Christ Weeps

3 Nephi 17:20-22

20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.

21 And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

22 And when he had done this he wept again;

Christ weeps. He cries for us. He cries with us.

Marion D. Hanks, formerly a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles relates a story that illustrates this beautifully:

"Thus the promise is that in times of sorrow and affliction, if we endure and remain faithful and put our trust in him and are courageous, the Lord will visit us in our afflictions, strengthen us to carry our burdens and support us in our trials. He’ll be with us to the end of our days, lift us at the last day to greater opportunities for service, and exalt us at last with him and reunited loved ones, and he will consecrate our afflictions to our gain.

One of the experiences that has reached the deep center of my soul in recent years was to hear a choice bishop share with others in a meeting the tender feelings of his heart concerning the loss of his wife to cancer, an experience many other husbands and wives and families well understand.

Twenty years earlier he had watched his mother pass through severe suffering before she died, and he had carried with him through the years a sense of resentment for the anguish she had endured. With his wife’s ordeal, however, harsh as it was for her and in a measure for her family, his anger sublimated into a closer spiritual relationship with the Lord, and he was able more gracefully to share her burden.

Shortly before she died, his wife asked him to give her a blessing for relief from the intense pain. They both wept as he laid his hands on her head and talked with the Lord, 'and,' he said, 'I felt the spiritual presence of our Father in Heaven. I had the strongest sensation that someone else was there weeping with us!' Near the end, severely physically debilitated, she said, 'Never have I been more whole!'

They had felt the strong sensation that He was there, 'weeping with us.' Of course; why not? Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus; he wept over Jerusalem’s portending afflictions; and he wept when he came to the American continent and knelt with his people, and especially when 'he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.'"

I truly believe that our Savior Jesus Christ weeps with us. In moments of complete heartache and heartbreak, in the deepest and darkest moments of despair, He is there. He weeps when we weep. It is only through His perfect Atonement He is able to have perfect empathy for us as we endure every trial, every adversity, every pain. He has faced each one before, and through His Atonement He knows exactly how to comfort us and help us bear those burdens. 

I know that I have a Savior who weeps. I know He has wept with me in the moments I have wept and felt completely broken.

Our Savior weeps. He weeps for us, and He weeps with us.