Jesus Wept

By Lynn Heatley.  I have been thinking about deep things like life, death and eternity this past week.  Actually, I often do a lot of thinking about these things since I am a hospice nurse and God has made me to live in deep waters!  But what stirred my heart recently was thinking about a story from the Bible.  It is found in the book of John and it talks about a friend of Jesus, named Lazarius, who had just died…

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.  “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.  Jesus wept.   Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  (John 11:32-36)

I have read this story many times but what struck me recently was the fact that Jesus wept while yet still fully knowing the realm of Eternity that Lazarius had just entered into.

Jesus, who came from our Heavenly Father and who knew all about the beautiful and glorious realm of Eternity,  still wept .  He didn’t try and convince his friends of how wonderful eternity is but He was with them in their loss and wept alongside them.  Later, he raised Lazarius back to life.

Today, Jesus still weeps with those who are grieving.

I think this encourages all of us who lose people we love…. that Jesus weeps with us even though He knows that our loved ones are in the most amazing and beautiful place ever!

And thus, we live with these 2 opposing emotions:  the joy of knowing they are in the wonderful embrace of God and also the grief of missing them and longing to have them with us.   And right in the middle of this, Jesus is with us, carrying our sorrows and giving us hope for the days ahead where we will join Him and our loved ones in the beautiful realm of heaven, where there is no more sorrow or weeping.

 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.” -1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

I hope this encourages you today in whatever loss you might be carrying in your heart, may the Lord’s comfort strengthen you in this day.

All glory to the One who is acquainted with grief and who carries our sorrows.