Devotion: Saying It Out Loud
John 11:30-37
Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
As Christians, we look to Jesus’ words and actions as examples of how to live our lives. It’s easy to look at his sermons and miracles as our inspiration, but even his reactions to events happening around him are worth paying attention to. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) primarily gets remembered for being the shortest verse in the Bible. But it is significant for reasons far beyond being a fun bit of trivia. Jesus’ honest, vulnerable response to the death of a dear friend should be a reminder to us that grief and sorrow aren’t a result of weakness and visible demonstrations of those emotions are nothing to be ashamed of. Loving others, as Jesus taught us to do, is inherently risky. Losing those we love is one of the most painful experiences we can have. But that pain is a sign we’ve loved well with a Christlike love and that is the farthest thing from a sign of weakness.
It’s also worth noting that Jesus was certainly aware he would be able to raise Lazarus from the dead, but he wept anyway. Maybe his tears came from knowing that he could have saved Lazarus had he arrived sooner. Maybe it was because he knew the pain his friend most likely went through before dying. Regardless of the reason, we can learn from Jesus’ reaction. Just like Jesus knew he could raise Lazarus, we who have faith in eternal life with our Creator know that death is not truly the end for those we love. But even with that faith, we feel pain and sorrow after a loved one’s death and Jesus shows us those emotions of grief are normal, healthy and spiritual.
Grief is an unavoidable part of life and if we are to look to Jesus as an example of living, we must look at how he grieved. His reaction to the death of Lazarus is the best example we have of that and it is powerful. So never forget that when you’re feeling powerfully sad and experiencing loss, it is good to show those emotions. It’s what Jesus did.
Written by Preston Thiemann