I was telling a movie maker and TV producer friend of mine about a concept for a video that I thought would be impactful. It was a take-off of the television commercial “The Crying Indian” – Keep America Beautiful’ s landmark “People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It” public service ad on the second Earth Day in March 1971. Advertisers estimate that the video, billboards, posters, and magazine ads, have been viewed 14 billion times.
In that enduring minute-long TV spot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM viewers watched an Indian paddle his canoe up a polluted river past belching smokestacks, come ashore at a litter-strewn river bank, and walk to the edge of a highway, where the occupant of a passing automobile thoughtlessly tossed a bag of trash out the car window to burst open at the astonished visitor’s feet. When the camera moved upwards for a close-up, a single tear was seen rolling down the Indian’s face as the narrator dramatically intoned: “People start pollution; people can stop it.”
When I first shared the vision for The Jesus Alliance with some Spirit filled friends a few years ago, one of them suggested that we make a video similar to “The Crying Indian” except we would show Jesus watching human pollution such as a homeless person sitting in an alley with a bottle of wine looking forlorn and hopeless; a child holding his hands over his ears as his parents scream at each other; a teenager cutting themselves, a starving person in Africa, a Christian kneeling to be beheaded, and so forth and then cap it off with a close-up of Jesus with a tear rolling down His face and a caption that reads Jesus Cares. Find out more at . . .
So I asked my movie maker friend to think about this concept. He told his Spirit filled wife about it and she made the following points:
“I’ve thought more about the idea of using the concept of the picture of Jesus with the blood coming down, with a tear instead, and I’d like to share my thoughts with you.
I’m not sure that’s the right way to go.
It’s all about the blood! If Jesus’ blood wasn’t shed, we wouldn’t have a Savior.
Weeping is something that all of humanity does. We weep and cry for our losses and disappointments, but Jesus as the Son of God isn’t a weeper because of disappointment. He’s a rejoicer!
I know that in John 11:35 it says that “Jesus wept”, and a lot of people think it was because he was sad about the death of his dear friend . . . but is that really why Jesus wept? Jesus knew back in 11:4 that it was a set-up from God the Father so that the Son of Man could be glorified through it. He knew his friend would live… Were they tears of joy that his friend was chosen to glorify God? Were they tears of understanding, knowing what death meant without a Savior? Jesus knew what that was like… it was the reason he came into the world . . . to conquer death so that we didn’t have to.
He also wept over the city of Jerusalem in Luke 19:41.
With only two suggestions in the entire bible that Jesus wept, I think they are references for mankind to know that Jesus was fully human as he was fully God. We need to know that we have a savior that understands, has felt and feels our weeping. But all of the references that would include tears, the tears were OURS… not Gods.
69 wept
96 weep and/or weeping
193 cry and/or crying
18 cries
57 lamenting and/or lamentation
I think showing Jesus as weeping brings Him too far down off the cross. He’s about glory and power and answers to our weeping. He understands the sorrows of this world, but He’s the reason we can rejoice . . . not weep.
I don’t know if that gets my thoughts across to you, but as you continue to think about how you want to unite the churches under His one banner of LOVE . . . it needs to be in a hopeful and victorious way. Not in a weeping way. We’ve got plenty of that already here on earth. We need the joyful hope of Jesus to unify under. It’s gotta be about His solution . . . not the world’s problems. Jesus isn’t sitting in heaven wringing His hands because of all our problems. He’s excited about the remnant coming together to step His presence into the situation by simply showing up. When we enter a poverty situation, we bring Jesus into that situation. We are His hands and His feet. Through us united . . . Jesus is changing the world. That’s a joyful Jesus . . . not a teary one. But none of this would be possible if it wasn’t for the blood! Or the sacrifice.
Many would shed a tear for another person, few would shed their blood for them, and only One could pay the price for sin . . . That’s what has to be continually understood by those who don’t know Jesus yet. That it’s about what Jesus DID for us . . . not how He felt about it. A tear is connected to feeling . . . a blood stain is connected to an action took on our behalf.
Also . . . Jesus was clear about weeping . . . No one was to weep for Him . . . and in the end . . . Don’t weep, because Jesus is returning!”
My response to her was as follows:
I agree with parts of this; however I do not believe that the concept of portraying Jesus as weeping when taken in context of the video is inappropriate. To me He is not crying like some distraught, namby-pamby weakling, but weeping for those mired in sin and enduring its harsh consequences of pain and suffering. Jesus is weeping over those He knows are lost and need His redemption.
A simple message that states: JESUS CARES in red below the image would speak volumes to let the lost know that Jesus is about love and compassion and His desire is that not one person should perish. I agree with the power of the blood and we could depict it streaming down His face from His crown of thorns and leave it in the image to complement the message, but I do think it would be more powerful showing the tear.
As you mention Jesus wept over Lazarus. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” But for all its linguistic simplicity, it’s packed with profound convolution. Jesus wept after speaking with Lazarus’ grieving sisters, Martha and Mary, and seeing all the mourners. That seems odd since Jesus had come to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew that in a few minutes all this weeping would turn to bewildered joy, tearful laughter, and of course worship.
So one would think that Jesus would be confident, joyful, and calm in that storm of sorrow. But in John 11 we find that He was “greatly troubled” and He wept. I believe, (though John doesn’t tell us this specifically) that He wept over mankind’s sin and was greatly grieved as He had been many times throughout the Bible. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5–6)
Also remember when Jesus wept over Jerusalem and grieved over mankind’s hard hearts. Jesus knew that most would reject Him, just as had been prophesied in Isaiah 53. He also knew that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, the Temple razed, and many people would be killed by the Romans as recounted in Matthew 24and Luke 21. So Jesus wept for their hardness of heart, as He did not want them to perish but desired them to come to repentance. God will judge sin, but He makes clear that He wants people to turn from their sin and live, not die.
Read this account: “Now He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” (Luke 19:41–44)
To sum it up I believe it greatly grieves Jesus that so many will perish and depicting Him in this video as reacting to the depravity and suffering caused by sin in the world is not a sign of weakness but allows those who view His tears to understand that He is compassionate, full of mercy and love, and cares about every single person on earth regardless of their sins.
Personally I believe both points of view are correct. I felt led to share it with you for encouragement today, because there is no question that Jesus cares for you, no matter what you might be going through. He loved us enough to have died for us and He laments and yes even weeps over even one person spending eternity apart from Him in hell.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
May 19, 2015 – Click here to listen