Jesus Wept

Sometimes, I feel guilty for feeling sad. God has done such awesome things and blessed me in so very many ways. But I still really miss having our son around here in the flesh. Today is one of those days. And as the sadness washes over me, I find myself apologizing to God for feeling this way.

But the Spirit within my quietly says, “Jesus wept.” And I remember, there are at least two very specific times Jesus wept. One was when He was looking over Jerusalem and agonizing that they would not recognize Him for who He was – God with them in the flesh; and that their hearts were so far from Him. He wept over lost souls refusing to come to God. How lost are those who know the truth and yet refuse to believe it!

The other time was when He went to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and Lazarus had died. Death caused Jesus to weep. Death came as the result of disobedience/sin. And Jesus had come to conquer death once and for all, to remove the fear of death and replace it with the knowledge and the hope of the resurrection and the promise we would be with Him for eternity. He knew all of that and yet He wept.

I often wonder what Jesus was thinking when He wept over Lazarus. I wonder if He was weeping for all of our pain and suffering we go through in this world because of sin. I wonder if He was weeping for all of us who have had to say good-bye to those we love for a time until we can be together in heaven. And I wonder if He was weeping because His good friend, Lazarus, had gone through the physical process of dying and His good friends Mary and Martha were in emotional distress and pain because of Lazarus dying. Even though He knew He was going to call Lazarus out of the grave, Jesus wept!

I wonder if He might also have been weeping knowing He too would be going through the suffering and death because of those whose hearts were hardened toward God. His earthly body was going to have to suffer and die too.

So today, as I weep, I know that Jesus is weeping with me. We are weeping because death is a horrible thing. We are weeping because there are so many who continue to turn their backs on God and refuse the blessings He has waiting for them. And we weep because there is still a lot of pain and struggle in this world. But even as we weep, we rejoice that Jesus did conquer death. We rejoice that we live with eternal hope because of God’s power demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus and the promise that we too will rise to be with Him. We rejoice because each day He waits to return, people are waking up and discovering new life walking with Him. We rejoice because this is not the end. There is more to come… much more… eternity in the presence of God our Father.

“Weeping will last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5