John 11:33, “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,”
John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
Yesterday I caught a few minutes of the Glenn Beck radio program where he was discussing an organization that he was trying to raise a million dollars to help get it off the ground. The organization is known as Operation Underground Railroad and is being started by former government undercover agent and a team of former Navy Seals. Their mission is to rescue young children, many between the ages of 6-10 who are being kidnapped, right here in American and sold into sexual slavery. After he finished his appeal a listener called in and said when he heard what was happened to these children he wept. He went on to say that nothing affects him, he has listened to many appeals, but this is the first time he has ever wept over an appeal. When I heard this I instantly thought of the Hebrew and Aramaic word dama’.
The word for I weep is baki which has a numerical value of 32; the word for heart lev also has a numerical value of 32. The ancient Jewish sage used to teach that weeping and the heart are related for weeping comes from the heart. The root word for baki is bakah which is a weeping in the presence of God. There is another word for weeping in both Hebrew and Aramaic which is baka’ and is a weeping over one’s own grief. There is still another word in Hebrew and Aramaic and that is dama’ which is a weeping over the grieving heart of someone else. This is the weeping that this man experienced when he heard of the tragedy of these children. He was not a child who was being sold into slavery to be sexually abused, yet he grieved over the suffering of these children such that he was ready to take some action to relieve their suffering.
In John 11:33 Jesus found Mary and others weeping over the loss of Lazarus, this brother and friend too many and when He did He also wept. In the Greek two different words are used for weeping here. The word used for the weeping of Mary and the others is klaiousan which is a loud, lamenting, audible type of weeping. The Greek word used when Jesus wept was edakrysen from the root word dakryo which is to weep quietly, to shed tears in silence. The Aramaic Bible (Peshitta) uses the Aramaic word baka’ for the weeping of Mary and others. This is also a loud weeping and lamenting but it is also the weeping that is done for one’s own grief. When Jesus wept, the word that is used is dama’ which is a weeping over the grief of another. Jesus did not mourn over the loss of his friend for He knew where Lazarus was and that death was only a doorway to the presence of God. But He was still deeply moved by the grief of those who did not fully understand this and those who were going to miss the immediate presence of this brother and friend. His dama’ for others moved him to some action.
However, the Aramaic word dama’, although very similar to the Greek word dakryo goes much further in its Semitic roots. For dama’ has the idea of entering into someone’s heart and feeling their grief and pain. This man who wept over these children claimed he never wept over any other appeals. He said he wanted to present this to his church and get them involved to commit themselves to offering financial support for Operation Underground Railroad. I began to think if this man were not a man normally driven to tears by some appeal and was a member of a church where he must have heard numerous appeals, is it possible it was just not the grief and pain that these children he was feeling but that he had allowed himself to enter God’s heart and feel God’s grief over this tragedy.
Last spring during my week of silence I made a deal with God. We would cry on each other’s shoulder. If He would weep for me when my heart was broken, I would weep for Him when His heart was broken. Yesterday was such a day that God called me to keep my end of the bargain, for I too wept as I heard this story. However, I knew and recognized that I had once again entered God’s heart and found Him weeping over the suffering of these children and their families.
I have heard many Christians tell how sometimes during worship or sometimes not during worship they suddenly find themselves weeping for no reason at all. Or just some event which they would pass off and normally not be affected would suddenly drive them into deep sorrow and they would weep heavy, grieving tears. Have you ever experienced anything like this? If you are a follower of Jesus, I am sure you have at one time or another. We call it empathy, humans have that ability to mourn for others, they have the ability to dama’, but sometimes you need to recognize that these are not your tears, they are the tears of the ones you are weeping over. But you must also recognize that they may also be the tears of God who is suffering over the same tragedy. There are times that God will invite you into His heart to share His grief, his sorrow, to weep with Him.
For many of us our time of worship is Happy Hour, happy, happy, happy, oh so joyful. Indeed, when you worship God He invites you into His heart to share his joy, to experience this joy with others and to dance in that hall of joy and celebrate. Yet, there is another room to His heart, His quiet room, His weeping room; sometimes He will trust you enough to invite you into that room. Are you willing to weep with Him; are you willing to share in His sorrow, His suffering as Paul commands in Romans 8:17?
Here is the website for that organization
http://www.undergroundrailroad.org/
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