Manly tears?

[Xeno.of.athens]

Crying is a sign of internal weakness.

Jesus wept.

I wonder how that fits into the world view that sees tears as weakness?

 

[Neogaia777]

.

Jesus wept.

And many people misunderstood it, and still do misunderstand it now, etc.

God Bless!

 

[trophy33]

Jesus wept.

I wonder how that fits into the world view that sees tears as weakness?

Do you propose that Jesus has never been weak or that he has never experienced pain or fear?

 

[Neogaia777]

Do you propose that Jesus has never been weak or that he has never experienced pain or fear?

There was times where he was weak, or felt weak, etc, but with the verse in question, or with the two times that it is recorded in scripture that he wept, it was not out of weakness, etc.

God Bless!

 

[Neogaia777]

There was times where he was weak, or felt weak, etc, but with the verse in question, or with the two times that it is recorded in scripture that he wept, it was not out of weakness, etc.

God Bless!

That's why I talked about people misunderstanding, or not understanding sometimes, etc, and how it is sometimes better sometimes just to choose to not do it in front of them at all, etc.

But I suspect Jesus did it because he chose to do it, and wanted to do it, regardless of whether or not the true understanding of it pretty much evaded almost all, etc.

God Bless.

 

[trophy33]

There was times where he was weak, or felt weak, etc, but with the verse in question, or with the two times that it is recorded in scripture that he wept, it was not out of weakness, etc.

God Bless!

He wept because he was moved by the death of his close friend. Thats not a situation we have in mind when we say that man should not cry.

 

[Neogaia777]

He wept because he was moved by the death of his close friend. Thats not a situation we have in mind when we say that man should not cry.

That's why the Pharisees thought he was weeping, but take a closer look at it, etc, because that is not really why he was really weeping in that specific situation or circumstance.

God Bless.

 

[trophy33]

That's why the Pharisees thought he was weeping, but take a closer look at it, etc, because that is not really why he was really weeping in that specific situation or circumstance.

God Bless.

Anyway, it was a sign of his internal state:

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled."
(NIV)

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Do you propose that Jesus has never been weak or that he has never experienced pain or fear?

No, what is proposed in the post is that Jesus is God and even the weakness, like the foolishness, of God is stronger and wiser than man respectively.

 

[Neogaia777]

Anyway, it was a sign of his internal state:

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled."

His internal state at the time was that of what only God, or a God, would be going through internally at the time on the inside, etc.

Read and examine it all, the whole story, etc, and you'll find that none of what was going on with him internally had anything to do at all with the fact that Lazarus was now dead, or had died, etc, and neither did it have to really do with fact directly that others around him were now weeping because Lazarus had just died either, etc, but it was because of "other things", or "something else altogether entirely", etc, things having to do with him being "the resurrection and the life", etc, and "the only resurrection and the life", etc.

God Bless.

 

[trophy33]

No, what is proposed in the post is that Jesus is God and even the weakness, like the foolishness, of God is stronger and wiser than man respectively.

Thats nice, but I do not know what it has to do with the OP issue - i.e. if its a sign of emotional weakness/instability when a man cries.

 

[Strong in Him]

.

Nevertheless, depending on the situation, crying or shedding tears all of the time, is not always "wise".

And if you are shedding them like "all of the time", then my guess is that you are either trying to manipulate someone, or some group of people, or it is a very great sign of some much more serious deeply unresolved issues still, still way down deep on the inside.

Crying is generally, I would suggest, an automatic reaction - to grief, tragedy, joy, pain.
There might be controlling people who "turn on the waterworks" to get what they want, but that is not generally the case. I have certainly never thought, "I think I will cry now." Actors who are told their scene demands tears, sometimes need a tear stick to produce the required effect.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Thats nice, but I do not know what it has to do with the OP issue - i.e. if its a sign of emotional weakness/instability when a man cries.

It has a great deal to do with the original post. I wrote the original post. "Jesus wept", tells Christians something about the place of emotions and their open expression. It is not weak to express emotions, much less is it weak to have them.

 

[Strong in Him]

Crying is a sign of internal weakness. We do not cry when we feel strong or victorious. Is it not obvious?

It may be shameful when you cry in situations you must not cry, for example when your family needs a strong and stable man - which is some men's role. Its shameful not to fulfill our elementary roles.

In your opinion.
In my view, and that of many others, it's shameful to teach that tears are a sign of weakness, and that strength is defined by not giving into them.

This sounds like some modern American view. Anyway, what I am talking about here is public crying (in front of others) and crying because of ourselves or because of our fears.

It's a fact, and I'm not American.

 

[Neogaia777]

Crying is generally, I would suggest, an automatic reaction - to grief, tragedy, joy, pain.
There might be controlling people who "turn on the waterworks" to get what they want, but that is not generally the case. I have certainly never thought, "I think I will cry now." Actors who are told their scene demands tears, sometimes need a tear stick to produce the required effect.

I can choose not to cry if I want to, but I've never, ever really been able to choose to cry or shed fake tears on command, and nor do I think I would ever really want to be able to do that either, etc.

But some people can or do, and I think that it might be very much more many than you think, etc.

And I would strongly advise not letting these people manipulate you, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Paidiske]

I believe it was the rule of St. Columba which stated:
"Thy measure of prayer shall be until thy tears come;
Or thy measure of work of labour till thy tears come;
Or thy measure of thy work of labour, or of thy genuflexions, until thy perspiration often comes, if thy tears are not free."

It seems the early Celtic monastics considered tears a normal part of a faithful life. And no one would call them weak!

 

[ViaCrucis]

I believe it was the rule of St. Columba which stated:
"Thy measure of prayer shall be until thy tears come;
Or thy measure of work of labour till thy tears come;
Or thy measure of thy work of labour, or of thy genuflexions, until thy perspiration often comes, if thy tears are not free."

It seems the early Celtic monastics considered tears a normal part of a faithful life. And no one would call them weak!

The monks, East and West, and the many fathers of our faith have often spoken, at times at great length, about the gift of tears. The shedding of tears is treated as a charism, a precious gift of the Holy Spirit.

The rejection of tears and the antipathy toward the perception of being weak and vulnerable is, I would argue, so utterly foreign to Christianity that it ought to be viewed as a damnable lie of the devil.

-CryptoLutheran