the poet of emotion

The Word for today:
Luke 19:29-46

mark this: Luke 19: 41…45 --
But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry…
Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls.

Are you emotionally demonstrative? Well, if you are, then you're like Jesus!

Jesus created the emotions. As Lord over his creation, he was Lord over his emotions as well. And yet, he allowed them their full expression. In today's reading, for example, Jesus had no sooner experienced the adulation of the cheering crowds than he began to weep over them:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." (Luke 19:41-44)

Then abruptly, seemingly without transition, Jesus' anger stirs him to drive out the money changers in the Temple:
Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " (Luke 19:45-46)

I have an idea that emotions were not just feelings to Jesus. He felt emotion, of course, but he also employed emotion as a means of expression. He utilized emotion like a violinist utilizes his bow, like a poet utilizes words.

The man in Jesus was subject to emotions; he felt them. The God in Jesus commandeered emotions, making them subject to him.

Jesus' tears told his heart. Jesus' anger spoke his mind. He was the poet of emotion.

***

When I was a kid, they told me to stifle tears. When I became a man, they told me to stifle anger.

Jesus' Father never told him anything of the sort. So to all of you overt types, I propose that we continue to wear our emotions right on our sleeves. And if anyone tells us we're being too demonstrative, let's turn the tables and tell them that they're not demonstrative enough! With the life I've got left, I fully intend to become happier, sadder, angrier, and giddier (whether or not that's a word) than I ever was before.

***

Emotions can ride us right into the ground. But, as Jesus demonstrated, they can also be a divine language. So whenever people tell you that you've got to deal with your emotions, just emote--and tell them to deal with it!

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