3rd Nephi 17:14

. . . Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people . . .

This one simple phrase is so telling and describes how I feel as I watch the news day after day -- troubled, distressed, anxious, distraught.

I find comfort in just knowing the Savior feels like I do - that He can feel like I do; that He still bears our pains and is willing to be vulnerable for our sakes.

What courage it took to set in place this earth with its plan for our mortal experience! I remember the anxiety over sending a child off to kindergarten but that compares nothing to our Heavenly Parents' decision to send us down to earth. Did they know? Did they have any idea how terrible human beings would act?

I am glad Jesus was troubled. I am grateful we have the account of Heavenly Father weeping for our suffering in Moses chapter 7. I am comforted to know they feel our pain and they care.

In their book The God Who Weeps, Terryl and Fiona Givens write,

"We have already established that God is invested in our lives and happiness because He chooses to be a Father to us. His concern with human sin is with the pain and suffering it produces. Sympathy and sorrow, not anger and vengeance, are the emotions we must look to in order to plumb the nature of the divine response to sin. In the biblical book of Judges, Israel repeatedly forsakes the worship of Jehovah and suffers defeat and oppression at their enemies' hands as a result. Eventually, the Israelites repent and cry unto the Lord for mercy. In reply, he reminds them of their recurrent faithlessness.

It is not the injured pride of a tyrant that we see here but the pain of a suffering Parent. "You have abandoned me," He responds. Then we read, "And he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer." ("His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel" in the King James version.) In the language of scripture, this is God's response to human sin and underlying sorrow, not anger. Sin is pain, and the intensity of His response to sin is commensurate with the intensity of that pain He knows sin will entail, and in which He has already chosen to share. For He is the God who weeps."

I often think we emphasize the physical pain that Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross at Golgotha.  I hear people say that when they sin, they are adding to the Savior's pain.  I feel I am being told to shape up because every wrongful act is causing Jesus unnecessary pain.  But what I see here is a different kind of pain - the inevitable pain of vulnerability - of choosing to love and be involved in another's life.  I have seen humans suffer that kind of pain as I watched parents sit at the bedside of a child writhing in pain. I saw it in the inconsolable grief of parents losing a son to cancer. I saw it when a friend wept with me when she heard of my divorce. 

I don't believe we should feel guilty over Jesus' suffering for our sins. We should feel profound gratitude to know that our Savior cares. We can, with longing, look for that day when He shall wipe away all tears. He knows those tears - He was weeping along with us the whole time.