see over the wall and right into the temple complex.
            b. In Jesus’ day, you’d have seen plenty of people at daily activities.
        2. I wonder what the various disciples saw as they looked down: scripture doesn’t say, but knowing their tendencies we can guess.
            a. Peter probably would have seen the people as fish to be caught.
            b. Simon the Zealot: prospective soldiers to be recruited.
            c. Judas Iscariot: perhaps he saw pigeons to be caught.
            d. John the beloved who was closest to Jesus’ heart was disquieted as he sensed the Master’s turmoil.
        3. When Jesus looked, he saw their spiritual state.  And he wept!
        4. they were simply about their normal business
            a. For them there was nothing unique or special about this day
            b. If anything, they were busier with holiday preparations.
            c. They needed to get things done before it was too late.
            d. But it was already too late!
        5. As Jesus says, this is the crucial moment in their history.
            a. The gift that God promised was standing on the hill above them.
            b. Jesus called it: the time of their Visitation!
            c. For 3 years they had an opportunity to recognize the opportunity
            d. But they had missed the moment!
        6. So Jesus wept.
            a. Destruction was just around the corner.
            b. As he said in another place, they were sheep without a shepherd.
            c. The tragedy: the Good Shepherd was in their midst!
            d. Jesus felt compassion for their “lostness”
   B. You know, you can get that same perspective of Ogden from the bench.
        1. Each morning as I run, I see Ogden spread before me.
            a. You can see the lights twinkle with the early morning.
            b. Sometimes, I see better than others.
        2. When you look at Ogden, What do you see?
            a. Do you see people doing just fine about their daily business?
            b. Do you see people who have all that they need to get along?
            c. Do you see friends, family, neighbors and business opportunities?
            d. Are these the same things Jesus would see?
        3. I believe that Jesus would repeat the seen on the Mt. of Olives.
            a. He would have a new compassion for the lost in our city, neighborhoods and our homes.
            b. He would feel our aloneness, our directionlessness and pain

II.  We need to LEARN to see our city in the same way as Jesus did.
   A. It is not an easy task!
        1. We are usually so busy about our own business, we don’t think.
        2. There are so many things we have to do.
        3. At times, we all avoid even pleasant contacts to get things done.
        4. There’s just not enough time to do it all already without more.
        5. But are we doing the things God is calling us to do?
   B. It is painful to live with the burden of others’ needs.
        1. There is so much need that it is often overwhelming.
            a.. There are the homeless, the sick, the elderly, and mentally ill.
            b. They need: food, clothes, jobs, housing, friendship, and more!
            c. The task seems too big!
        2. Richard Foster related a story about a woman feeling this way
            a. As a professional woman, she was well aware of the needs.
            b. She said “Global consciousness is what I really hate!  It is spoiling my life.  I can’t stand to have all those pictures of misery, violence and injustice in the world dumped into my living room through the TV!”
            c. Those images lay a burden on us.
        3. Do you think Jesus didn’t feel this overwhelming burden?
            a. Why do you think he wept?
            b. He knew that even He didn’t have the power to change it.
            c. The only ones who can change it are us.
   C. It calls us to action!
        1. The burden of the Lost must be upon our hearts.
        2. We are the ones who have responded to the truth.
            a. Knowing what God wants, we can’t turn away.
            b. We must embrace the burden and do what we can.
        3. When enough do that, the burden, with the needs will disappear.

Once, when anthropologist Margaret Mead had finished a lecture, a listener asked, What is the earliest sign of civilization.  He was expecting something like a sharpened stone or a clay pot.  Dr. Mead replied “a healed femur.”  She explained the answer this way.  “A healed femur indicates that someone had to hunt, fish and gather for the other person long enough for their leg to heal.  Where the law of the jungle reigns, it is survival of the fittest.  A broken leg was a death sentence.  A healed femur demonstrates that one person had enough compassion to care for them until they healed.  That is the earliest sign of civilization: compassion!”

Friends, if we have seen anything about God’s love in the life of Jesus it is this one trait: compassion.  That is love that reaches out to another because it feels the burden of another’s need.  It reaches out only to help not for gain.  In our lives, we need to learn that lesson of compassion.  And we must let it start with our compassion for the Christ, who cried over Jerusalem and who at this very moment weeps over Odgen.  Will you be one who will share Jesus’ burden?

Charge:

I want to give you an assignment this morning.  Sometime this next week, walk or drive up to the bench.  Spend some time there praying for what you see before you.  Perhaps in your mind’s eye, you will see Jesus standing beside you.  You’ll know who he is, he’ll be the one weeping.  And if you cry with him, so much the better.  Remember, you’re crying for love!

 And as you go from this place, may you walk in the way of Christ Jesus and May God always find you faithful!