"A Time To Weep And A Time To Laugh"
Hugo McCord
Solomon said there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh" (Ecclesiastes 3:4).
I. Laughing Animals
You have heard of the "laughing hyena," but you do not think that his laughing is because he is amused about something, or because he is happy about something, or because he is making fun of somebody. Solomon’s "time to laugh" was not about animals.
In Australia a specie of the bird kingfisher is also called a "kookaburra." On our first trip to Australia, in December, 1971, I was preaching in a gospel meeting for the Macquarrie congregation in Sydney. December is a summer month "down under," and a window was open close to the pulpit.
As I was preaching, I was shocked to hear a laugh from outside the window. I stopped talking. Someone spoke up saying that a "kookaburra was in a nearby tree laughing." I said that I supposed that the bird did not like my preaching, but I continued. A "kookaburra" has a "harsh, crackling cry suggestive of loud laughter" (Webster). I’ll never forget my experience with the Australian kingfisher.
No one thinks that any animal, including hyenas and kingfishers, is able to laugh either in ridicule or in happiness. But everybody knows that human beings can laugh, either to ridicule someone ("all that see me will laugh me to scorn," Psalm22:7), or to express joy and happiness ("Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing," Psalm 126:2).
But if human beings are descendants of animals, and animals cannot laugh, where did human beings get the ability to laugh? A "Monkey’s viewpoint" is:
Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,
Discussing things as they’re said to be.
Said one to the others: "Now listen you two:
There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true;
That man descends from our Noble Race.
The very idea! It’s a dire disgrace!
No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved her baby & ruined her life.
And you’ve never known a mother monk
To leave the babies with others to bunk;
Till they scarcely knew who is their mother.
And another thing: you’ll never see,
A monk build a fence ‘round a coconut tree
And let the coconuts go to waste
Forbidding all other monks a taste.
Why, if I’d put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
Here’s another thing a monk won’t do;
Go out at night & get on a stew;
Or use a gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey’s life."
"Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss,
But, brother, he didn’t descend from us."
(Anonymous.)
II. "A Time To Weep"
Neither can animals weep, but God has injected into human beings the ability to shed tears.
At least on three occurrences there was "a time to weep" in Jesus’ life:
1. After the death of Lazarus, a beloved friend (John 11:5), Jesus saw Mary "weeping, and also the Jews who were with her, and he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled" and "Jesus wept" (John 11:33, 35).
2. On Palm Sunday, when Jesus looked down from Mt. Olives "and saw the city" of Jerusalem, a city he loved, "he wept over it" (Luke 19:41).
3. On Thursday, in Gethsemane, about midnight, Jesus "fell on his face," and prayed "with loud crying and tears to the One who was able to save him from death" (Matthew 26:39; Hebrews 57).
Often in Paul’s life there was "a time to weep":
1. Paul reminded the elders of the church at Ephesus, where he had worked for three years, that he had "served the Lord" with "tears, and with trials" because of "the schemes of the Jews," and he reminded the elders "with tears" (Acts 20:19, 31).
2. Paul had to write a letter of censure to the church at Corinth for keeping a fornicator, in the church (1 Corinthians 5:1-13). To write such a letter to his "cherished children" (1 Corinthians 4:14-15) was not easy. In fact, it was out "of intense suffering and anxiety of heart … with many tears" (2 Corinthians 2:4).
3. In Philippi, a church that often sent money to Paul (Philippians 1:3-5; 4:15-16), was a situation that deeply wounded the loving apostle: "[M]any walk -- of whom I told you often, and now tell you weeping--, that they "are enemies of the cross of Christ" (Philippians 3:18).
III. "A Time To Laugh"
1. Solomon wrote that there was "a time to laugh," but he did not live to see the Jewish exiles returning from Babylonian captivity in 536 B.C>, but that was an occasion of national joy for the returnees:
When Yahweh restored the captives to Zion we were as those who dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with singing. Then they said among the nations, "Yahweh has done great things with them."
Yahweh has done great things for us, and we rejoice. Yahweh’s turning our captivity is like brooks in the desert. They who sow in tears will reap in joy. They who go out weeping, bearing seed for sowing, will return in joy, carrying their sheaves of grain.
2. A more important occasion than the return home of the Jews was the rejoicing of about 3000 newly baptized sinners who had become saints, starting new lives! (Acts 2:36-41). Each new day to them was "in gladness and singleness of heart," a time to smile and to laugh (Acts 2:46). With them, Jesus’ words had come true: "Blessed are the ones weeping, because you shall laugh" (Luke 6:21).
3. Indeed, Jesus personally experienced the fulfillment of his own words, "Blessed are the ones weeping, because you shall laugh" (Luke 6:21). His was "a time to weep," having fallen "on his face," in Gethsemane, praying "with loud crying and tears" (Matthew 26:39; Hebrews 5:7), but the next day on the cross weeping was over. What he had on his heart as he died was not weeping and self-pity, but much gladness "because of the joy set before him, disregarding the shame, and " on the day of Pentecost, he "sat down at the right side of God’s throne" (Hebrews 12:2).
4. The Philippian Christians in Macedonia, in "deep poverty," did not think it was "a time to weep." Instead, after their baptism into their Lord, they were "overflowing" with "joy" (2 Corinthians 8:2). A "time to laugh" had come! Paul wanted them to keep that attitude: "Always rejoice in the Lord! Again, I will say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).
5. To the Roman Christians Paul’s words, that "god works all things together for good" to "them who love God" (Romans 8:28), had become an assurance that every day is a time to smile, to be happy, yes, to laugh:
What will separate us from Christ’s love? Suffering? Anguish? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Danger? A sword? It is written, "We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:35-37).
IV. A Time To Whine? Never!
1. In the wilderness wandering the people of Israel "complained about their hardships" and the Lord’s "anger was aroused" (Numbers 11:1, NIV). "Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some" (Numbers 11:1, NIV).
Then they "began to crave other food, and again they started wailing, and said,
If only we has meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost -- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now ... we never see anything but this manna! (Numbers 11:4-6, NIV).
The whining continued, and "the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people," killing many (Numbers 21:6)
One of the reasons why the Old Testament books have been preserved is to teach us Christians there is never a time to whine, to wail, to murmur, to grumble. Paul wrote:
Let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the snakes. Do not grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them as warnings, and were written for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:9-11).
2. Paul personally is a marvelously good example of a person living in daily pain, with a terminal affliction never whining. His attitude was "when I am weak" then "I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
No weak Christian can say with Paul, "I have learned to be contented regardless of my circumstances. … I have strength for every situation through the One who gives me power" (Philippians 4:11-13).
The power imparted by Christ to Paul was not a miracle. As God does not give bread today by a miracle, so Christ does not impart power to Christians by a miracle. Twice Paul wrote that he had had to "learn" to be contented (Philippians 4:11-12). Only after he had personally learned "through experience or practice" (B-G-D, p. 490) could Paul say, "I have been so disciplined by experience that whatsoever be my lot I can endure" (Thayer, P. 419).
Misguided translations (KJV, NKJV, ASV, NASV, NIV, NRS) have inserted the word "do" in Philippians 4:13, making Paul to say something foreign to his mind: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Paul did not use the word poieo, "to do," but the word ischuo, "to be strong, to be able. Therefore, the translation of Philippians 4:13 must be: "I have strength for every situation through the One who gives me power." For a man who can make that statement from the heart, it is impossible for him ever to engage in self-pity, or to whine and complain. A man who can make that statement from the heart is always up-beat and smiling!
1162 SW Vacuna Ct.
Portland, OR 97219-8903