And when he drew near, and caught sight of the city, he wept over it,(Luke 19:41)

And when he drew near, and caught sight of the city, he wept over it,(Luke 19:41)
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Jesus is fully God and fully man.

As God, He is beyond all emotional feelings, which give rise to laughter, weeping, anger etc.

But as a man he was like unto us in all respects, except sin.

As man,

He could  get angry as He  did in the temple,

when He saw people making it a market place.

Here we see Him weeping at the thought of Jerusalem and    its future destruction by the enemies.

You may ask, "Everything happens according to the eternal plan of God. Why should He weep at His own plan?"

The question may seem to be logical, in the absence of our knowledge about the facts that go to make the eternal plan.

God does not make a plan just like us, without knowing the future.

Some parents  plan their children's future without knowing the children's attitudes and aptitudes.
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They get disappointed when they find it impossible to execute their plan in the absence of their children's cooperation.

But God plans differently.

He has gifted us with freedom of choice and action, into which He never interferes.

He knows from all eternity how we use our freedom,

according to His commandments

or ignoring them.

He takes into account all our free actions,

together with the corrective measures He intends to take to  correct us,

while drawing up the plan.

He knows from all eternity that the Israelites  would often act against His commandments

and God permits them sufferings in the form of enslavement

in order to correct them.

While planning creation,

God planned  to become man also

as He knew that man would sin against Him.

So, God draws His eternal plan, basing it on His eternal wisdom,

which knows 'our' past, present  and future.

God is beyond our time with its 'past, present  and future'
' aspects.

He cannot change

and cannot have emotional activities such as getting angry,  weeping etc.

But as a man, Jesus was moved to tears at the thought of its future destruction.

Suppose a child has to undergo a major operation for getting cured,

doesn't its mother  weep

being unable to see her child in a painful situation?

Of course it is she who has arranged for the operation for the good of the child.

Like this mother,  God is a loving Father who plans only for the welfare of His loving children.

When the human race begins to move in a wrong direction,

using its freedom of choice and action,

He has to arrange for some  operation like situations

as corrective measures

to turn  it towards the right direction.

Many people fail to take natural events,

which they call natural calamities,

in the correct sense.

A good teacher makes use of his cane

when the student fails to study well.

What he takes with his cane is not a punitive measure,

but corrective measure.

The student must correct himself

when he is caned

instead of blaming the teacher.

The human beings should correct themselves,

learning a lesson

from what they call natural calamities,

but which are in fact  well intentioned corrective measures. 

What lesson should we learn from (what we call) natural disasters?

1. Left to ourselves we are like 'with no air inside balloons', powerless and useless!

2. We must realize

that our Creator is our strength

and return to Him

feeling sorry for our sinful activities,

to become free from which

God permits such natural events.

3. We must realize that whatever worldly is temporary and perishable,

but whatever spiritual is permanent and everlasting.

We must return to our spiritual life, for which alone we have been created.

4. As God is the primary cause of whatever happens in this world,

we must pray to Him to keep us safe within His embrace.

5. We must realize that whatever happens is for our spiritual good and so we must always  be thankful to Him.

6.We must realize that we have been created for everlasting life and this world will one day pass away.

Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem shows that God is our loving Father.

I still remember my mother's tearful eyes, looking at me when I was suffering from ordinary fever.

Mother's tears  at our sufferings express her love for us.

So were Jesus' tears.

Lourdu Selvam.