Hope in the Tears

Laura Digan September 17, 2026 1 0

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

Luke 19: 41-44 (NIV-UK)

41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you.’

Jesus stops.

Before him lies Jerusalem — beautiful, beloved, and blind to the tragedy that is gathering around it.

And Jesus weeps.

Not polite tears. Not a single tear carefully brushed away. He breaks down before the city he loves.

This is our Christ.

Not a bloodless symbol. Not a cardboard cut-out untouched by the cruelty and consequences of human systems. Jesus sees where violence, pride and blindness are leading — and his heart breaks.

Perhaps we need to recover the tears of Jesus.

Because there are things in our world that should make us weep. Cities shattered by war. Children going hungry. Creation groaning. People pushed aside by systems that have forgotten how to see them.

Jesus does not look away.

He weeps.

And strangely, there is hope in those tears.

For Christ does not observe our suffering from a distance.

He comes close.

He cries with the crying, sits beside the broken-hearted, and weeps with a wounded world.

Prayer:

Jesus, break our hearts for what breaks yours, and open our eyes to what we have chosen not to see.

Turn our tears into courage, our compassion into action, and our prayers into footsteps.

Send us out to heal, to challenge, to love — and to become makers of your peace. Amen.