“My Lord, my Lord why have you forsaken me” (Mathew 27:46). The response to the painful cry of the Son God was poignant silence from God the Father. The people who gathered around Jesus may have thought that the cries of Jesus were in vain. The Lord waited until three days to give a fitting response to Jesus’ cry through the glorious resurrection of His son. The destiny of man is to be one with the ashes. But the cries of Jesus were so powerful that Jesus overcame to death and resurrected gloriously on the third day.

A cry rising out of a broken spirit never goes unanswered and this is vouched by the word of God. Hagar thought there was no one to hear her cries in the desert that day (Genesis 16: 1-13). The scripture places instances and shows us a God who hears the cry of the poor. The Lord calls Moses to rescue the Israelites from the slavery saying: “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me” (Exodus 3:9). Jesus thanked the Father saying “Father, I thank you that you have heard me (John 11:41) before raising Lazarus from death. Jesus knew that he had the power to raise Lazarus from his death but still the Bible records that Jesus wept for Lazarus (John 11:35). Through this the Lord Jesus teaches us that God values our tears. The Psalmist reminds us, in Psalm 56:8, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”

The tears have the power to change the fate of man. The thieves who were crucified along with Jesus were destined to go to hell due to their sins. But the cry of the good thief, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42) was heard and the doors of the heavens opened that day for him.

We must remember that the tears we shed in front of God is never wasted and just as he heard the cry of Jesus at the ordained time, He will hear our cries and comfort us too. Replenished with this thought let us continue to cry in the presence of the Lord.

Fr Bineesh Mankunnel CST