EYES THAT HAVE CRIED
Romans
12:9-21
John
11:28-37
"Weep
with those who weep."
"Jesus
began to weep."
Last week, as you know, I was at the Kairos Conference in
Johannesburg. You can read about it in
the recent Volmoed Newsletter where you can also see Alyson's wonderful
painting of the women in Jerusalem who journeyed with Jesus to the cross. And, of course, I was there, in the Catholic
Cathedral in Soweto when Alyson's painting was displayed in public for the
first time. But let me recount another experience I had on the previous evening of
the Conference. We were all entertained
by the Mayor of Johannesburg at a splendid banquet held in the Sandton
Conference Centre. It was the first time
that I had been there, and what a huge and splendid place it turned out to
be! And I was honoured to be asked to
sit at the Mayor's table, which made it even more special for me. At the end of the banquet we bordered the bus
that was to take us back to our hotel in Empire Road near the University of
Johannesburg, and I found myself sitting next to a Palestinian Christian woman from
Jerusalem whom I had met earlier in the day.
During the next half hour, as we journeyed along the darkened
highways of the city, she poured out her soul to me about the situation she faced
every day of her life in East Jerusalem as a result of the Israeli occupation,
and the ongoing settler confiscation of Palestinian property and land. She told me about her family and what was
happening to young Palestinians she knew, about the way in which they were
humiliated and were losing hope. As she
did so, I became aware that she was crying like the women of Jerusalem cried on
the way to the cross and at its foot.
Her story was too painful to tell without tears. The next day, during one of the sessions,
someone remarked: "some things can only be seen through eyes that have
cried." I knew this already,
because everyone who has lost a child or someone dear to them knows its
truth. But its truth was reinforced for
me in a new way.
In his letter to the Romans Paul describes the marks of a
true Christian. We read the passage this
morning. It begins with the words
"Let love be genuine" and then in a few terse, but telling sentences, Paul describes how such love works itself out
in practice. Amongst these is his injunction
that we should not only "rejoice with those who rejoice," but
"weep with those who weep." I
have always thought that we should cry with those who cry in order to express
our empathy and solidarity, which is, of course, true. But now I also see that it is only as we weep
with those who weep that we begin to see
things that have been previously hidden and obscured. For "some things can only be seen
through eyes that have cried." And
that is undoubtedly true in Palestine and in all places of suffering.
Jesus once said that those who weep now are blessed, and he
himself regularly wept. He wept over
Jerusalem, he wept in Gethsemane, and he wept with Mary and Martha at the tomb
of their brother Lazarus in Bethany not far from Jerusalem. As we read from the gospel: 'When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews
who came with her weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply
moved. He said, "Where have you
laid him?" They said to him,
"Lord come and see," and Jesus began to weep.' As Jesus saw reality through their eyes, he
began to weep with them. So it is that our
solidarity with those who nightly shed tears and daily cry until their eyes are
empty of moisture, only starts when we see their world through their weeping and
our weeping with them.
As the rain poured down early on Tuesday morning and I
looked out of our bedroom window at the Hemel en Aarde Valley, it was difficult
to see the trees and the contours of the land.
The rain almost blotted out the view as do tears when we are
crying. But the rain also washed away
the dust as do tears cleanse our sight.
And as heaven's tears ceased so I saw the valley clothed with a crisp
freshness and I could see it with a new clarity. Such are the AHA moments that come when we
weep with those who weep. And while it
was still raining in the early hours of Tuesday morning Isobel wrote this poem
mindful of the meditation I was preparing:
Looking through Tears
You
see the view through spectacles,
spectacles
that colour the scene,
a
highlight here, but too dark in that corner to see,
tilting
the view and infusing all with a deceptive glow,
making
well what is not well.
But
some see the same view through tears,
tears
that spring from experience,
that do not blur the scene,
but
that clarify reality;
tears
that flow like a river of redemption.
When we are tempted to switch off the TV or change channels
in order to avoid seeing the horrors that confront us even in our lounges far
from reality on the ground, we should pause for a moment because we are glimpsing,
even if only remotely, the suffering in the eyes and through the tears of those
who are living through today's terrible traumas. For it is only then that we can weep with
those who weep even in our comfort zones. How true that is as we try to
understand the plight of all those who suffer in our own time, whether in South
Africa or Syria, the Philippines or Palestine, or in Alexander Township which
was so near and yet so far from the Sandton Conference where we had that
splendid dinner last week. The truth is,
we see and understand the reality of their plight only when we begin to see it
through their tears, "when we weep
with those who weep."
As the final chapters in the Bible in the book of Revelation
draw to a close; after we have read
about the struggle between the faithful followers of Christ and the Roman
Empire -- and all empires from then until now; after we have read about the ravages
of war and the suffering of the saints -- as though what we have read has been written
again for us today, written to help us weep with the women of Jerusalem and
everyone in all corners of the globe where tears are shed, we come to these words of encouragement and
hope:
Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth,,, and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven...and I
heard a loud voice from the throne saying:
See, the home of God is among
mortals.
He will dwell with them as their
God,
they will be his peoples,
and God will be with them,
and he will wipe every tear from
their eyes... (Rev.21:1-4)
John
de Gruchy
Volmoed 27 August 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment