Jesus Wept

    “Jesus wept”. The shortest verse in the Bible contains great power. It contains power that meets us in our grief, in our sorrow and with the pain of death. In this verse God meets us in our humanity and reminds us that we have a God that identifies with us. He is not unfamiliar with grief.
    Jesus was planning to resurrect Lazarus from the dead yet he stopped to grieve with Mary and with the people. Resurrection was on his mind yet he allowed time for grief and met people in their grief. He legitimized the reality and need for tears.
    I cannot imagine the horror, the sorrow, the pain, the grief, the “I cannot breathe” feeling that the families and community of Newtown, CT. I know that God can redeem the greatest of sorrows, the greatest of evils and can re-create anything. I would like to caution against moving too quickly to redemption and not allowing grief to have its place and its time. Let us grieve with one another and for one another. Let us grieve with God knowing that Jesus weeps as well.

    I realize the story about Lazarus doesn’t end there. The story ends with some of the people saying, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” The answer is yes, Jesus could have, yet he did not. If we consider the question they are asking, they are really asking the questions of why he did not stop Lazarus from dying. I don’t know. I don’t know what he didn’t keep those at Sandy Hook from dying. I don’t know.

  For the bible story mentioned above see John 11:17-37.