Can God weep and rejoice at the same time?
Posted on September 23, 2009 by Pastor Tom
This week, we received news of the sudden passing of a 15 year old girl closely connected to some friends of ours. We also received news about the successful surgery and cancer free prognosis of one of our church member’s nieces. We sorrow and rejoice at the same time. How do we deal with these conflicted moments? We need to turn to God who does the same thing. Joni Eareckson Tada writes on this in today’s thought.
Man of Sorrows… Lord of Joy
”...I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
—John 17:13
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering….
—Isaiah 53:3
Can God laugh and weep at the same moment? Jesus himself was “full of joy” yet Isaiah called him “a man of sorrows.” We mortals know joy and pain together. A father stands at the altar and sighs deeply as he gives his daughter’s hand in marriage. A woman finally lands that long-coveted job, but in taking it must leave behind familiar friends and the town she loves. A mother watches her son languish behind prison bars, but sees the experience bring the rebellious young man to repentance and salvation. We are “sorrowful, but always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
This is understandable for humans, but how can God be sorrowful yet always rejoicing? My friend Steve Estes comments: “Perhaps the answer lies in his ability to know all things and to see the eternal picture. God does look down on this world and weep. But the world’s twistedness did not catch him by surprise. He knew that humans would fall into sin. He knew that immeasurable sorrow would be let loose. He knew the suffering it would cost his Son. But God decreed to permit man’s Fall because he knew how he would resolve it: that Jesus would die, that his church would eventually triumph through innumerable trials, that Satan’s fingers would be pried off the plant, that justice would be served at the final judgment, that heaven would make up for it all, and that God would receive more glory – and we would know more joy – than if the Fall had never happened.”
Jesus is “man of sorrows” and “Lord of joy” because, as the Son of God, he sees enough of the coming ecstasy to make up for the present agony. And God sees this glorious end as clearly as if it were today. This is why God can be truly and utterly happy and yet actually and really grieve.
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Lord, help me to learn to live in you today, so that I may see the coming ecstasy and realize it makes up for my present hurt and heartache. Help me to be rejoicing while I am sorrowful.
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