THE FEELINGS OF JESUS

John 11:35; 1 Samuel 30:3,4; Genesis 43:30; 1 Samuel:20:41

It is remarkable that the shortest verse in the Bible should be just two words and that it should be those two words: “Jesus wept”. John could have written elsewhere that “Jesus rejoiced”, because He did rejoice. We know from other scriptures that even when everything was against Him, it says that “Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth …”, Luke 10:21. Then Paul speaks about rejoicing. He says, “rejoice always”, 1 Thess.5:16. The Christian can experience true joy and satisfaction. But I think that the Spirit would bring before us these words, “Jesus wept”, to emphasise the feelings of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ. We can take account of the character of our Lord Jesus and the feelings that marked Him, and these feelings are to mark us. We have been conscious of the feelings among the brethren as being here, and that is a wonderful thing – these feelings that we have in fellowship and in friendship. That friendship is based on our being lovers of God and lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this way, our own spirits are formed. It has been said that persons are what their spirits are. Believers are not exactly defined by what their intelligence is, although we are to grow in our knowledge of God and in an understanding of divine things as our brother mentioned on Lord’s day when we considered Ephesians 1. All these matters are to form us so that soul formation takes place in us and we become like Christ. That is really the essence of what we are. Our lives include what we say and what we do, but it is what we are as formed to be like Christ that matters most. In John 11, we have an example of that in the Lord’s movements when He saw Mary weeping. “Jesus therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled” and then it says, “Jesus wept”. He felt all that lay upon humanity as a result of death. In this chapter, He is seen as the Son of God who had come to relieve persons from the pressure and circumstance of death. I think it has been said that Jesus resented Satan for what he had brought in to press upon the spirits of persons such as Mary and the Jews. So it says simply, “Jesus wept”. How precious to consider that. There are other instances too of His feelings. He wept over Jerusalem. Think of the Lord’s feelings – what an example He is for us!

The second scripture in 1 Samuel 30 speaks of David. He is, of course, an example to us, both as a type of the believer and also as a type of Christ. David was a remarkable person, both a musical and a military man. How complete David was in spiritual experience and it is in him that we see the greatest expression in the Old Testament of praise and worship to God. Such is the person of David, and I was thinking of him as a type of Christ. We know the background to this scripture. There had been certain failings, a disaster had come in, but we can also consider this verse on its own. It says, “And David and his men” – typifying Christ and those that are with Him – “came to the city, and behold, it was burnt with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters were taken captives”. And then it says, “David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep”. It brings before us how Christ feels things in relation to what transpires in the world. We know that the assembly is really the chief interest of Christ at present, but nonetheless we have to feel what transpires in the world as Christ feels them, as God feels them. Paul writes to Timothy about prayer; first to pray “for all men; for kings and all that are in dignity” (1 Tim.2:2) and so it would be remiss of us to be stoical as to what falls upon our fellow men and women, and boys and girls. Think of what happened in Afghanistan recently; it is remarkable to think of God, of the Lord Jesus, seeing everything. We only see a small part of the sufferings that come upon humanity but we may say simply – God and our Lord Jesus see everything, and we can think of the feelings that They have as to the sufferings of humanity. It says of David’s men that they “lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep”. So we would carry in our feelings the sufferings which fall upon our fellow men.

We read in Genesis 43, where, you might say, it is coming closer to home: “And Joseph made haste, for his bowels burned for his brother; and he sought a place to weep, and he went into the chamber, and wept there”. Think of the feelings he had. We know the history. I suppose if anybody could have had ill feelings regarding his brother or his brethren, it would have been Joseph, because of all that had befallen him previously at his brothers’ hands. But he is not marked by ill feelings; it says, “his bowels burned for his brother”. What feelings to have for one another – not thinking about each other’s failings or flaws but thinking of each other as the brother for whom Christ died, the brethren for whom Christ died. Paul could speak of having bowels of compassion. So it says of Joseph that “he sought a place to weep”. It might mean for us that we have been before God, speaking to God about one another in a priestly way in concern for one and another. Perhaps we have more to say to each other about what we think of our brethren than what we have to say to God about them. I think it has been said that if we have power in God’s presence about each other, then we will have power with one another. We can approach a brother or a sister as having previously sought a place to weep. Joseph went into the chamber and wept there. What brotherly feelings he had. What trustworthy persons brethren like Joseph would be in our localities, carrying in their affections right feelings for each brother and sister.

And then lastly we read in 1 Samuel 20; it says, “The lad went, and David arose from the side of the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded”. What feelings there were between David and Jonathan. It was sad that Jonathan was not prepared to go all the way with David. How much he had loved David; it says earlier in 1 Samuel 18, “And it came to pass, when he had ended speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (v.1). It is remarkable that Jonathan only had to hear David speak to feel that bond, and David was not even speaking to him – he heard David speak to Saul. You might say, it was like a believer so enthralled with Christ that his soul is knit to Him. But then here the link is developed between Jonathan and David and it comes to this moment. What I had in mind to draw attention to was that in the middle of the verse that I read, it says, “and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded”. Nobody feels things more perfectly than Christ, and Christ’s love always exceeds. What an example He is to us – nobody loves His own more than Christ loves them. What a One we have as an example! What a One we have as a great High Priest, One who would help us in this matter of formation and feeling for one another. May we be encouraged, for His name’s sake.

Given in a meeting for ministry, Calgary

6 October 2021

James Drummond