November 5, 2017 A + D - Revelation 7:[2-8] 9-17
No More Tears
+ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +
Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. Do you remember the commercials for it when we were kids? What was their slogan? Right! No more tears! Psalm eighty-four verses five and six say: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.” We have to go back to the Middle English of the Wycliffe Bible of 1395 to see the Hebrew “Valley of Baca” rendered as “Vale of tears.”1 It is from this one and only passage of Scripture that we have the phrase “Vale of tears” passed down to us, and ingrained in our language.
When I was a child, I used to think it was a “veil” of tears. In a way it is a veil, the tears blur your vision, helping shut out the world from your sadness. We have the tendency to isolate ourselves from help, whether that help is our family, our neighbor, or even trying to hide from God. But, like Adam and Cain, God knows where we are and all the details of our circumstances.
This world truly is a vale of tears. We all encounter far too many opportunities to shed our tears. Tears are good! They relieve tension. They clean our eyes and clear our heads. It’s the reason for the tears we’d like to fix. There are dozens of books and television shows that try to convince us there is no reason to be sad, yet we come away with still more reasons for sadness than any actual relief. The medicine companies try to help, too! Remember the Zoloft commercials? There was a little white blob that was so sad, he just moped along through life. Then the medicine fixed him right up! We didn’t want the little blob to be sad, and we don’t want to be sad either. It turns out that for some, taking something that is supposed to make you feel less anxious can actually make you more anxious! Now over one in five of us, (closer to one in four!) are prescribed them! With these “magic pills” so commonplace, we should be the happiest society has ever been – yet sadness and grief remain. Sin remains. There are so many sources of tears. We all live them and are touched by them. Physical pain. Grief for those who are now gone. Loneliness and rejection. Sympathy for the suffering of others. Our own guilt for our sins. If we truly recognize all our sins and weaknesses, we would weep bitterly indeed.
The Psalms describe the grief of life in vivid pictures. “Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.”2 “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul.”3
Even in our happiest moments, there is often some sadness. A hug of welcome to a friend you haven’t seen in a long time has a touch of grief, knowing the visit will be all too brief. It is as though everything that has the touch of life and light is already headed for death and darkness. Even the great saints of old were not immune.
When we are tested to our limit, our remorse can be devastating in its depth. Peter told Jesus He would follow Him all the way to the cross and die at His side.4 But when push came to shove, He denied He even knew Jesus, not once but three times. When he caught Jesus’ eye across the courtyard that evening, realizing all he had said and done, he ran out and wept bitterly.5 Just reading about Peter’s betrayal brings tears to our own eyes – how can it not? - as we realize that we have sinned by what we have done and what we have left undone. Can’t you feel the depth of Peter’s misery that night? Does it cut us to the bone, because his betrayal mirrors our own failures to honor the Lord and do what is pleasing in His sight?
Even as we are broken down by sorrow in all its varied forms and degrees, we are pushed to the very limits of our capabilities. God uses the very worst experiences for good in the end.6 He used the very worst possible death to realize the absolute best outcome for each one of His saints – their eternal joy without end. We are also His saints. We too, look to the brutality of Christ’s death on the cross and by His resurrection are made to look with wondrous expectation toward the great day when our hearts will know only joy without end. A joy that cannot be taken away.
God is not deaf or blind to our weeping. He said to Moses from the burning bush “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry… for I am aware of their sufferings.”7 Think of all the tears we shed. Private tears, public tears, tears when we are alone, and tears when we are gathered together. God sees our tears and hears our weeping. David said to the Lord “You have taken account of my wanderings [and] put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?”8 Isn’t that a beautiful thought? But God has done more than notice our tears. He is not some heavenly accountant of misery! In His compassion for us, Christ entered the valley of our sorrows. Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus.9 But Jesus came to do so much more than simply cry with us. He came to do more than keep an account of our sorrow and pain. He came to remove the tears! When he encountered the funeral procession in Nain, He had compassion for the widow who had just lost her only son and told her not to weep before raising her son from the dead.10 When he told those gathered to mourn the passing of a man’s little daughter, He told them “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping” - and at first they laughed at Him. When He raised her from the dead, their tears dried immediately as their laughter of mocking changed to amazement and joy!11 To Mary Magdalene outside the tomb Easter morning, Jesus speaks her name and brings her resurrection joy that destroyed her tears.12 Jesus tells us to weep no more as He removes the causes of sorrow.
One day God will wipe away every tear – forever. This world is a vale of tears, but its tears are temporary. This is God’s promise! “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”13 “He who goes back and forth crying, carrying his bag of seeds, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing the fruits of his harvest with him!”14 Jesus tells us Himself: “Truly, truly I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy!”15 A day is coming when John’s vision is our vision as well. A huge multitude in white worshiping the lamb, Christ. No hunger, no thirst, no tears. The blood of the lamb will have made all the difference. In that day, God will wipe away every tear from every eye of the faithful - forever.
Wiping away the tears of another is the most intimate of gestures. It shows an active participation in that person’s emotions. It is not just sharing one’s sorrow, but promises hope: “Don’t cry - you’re not alone! I’m here to shoulder the burden, to put things right.” The broken becomes mended or at least patched up. No more tears. For now, we wait, and often we weep. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”16 As we wait for the day God dries all our tears, for the day when what was broken for so very long is not just patched up but perfectly remade, we look for opportunities to dry the tears of others, to extend to them God’s compassion – to bring to them the good news of Jesus crucified and resurrected – He who saw their tears, carried their sorrows, cleansed them by His blood, and who will one day wipe every tear from their eye.
Today, we celebrate God’s faithfulness to all the saints who have died in the faith, whose struggles and sorrows are over, whose tears have ended. God’s saints shed many tears in this world. But for His saints in heaven, there are no more tears, only joy. Bodies bent and twisted made straight and tall and strong. Voices clear and perfect and ears wide open to hear them. Eyes bright and able to see every last detail. And what a sight they see! It is the same sight we look forward to when we are reunited with them! They and we will behold the majesty of our Savior, and He will call us by name. He will reach out His nail-pierced hands to them and to us, and wipe away every tear.17
+ In the Name of Jesus, Amen. +
Now may the peace which surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts
and your minds focused on Christ Jesus.
+ Amen +
κήρυξον τὸν λόγον
1“valei of teeris”: Bishop’s Bible of 1568 has “vale of teares”: Latin Vulgate “valle lacrimarum”
2Psalm 31:9-10 (ESV).
3Psalm 42:3-4 (ESV).
4Matthew 26:35 – right after Jesus tells him what Peter is really going to do – deny him three times!
5Luke 22:61.
6This is the “scandal of the cross”: God taking what is evil and turning it to work His good will.
7Exodus 3:7 (NASB).
8Psalm 56:8 (NASB).
9John 11:35.
10Luke 7:11-17.
11Luke 8:49-56.
12John 20:11-16.
13Psalm 30:5b (NASB).
14Psalm 126:6 (paraphrase).
15John 16:20-22 (NASB).
16Matthew 5:4.
17The ideas in this paragraph were borrowed in part from Rev. Thomas J. Egger, Assistant Professor of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, particularly the last sentence. What a magnificent image of the day we meet our Lord in person!