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I think he cried. I know that the most famous of Christmas hymns declares that He did not.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes.
The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes…

Poetic, colorful, like one of those Hallmark publications.
But…did He really not cry? He was fully human. He was a man-child with really little pink cheeks and wrinkly hands and the damp remains of His successful exit through the birth canal. He was a living, breathing, moving human baby. His lungs were the lungs of a real baby. They needed to be cleared. They required exercising. The infant boy certainly cried like a baby would cry!

“Men don’t cry. Toughen up…act like a man. Real men don’t cry!”
Somehow tears of man are assumed to be sinful tears, signs of weakness, evidence of failure. We simply can’t have a Savior enter into our world and announce His presence by crying!

But He DID cry.
• He cried at the sorrow over the separation and despair of His dear friends at the side of the grave.
• He cried over a city filled with people who wandered blindly because they had no shepherd.
• He cried to His Father as He hung naked, beaten, rejected and separated on a public highway leading into the Holy City.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay,
Close by me forever, and love me I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care.
And take us to Heaven to live with You there.

He who died like a man cried like a man.

See you Sunday, Church!

Pastor Tom