What Makes You Weep?

By: Lane Palmer at Dare 2 Share

A GUY’S REVIEW OF LES MISERABLES:

Went to the movies with my wife. We saw this obscure movie I never had hear of, some French foreign film. They must have been giving away free tickets because the lines were out the door. Anyway, the movie starts and Wolverine is singing his guts out. Then Catwoman starts crying and singing, and it’s all very moving. The only problem was, the girl next to me, who apparently read the book or something, starts singing along. It was very distracting. So Wolverine is on the run from the Gladiator because Catwoman had a baby at Borat’s house, but now she wants Wolverine to care for her. Time skip. A bunch of kids get shot, and in the end everyone dies. Four stars.                                                                         —Sam Richardson

Of course, a girl’s review of Les Miserables would read very differently.  Word on the ’net is that this may be the - and I quote – “weepiest film of all time.”

I figured out the reason it’s called “the miserable ones,” because I’m pretty sure more people die in this film than in Saving Private Ryan.

“I cried more at this movie than the two family funerals that I’ve attended,” writes one reviewer, so if you’re heading out to see the latest spin on Hugo’s classic novel, you apparently would be wise to stuff your pockets with tissue in anticipation of the teary deluge that awaits us all.

Crying is a weird thing, isn’t it?  I believe tears come from two places - obviously when we are overcome with emotion in response to tragedy and loss, but we also weep when we see and hear the things we love with all our hearts.

And when these two places collide in our hearts, we experience an emotional cascade that few dare to process.  We love to stay in control of our hearts and we fear looking foolish if we “let it all out,” but that is not the way God designed us.

How do I know? Well…let’s go back in time to another “les miserable” situation to see how Jesus reacted:

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and sickness.

When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:35-38).

If anyone ever had a reason to become cynical and hardhearted, it was Jesus.  With the kind of rejection He faced, who could blame Him if He just pulled up stakes and returned to heaven?

But when He looked out at the very people who despised Him, He was “moved with pity and sympathy.”  The Greek word here is “splakna” - which literally means “to spill your guts.”

In other words, when our Savior gazed at the multitudes of “les miserables,” what His eyes took in caused an emotional collision of calamity and compassion in His soul. Jesus looked past their attitudes towards Him and saw the reality of their world-

Harassed.

Distressed.

Dejected.

Helpless.

Feeble sheep wandering in a perilous wilderness of guilt, shame, and hopelessness.

At the same moment, Jesus was also moved with compassion as He saw and heard the people He created and loved with all His heart. When those two forces met head on in the core of His being, He didn’t attempt to keep control or hold back.

Can’t you just see the tears flowing as He passionately begged and beckoned His disciples to spill their guts and reach out to them with the gospel?

So what makes you weep?  Movies?  Books? Hugh Jackman singing?  Perhaps it is time for us to recognize that everywhere we look there are people who truly are “the miserable ones” because they have never found the love, forgiveness and acceptance that comes from knowing and following Jesus Christ.

Your friends are harassed by the guilt of their past.

Your friends are distressed about the uncertainty of their future.

They are oftentimes dejected and helpless because there is a hole in their soul that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can fill.

God is looking to send workers who will spill their guts for THE Cause to bring in a harvest of hurting people-

Are you one of them?