I Cried All the Way Home
Sermon
Lent: A Time of Tears
"Parting is such sweet sorrow" is a common saying. When parting comes for us, we may have our doubts about the "sweet" part, but we are sure of the "sorrow." It is sorrow for the one leaving. A certain man and woman were deeply in love, but they lived a thousand miles apart. Because of their work, they got to visit each other only at three-week intervals. They took turns flying to each other. After one such visit, the woman wrote her fiance, "I cried all the way home."
It is sorrow also for the one left behind. One of the very earliest memories of my childhood deals with tears of farewell. It occurred during World War I when I was only a few years old. It was a big event when a train load of young men left the region for Philadelphia to fight the Germans overseas. Our home was on a hillside overlooking a valley in which the Schuylkill river and railroad tracks could be seen. As the train left Pottsville, the engineer blew his whistle, and the recruits waved from the open windows of the coaches. As the custom was, my mother stood on our back porch waving farewell to the soldiers with a white tablecloth. When the train went around the mountain, out of sight, she folded the cloth. I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. I asked, "Why are you crying?" She explained, "Because they may never again come home."
Parting and saying farewell is a common experience of life. The time came for Jesus and the Disciples. The occasion was the Last Supper, and the place was at a secret Upper Room. Jesus made careful preparations for it. He realized that it was a farewell dinner. He said, "I have earnestly desired to eat this passover meal with you before I suffer." It was the last time they would be together as Man with men. In the future, it would be a meeting of Lord and believers. When they would meet again, because of Judas' suicide, there would be only eleven of them. At the Supper, Jesus told them this was the last time they would be together for a passover meal. He announced he would be leaving them. This announcement brought tears to their eyes. He saw those tears and so he said, "You have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice."
The Cause of Tears
We must admit that not everyone sheds tears at a time of parting and saying farewell. It can be, as sometimes it is said jokingly, "Glad you are dead, you rascal, you!" Or, we may say about a person's leaving, "What a relief! Things will be better now." A couple was having difficulty getting along. One day the wife said to her husband, "Sven, we are always disagreeing, arguing, and fighting. Why don't we ask God to take one of us, and then I can go and live with my sister?"
Love causes us to shed tears at a time of departure. This is what made the Last Supper a sorrowful occasion. Greater love had no one than Jesus, and surely love for Jesus made the men leave all and follow him. Love is that wonderful thing that draws us together, cements our relationship, and is not content until there is a oneness with the beloved. Love cannot stand separation in body or spirit, it is a spiritual magnet that never ceases to draw us together.
Separation and the point of departure cause tears to come to our eyes. We are sorry that we must part. You can see tears of love, when at an airport, wives and/or sweethearts hug and kiss and cry when their loved ones leave. At the time of the war on the Falkland Islands, we saw on TV scenes of tearful farewells when the British lads boarded a ship for the south Atlantic. The tears of love come when a child leaves home for the first time to go to college. A parent may shed tears at a wedding because it means that the son or daughter leaves the family to start a new home.
The final farewell is given at a funeral. Tears express the love mourners have for the deceased. Even Jesus had tears when his friend, Lazarus, died. As he stood with Mary and Martha outside Lazarus' grave, John says in the shortest verse of the Bible, "Jesus wept." As a parish pastor, I had funerals when not a tear was evident. It was a cold and depressing experience. I have often said, "If not one tear is shed for me at my funeral, I will consider my life a failure because I did not succeed in getting anyone to love me enough to shed a tear." But this does not say that all tears at a funeral are tears of love. Sometimes tears are shed copiously because they want people to think they dearly loved the deceased when they didn't. Or, they may weep because of guilt; they were sorry they did not love the deceased as they should have.
Another cause of tears is loyalty to the one leaving. Because of love, we grow close to each other. We become attached. Two hearts beat as one. We live together, fight battles together. and go through one crisis after another. On a preaching mission, I often visited the home of the pastor of the local church. In the family were two little girls. The younger one and I became close friends. When the mission was about to end, the little girl was upset that I was to leave. She cried to go with me. This upset her father, for he asked her, "Allison, how could you leave your daddy after all that we have been through together?" He was referring to the fact that he and his wife spent many anxious hours with her when she had a very serious kidney operation.
Breaking that relationship by departure brings tears. Isn't it true even with things? We feel sad when we have to sell the house in which we have lived for years. It had become a part of us. Even when we trade cars, we have a sad feeling when we leave the old car at the dealer's. Not even the smell of the new car atones for the at-home-ness we felt in the old car. Isn't it also true in the case of pets such as a dog? A pet can become a member of the family and is often a loyal companion. When the pet dies, the family may have a traumatic experience of grief. Some years ago two of my grandchildren had a dachshund which was run over by a car and killed. The hearts of the little girls were broken. They wept profusely. I helped them dig a grave in the backyard. They made a little cover for him. On the grave they picked some flowers, really weeds, and made a cross out of twigs for a marker of his grave. For a time they were inconsolable, but giving the dog a "proper" burial helped them to dry their tears. If we can get so closely attached to an animal, how much more do we mourn for a human who has departed.
The story of Ruth shows us how tearful we can get when a loved one leaves. Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, lost their husbands. Naomi decided to return to her native land, Israel. She and her husband and two sons went to Moab because of a famine in Israel at the time. Now that she is bereft of husband and sons, she decides to go back home. The three women had happy times together. They were a close family. Together they went through one bereavement after another. They had a common sorrow. When Naomi announces her plan to return, Ruth and Orpah were broken up. Then Naomi kissed them goodbye, and "they lifted up their voices and wept." While Orpah was persuaded to let Naomi go home, Ruth clung to her in love and loyalty, saying these poignant words: "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go, I will go ..." With tears Ruth begged to go with her to Israel. Seeing these tears of loyalty, Naomi did not have the heart to refuse her appeal.
And this was the cause of sorrow at the Last Supper. The Disciples were saddened by Jesus' announcement of departure - "So you have sorrow now." For three years they lived, walked, ate, drank, slept, and worked together until they were a cohesive band. The Twelve, except for Judas, became attached to Jesus. They admired and respected him. They believed he was the Messiah. They marvelled at his teaching and were astonished at his power of healing and his power over nature. What would they do, what could they be, what would happen to them if he left them? Because of their love and loyalty, they had tears in their eyes because he told them he was leaving them.
The Cure for Tears
The necessity in life to leave each other causes sorrow expressed in sincere tears. Is there a cure for this sadness? Can the tears be transformed to smiles? According to Jesus' words in our text, they can: "I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice." If there is no prospect of seeing each other or Christ again, the situation is hopeless. When we say "Goodbye" forever, we can truly weep with the words: "Alas, alas." On his way to Jerusalem, St. Paul stopped in Ephesus to bid them farewell. He told them that he would not be permitted to return and that this would be the last time they would see him. The elders walked him to the ship. Before boarding, they knelt down and prayed together. They all wept, hugged, and kissed Paul, "sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more."
Jesus did not have that kind of farewell with his Disciples. He promised they would see each other again and then their tears would turn to smiles. Likewise, we can have a parting with our friends and family like Jesus had. Even at the death of a loved one, we can say, "I will see you again." A Christian never says "Goodbye" in the final sense, but we can say as the Germans do, "Auf wieder sehen" - "upon seeing you again." It is like saying, "See you later" or "Till we meet again."
At the final departure of a Christian, we can say this because Christ told us he was going ahead to prepare a place for us in the heavenly mansions so that where he was, we might also be. This assumes that our friends and loved ones were in Christ and died in Christ. To be in him on earth is to be with him in heaven. This is our assurance that there will be a great and happy reunion in heaven - tears of joy, hugging, kissing, and rejoicing in seeing and having each other again. In order for this to be a future reality, we want to be sure that those we love here will be in heaven when we and they die. Is your friend in Christ? Is every member of your family a believer in Christ? Is this faith demonstrated by an active participation in the church?
Wouldn't it be terrible to get to heaven and our loved ones would not be there? There may be fewer in heaven than we think. A story is told of a man who went to heaven and each day he was served tuna fish. After a while, he got tired of the same food and he looked down to those in hell. He was amazed to see that they were eating filet mignon. Upset, he went to St. Peter to complain: "How is it that we in heaven get only tuna fish day after day and those in hell get filet mignon?" Peter explained, "Well, you see, it is hard to cook for only one!"
We are to see again not only our loved ones in Christ but Christ himself - "I will see you again." Christ, of course, is with us even now in spirit, but we are promised we shall see him in person when we get to heaven or when he returns to earth for the final judgment and wind-up of history.
This fact makes it hard for us to wait to see him. This was the case with Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians, he says that he longs to shed his physical, mortal body for a spiritual body that is "eternal in the heavens." He is anxious for a spiritual body to enable him to live with Christ in the spiritual realm. In fact, Paul was more anxious to die than to live. It was not that he was tired and disgusted with life on earth but that he wanted to be with the Lord. He wrote, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." What is the "gain"? It is being with and seeing Christ.
This certainly has some practical implications for each of us. It means that to want to see and be with Christ as soon as possible is to know and love him. Christ is the one we love the best, and love makes us want to be with him. Is it this way with you? Do you have this kind of relationship with Christ? For his part, he wants to be your best friend, your lover. He is waiting for you to respond in faith and to let him possess your mind and heart.
If we are to see Christ again, either at our death or when he comes again to earth, it changes our attitudes toward death. Apart from Christ, death is a horrible prospect. We so dread it that we refuse to think or talk about it. Since we know all of us must die some day, some hope that it will come suddenly so that there will be no time to fear its coming. If to die means to be with and see Christ again, then death is not so bad! In fact, we can look forward to it. Nor need we grieve when loved ones die, for they who died in Christ are with him. To see Christ is to see life. To be with Christ is to experience what the world could not give: peace, love, and joy. We can rejoice in what lies ahead for us and for what our dead in Christ are now enjoying.
There are times in life when "we cry all the way home." But through the tears will come a smile because "I will see you again." A Psalmist was right when he wrote, "Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning." The world describes a day as "from morning till night." But the Bible, in explaining creation, refers to a day as - "There was evening and there was morning." The evening of sadness leads to the morning of rejoicing, because "I shall see you again and your hearts will rejoice."
It is sorrow also for the one left behind. One of the very earliest memories of my childhood deals with tears of farewell. It occurred during World War I when I was only a few years old. It was a big event when a train load of young men left the region for Philadelphia to fight the Germans overseas. Our home was on a hillside overlooking a valley in which the Schuylkill river and railroad tracks could be seen. As the train left Pottsville, the engineer blew his whistle, and the recruits waved from the open windows of the coaches. As the custom was, my mother stood on our back porch waving farewell to the soldiers with a white tablecloth. When the train went around the mountain, out of sight, she folded the cloth. I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. I asked, "Why are you crying?" She explained, "Because they may never again come home."
Parting and saying farewell is a common experience of life. The time came for Jesus and the Disciples. The occasion was the Last Supper, and the place was at a secret Upper Room. Jesus made careful preparations for it. He realized that it was a farewell dinner. He said, "I have earnestly desired to eat this passover meal with you before I suffer." It was the last time they would be together as Man with men. In the future, it would be a meeting of Lord and believers. When they would meet again, because of Judas' suicide, there would be only eleven of them. At the Supper, Jesus told them this was the last time they would be together for a passover meal. He announced he would be leaving them. This announcement brought tears to their eyes. He saw those tears and so he said, "You have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice."
The Cause of Tears
We must admit that not everyone sheds tears at a time of parting and saying farewell. It can be, as sometimes it is said jokingly, "Glad you are dead, you rascal, you!" Or, we may say about a person's leaving, "What a relief! Things will be better now." A couple was having difficulty getting along. One day the wife said to her husband, "Sven, we are always disagreeing, arguing, and fighting. Why don't we ask God to take one of us, and then I can go and live with my sister?"
Love causes us to shed tears at a time of departure. This is what made the Last Supper a sorrowful occasion. Greater love had no one than Jesus, and surely love for Jesus made the men leave all and follow him. Love is that wonderful thing that draws us together, cements our relationship, and is not content until there is a oneness with the beloved. Love cannot stand separation in body or spirit, it is a spiritual magnet that never ceases to draw us together.
Separation and the point of departure cause tears to come to our eyes. We are sorry that we must part. You can see tears of love, when at an airport, wives and/or sweethearts hug and kiss and cry when their loved ones leave. At the time of the war on the Falkland Islands, we saw on TV scenes of tearful farewells when the British lads boarded a ship for the south Atlantic. The tears of love come when a child leaves home for the first time to go to college. A parent may shed tears at a wedding because it means that the son or daughter leaves the family to start a new home.
The final farewell is given at a funeral. Tears express the love mourners have for the deceased. Even Jesus had tears when his friend, Lazarus, died. As he stood with Mary and Martha outside Lazarus' grave, John says in the shortest verse of the Bible, "Jesus wept." As a parish pastor, I had funerals when not a tear was evident. It was a cold and depressing experience. I have often said, "If not one tear is shed for me at my funeral, I will consider my life a failure because I did not succeed in getting anyone to love me enough to shed a tear." But this does not say that all tears at a funeral are tears of love. Sometimes tears are shed copiously because they want people to think they dearly loved the deceased when they didn't. Or, they may weep because of guilt; they were sorry they did not love the deceased as they should have.
Another cause of tears is loyalty to the one leaving. Because of love, we grow close to each other. We become attached. Two hearts beat as one. We live together, fight battles together. and go through one crisis after another. On a preaching mission, I often visited the home of the pastor of the local church. In the family were two little girls. The younger one and I became close friends. When the mission was about to end, the little girl was upset that I was to leave. She cried to go with me. This upset her father, for he asked her, "Allison, how could you leave your daddy after all that we have been through together?" He was referring to the fact that he and his wife spent many anxious hours with her when she had a very serious kidney operation.
Breaking that relationship by departure brings tears. Isn't it true even with things? We feel sad when we have to sell the house in which we have lived for years. It had become a part of us. Even when we trade cars, we have a sad feeling when we leave the old car at the dealer's. Not even the smell of the new car atones for the at-home-ness we felt in the old car. Isn't it also true in the case of pets such as a dog? A pet can become a member of the family and is often a loyal companion. When the pet dies, the family may have a traumatic experience of grief. Some years ago two of my grandchildren had a dachshund which was run over by a car and killed. The hearts of the little girls were broken. They wept profusely. I helped them dig a grave in the backyard. They made a little cover for him. On the grave they picked some flowers, really weeds, and made a cross out of twigs for a marker of his grave. For a time they were inconsolable, but giving the dog a "proper" burial helped them to dry their tears. If we can get so closely attached to an animal, how much more do we mourn for a human who has departed.
The story of Ruth shows us how tearful we can get when a loved one leaves. Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, lost their husbands. Naomi decided to return to her native land, Israel. She and her husband and two sons went to Moab because of a famine in Israel at the time. Now that she is bereft of husband and sons, she decides to go back home. The three women had happy times together. They were a close family. Together they went through one bereavement after another. They had a common sorrow. When Naomi announces her plan to return, Ruth and Orpah were broken up. Then Naomi kissed them goodbye, and "they lifted up their voices and wept." While Orpah was persuaded to let Naomi go home, Ruth clung to her in love and loyalty, saying these poignant words: "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go, I will go ..." With tears Ruth begged to go with her to Israel. Seeing these tears of loyalty, Naomi did not have the heart to refuse her appeal.
And this was the cause of sorrow at the Last Supper. The Disciples were saddened by Jesus' announcement of departure - "So you have sorrow now." For three years they lived, walked, ate, drank, slept, and worked together until they were a cohesive band. The Twelve, except for Judas, became attached to Jesus. They admired and respected him. They believed he was the Messiah. They marvelled at his teaching and were astonished at his power of healing and his power over nature. What would they do, what could they be, what would happen to them if he left them? Because of their love and loyalty, they had tears in their eyes because he told them he was leaving them.
The Cure for Tears
The necessity in life to leave each other causes sorrow expressed in sincere tears. Is there a cure for this sadness? Can the tears be transformed to smiles? According to Jesus' words in our text, they can: "I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice." If there is no prospect of seeing each other or Christ again, the situation is hopeless. When we say "Goodbye" forever, we can truly weep with the words: "Alas, alas." On his way to Jerusalem, St. Paul stopped in Ephesus to bid them farewell. He told them that he would not be permitted to return and that this would be the last time they would see him. The elders walked him to the ship. Before boarding, they knelt down and prayed together. They all wept, hugged, and kissed Paul, "sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more."
Jesus did not have that kind of farewell with his Disciples. He promised they would see each other again and then their tears would turn to smiles. Likewise, we can have a parting with our friends and family like Jesus had. Even at the death of a loved one, we can say, "I will see you again." A Christian never says "Goodbye" in the final sense, but we can say as the Germans do, "Auf wieder sehen" - "upon seeing you again." It is like saying, "See you later" or "Till we meet again."
At the final departure of a Christian, we can say this because Christ told us he was going ahead to prepare a place for us in the heavenly mansions so that where he was, we might also be. This assumes that our friends and loved ones were in Christ and died in Christ. To be in him on earth is to be with him in heaven. This is our assurance that there will be a great and happy reunion in heaven - tears of joy, hugging, kissing, and rejoicing in seeing and having each other again. In order for this to be a future reality, we want to be sure that those we love here will be in heaven when we and they die. Is your friend in Christ? Is every member of your family a believer in Christ? Is this faith demonstrated by an active participation in the church?
Wouldn't it be terrible to get to heaven and our loved ones would not be there? There may be fewer in heaven than we think. A story is told of a man who went to heaven and each day he was served tuna fish. After a while, he got tired of the same food and he looked down to those in hell. He was amazed to see that they were eating filet mignon. Upset, he went to St. Peter to complain: "How is it that we in heaven get only tuna fish day after day and those in hell get filet mignon?" Peter explained, "Well, you see, it is hard to cook for only one!"
We are to see again not only our loved ones in Christ but Christ himself - "I will see you again." Christ, of course, is with us even now in spirit, but we are promised we shall see him in person when we get to heaven or when he returns to earth for the final judgment and wind-up of history.
This fact makes it hard for us to wait to see him. This was the case with Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians, he says that he longs to shed his physical, mortal body for a spiritual body that is "eternal in the heavens." He is anxious for a spiritual body to enable him to live with Christ in the spiritual realm. In fact, Paul was more anxious to die than to live. It was not that he was tired and disgusted with life on earth but that he wanted to be with the Lord. He wrote, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." What is the "gain"? It is being with and seeing Christ.
This certainly has some practical implications for each of us. It means that to want to see and be with Christ as soon as possible is to know and love him. Christ is the one we love the best, and love makes us want to be with him. Is it this way with you? Do you have this kind of relationship with Christ? For his part, he wants to be your best friend, your lover. He is waiting for you to respond in faith and to let him possess your mind and heart.
If we are to see Christ again, either at our death or when he comes again to earth, it changes our attitudes toward death. Apart from Christ, death is a horrible prospect. We so dread it that we refuse to think or talk about it. Since we know all of us must die some day, some hope that it will come suddenly so that there will be no time to fear its coming. If to die means to be with and see Christ again, then death is not so bad! In fact, we can look forward to it. Nor need we grieve when loved ones die, for they who died in Christ are with him. To see Christ is to see life. To be with Christ is to experience what the world could not give: peace, love, and joy. We can rejoice in what lies ahead for us and for what our dead in Christ are now enjoying.
There are times in life when "we cry all the way home." But through the tears will come a smile because "I will see you again." A Psalmist was right when he wrote, "Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning." The world describes a day as "from morning till night." But the Bible, in explaining creation, refers to a day as - "There was evening and there was morning." The evening of sadness leads to the morning of rejoicing, because "I shall see you again and your hearts will rejoice."
