Dr. Ron Sumners
February 5, 2006
Penthos is the Greek word for it. There is simply no good English equivalent. It is a frequent experience for those who walk across the pages of the Bible, and a recurring theme of Christian writers through the years. Penthos means a broken and contrite heart. It means inward, godly sorrow. It means blessed, holy mourning. Penthos means deep, heartfelt compassion. Above all, it means the Prayer of Tears.
Gregory of Nyssa said of Saint Ephrem, "When I start to remember his floods of tears I myself begin to weep, for it is almost impossible to pass dry-eyed through his ocean of tears. There was never a night or day ... when his vigilant eyes did not appear bathed in tears." Abba Anthony declared, "Whoever wishes to advance in building up virtue will do so through weeping and tears."
What is this Prayer of Tears? It is being "cut to the heart" over our distance and offense to the goodness of God (Acts 3:37). It is weeping over our sins and the sins of the world. It is entering into the liberating slavery of repentance. It is the intimate and ultimate awareness that sin cuts us off from the presence of God.
On the morning of October 18, 1740, David Brainard, a missionary to native North Americans, wrote in his journal, "My soul was exceedingly melted, and bitterly mourned over my exceeding sinfulness and vileness. I never before had felt so pungent and deep a sense of the odious nature of sin as at this time. My soul was then unusually carried forth in love to God and had a lively sense of God's love to me."
I have found that after my heart surgery a few years ago, I am much more emotional than I used to be. I cry easily. Recently I experienced a special grace of the soft rain of tears. I had been praying considering my sin and the sin of God's people. My heart began to ache because of the way that so many of you cheat yourself out of all that God has for you, and all the foolish, rebellious decisions I have made through the years. As I did this, God graciously helped me enter into holy mourning on behalf of myself and the church; but also, a tear-filled thanksgiving at God's patience, love, and mercy toward us. As Micah 7:18 tells us, "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity?"
Men and women who march across the pages of scripture were well acquainted with the grace of tears. In his anguish, Job declares, "My eye pours out tears to God" (Job 16:20). Crushed over the sin and desolation of Moab, Isaiah cries out, "I weep with the weeping of Jazer; I drench you with my tears ... " (Isaiah 16:9).
Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet," and the reputation is well-deserved. "O that my heart were a spring of water," he moans, "and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!" (Jeremiah 9:1).
Almost every page of the Psalms is filled with the tears of their singers. "I am weary with my mourning," cries David, "every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping" (Psalm 6:6). Weeping, in fact, is such a habitual practice for David that he could appeal to his tears as a witness before God: ''You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?" (Psalm 56:8). The Psalmist who so beautifully describes our soul's thirst for God as a deer longing for streams of water goes on to confess, "My tears have been my food day and night" (Psalm 42:3).
Consider Jesus, who "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" (Hebrews 5:7). See Him weeping over His beloved Jerusalem, "How often I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not!" (Matthew 23:37). Matthew says, "Blessed are they that mourn." (Matt. 5:4). Luke echoes with, "blessed are they that weep!" (Luke 6:21).
Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, "I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart with many tears."
What is it with all this weeping and mourning? It sounds a bit depressing. Aren't Christians supposed to be happy? We live in a day of a religion of good feeling and prosperity. The old writers had a very different view. For them the people to be most pitied are those who go through life with dry eyes and cold hearts. They actually called this anguish of heart "deep joy."
Joy is the most obvious result of a heart perpetually bowed in contrition. One of the characteristics of true faith is the overflowing joy that comes from true repentance and a broken heart. Psalm 126:5 says, "May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy."
The most rock-bottom reality for the Prayer of Tears is that we are sinners. I do not mean that we commit sins - though that is true! I am not talking about activity, but the reality of our separation from God. We are not sinners because we do sinful acts; rather, we commit sinful acts because we are sinners! We are born into sin because of our humanity. Every precious baby born into this world is a sinner long before they have the will to do a sinful act.
The New Testament opens with the call from John the Baptist, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." The refrain was taken up by Peter at Pentecost, and finally our Bible closes with Jesus' call to the seven churches to repent and turn to God's way.
It is the cross of Jesus that makes repentance possible. In a mysterious way, through the shedding of His blood, Jesus took upon Himself all the evil and all the hostility of all the ages and redeemed it. He reconciled us to God. He restored the personal relationship that had been shattered by sin. By means of the cross, Christ opens the "spigot of grace," as one writer called it.
Christ died and passed through death "making captivity captive," as Paul said in Ephesians 4:8. Then on the third day, Jesus burst forth from death's grip, and the first act of the Resurrected Christ was to institute the ministry of confession and forgiveness. (John 20:23).
While this is true, we must respond to God's offer of repentance. We must daily confess and repent. We must turn and turn and turn and turn until we turn around right! The Prayer of Tears is the primary aid to our turning. So how do we pray the Prayer of Tears?
God never despises "a broken and contrite" heart (Psalm 51: 17). But the real question for us is: how do we experience this contrite heart? How do we develop a grieving, broken, sorrowing, repentant heart?
We begin by asking for God to give it to us. I wish this didn't sound so trite, but it is an absolute essential. It is a gift from God, pure and simple. It is a gift that God loves to give to those with the spiritual maturity to ask. So, we ask God for weeping, lamenting hearts. "Lord," we pray, "let me receive the gift of tears. Let me care enough about my sin and the sin and lost nature of the world that my heart breaks and tears flow."
Like the tax collector in the parable, we plead, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). We join with the multitude through the ages who have thrown themselves on the mercy and grace of God, asking for the gift of repentance. At times our prayer may be reduced down to one word: "Mercy!"
Second, we confess. We acknowledge our lack of faith and our hardheartedness. We confess our sins without excuse. C.S Lewis notes, "The true Christian's nostrils are to be continually attentive to the inner cesspool." Paul anguished, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
We have no room for excuses or rationalization. We must say with the old confession, "By my own fault, my own most grievous fault."
Third, we confess. Our God, who is faithful and just - and also full of mercy - will forgive and will cleanse. Like the father of the prodigal son, He rushes to us at the first sign of our turning toward home.
Even more, through the power of Christ, we release within people the spirit of forgiveness and compassion. The entire eighteenth chapter of Matthew is devoted to Jesus' teaching on the giving and receiving of forgiveness, and right in the middle of that discussion Jesus promises us, ''Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." We bind and subdue bitterness and hardheartedness and we release forgiveness and tenderheartedness!
Fourth, we obey. It is not enough to ask God for a soft heart and freely confess our sins. Embedded in the word of forgiveness is the call to obedience. If we do not adhere to the clear admonitions from the word of God, if we are not actively involved in the work of redemption, if we have not forgiven our brother, if we have not been our brother's keeper; we have not prayed the Prayer of Tears.
I want to conclude this sermon with a few words to those who cannot weep. I know what this is like because I was like that for most of my life. If this is the case with you, allow me to share a few ideas.
Do not let yourself get away with the "I'm just not the emotional type." Also remember that you did not take on the "I am a rock, I am an island" attitude overnight, and it will take more than a day to change your ingrained habits. Build new habits of prayer, and patience and kindness.
Next, if you will immerse yourself in the Gospels, they will cure you of the "stiff upper lip" religion that we practice. When you cannot weep outwardly, shed tears before God in your intentions. Have a weeping heart. Keep your soul in tears over the souls of others. Even if the eyes are dry, the mind and the spirit can be broken before God.
Finally, as you wait patiently for the baptism of tears to come, rest in these words, "The fire of sin is intense, but it is put out by a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults, and cleans our wounds of sin."
A country pastor went to see a man in the community who was an avowed agnostic. He had nothing to do with the church or things of God. Despite this, he was a friendly and likable sort, and he developed a friendship with this pastor. The pastor visited the man numerous times and shared the Gospel over and over. The man was always polite but showed little interest or concern to the preacher's pleadings.
One day the preacher was driving home and decided to stop one more time at the home of this man. He was warmly received by the man, who genuinely liked the humble preacher. Once again, the preacher asked the man to accept Christ as Savior. Once again, the man politely declined. The preacher asked, "Do you mind if l pray for you before I go?" “No, preacher, I don't mind. I probably need the prayer and the practice will do you good too," replied the man.
So, the preacher began to pray holding tightly to the man's right hand. He thought of this man, who had become a good friend, spending eternity apart from God and his heart was broken. The tears began to seep from his eyes as he pleaded with God to touch the heart of this man. His warm, wet tears fell on the hand that he was holding and soon he realized that his tears were mingled with those of the man.
The man confessed Jesus as Savior and they rejoiced together. The preacher asked, "Why today? Why did you respond today after all the times I have been here?" The man replied, "Your tears burned a hole in my soul!"
My prayer for me and each of you is that we may know the joy of the Prayer of Tears.
Gracious Jesus, it is easier for me to approach you with my mind rather than with my tears. I do not know how to pray from the emotive center of my life or even how to get in touch with that part of me. Still, I come to you just as I am.
I am sorry for my many rejections of your overtures of love. Please forgive all my offenses against your law. I repent of my callous and insensitive ways. Break by stony heart with the things that break your heart.
Jesus, you went through the trial of unashamed agony and wept tears of deep, deep sorrow. In remembrance of your sorrow, help me weep over my sin ... and my sins.
Amen.
Comments