Though ranting over the evil of the world and rushing headlong into the penalty phase may make us feel righteously superior, it actually exposes our spiritual childishness. It is lamentable that no amount of brainy people working together, no politician or party, and no innovation of science can hold back the tide of our sin against one another. We weep with God as a concession that we have no quick fix for our loveless world, and we trust him to intervene.
Jesus is a “Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” If we want to be better acquainted with him we have to be acquainted with what grieves him. Knowing him exceeds theological fact checking. It involves tuning in to his emotions, what makes him laugh and what makes him cry––and then laughing and crying along with him.
Failing in the recovery of the art of lamenting is to fate ourselves to a diminished capacity for Christ-like compassion.
Our connection with God deepens to the degree that we join him in the “fellowship of his sufferings,” which positions us to receive redemptive remedies for other weepers. While our sadness may or may not result in silver bullet solutions to a world dilapidated by sin and Satan, it will undoubtedly lead to some kingdom advancing response to the heart of God.
This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.
barney wiget 
Beautiful. Knowing him is beyond theological fact checking . I love that. I’m adding it to my meditation. I also find this idea of weeping quite humbling.
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What about one’s own sufferings? Is this also in the “fellowship of his sufferings”?
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Absolutely. We often just think about Jesus identifying with our pain, but it’s a two-way street whereby, in our pain we experience and identify with his. Maybe that’s why it’s called “fellowship,” which requires both parties identifying with something similar.
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Wow. This would then make grief for instance a spiritual experience.?
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Precisely.
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