All of us have experienced, or will at some point in our lives experience, shared or personal grief. It might be the loss of a loved one, losing a job that you thought would last, or hearing that you or a family member have an incurable illness. Sometimes we can experience national grief as happened with the deaths of Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden grief has become part and parcel of what it means to be human.
When Jesus entered our fallen world and became fully human, he wasn’t immune from experiencing grief. Even though he knew when he came to the house of his friends in Bethany that he would restore the dead Lazarus to life, he didn’t swagger in with all the bravado of a successful miracle worker. Grief was hanging heavy in the air and Jesus, feeling everyone’s pain and sorrow, wept along with them.
This wasn’t the only time in his earthly ministry that Jesus grieved. In Luke 19:41-44 he wept over Jerusalem, weeping over missed opportunities when people rejected the love he offered. Jesus knows how much it hurts when love is ignored, mocked, or spurned. He knew what it was like to be betrayed when Judas kissed his cheek (Matthew 26:48-49), and what it was like to be denied even being known as Peter warmed himself by the fire (Luke 22:54-62). Jesus knows the grief of being badly let down by friends and the pain that causes.
The grief Jesus experienced is an echo of the grief experienced by humanity. When he wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and over Jerusalem, he wasn’t just mourning one friend, or the people of one city, he was feeling the sorrow and pain that the continued presence of death and suffering brings to the whole world.
The good news for humanity is that Jesus does not only feel our pain, and can empathise with us, but he is also able to do something about it. He tells Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ (John 11:25-26).
Jesus demonstrated the reality of this claim when he rose on the third day. Easter is coming when Christians celebrate this reality. The question is, do we believe it?
Prayer Loving Father, we thank you that Jesus understands the times in our life when we are grieving, and that his presence provides comfort in knowing we are not alone in our suffering. Help us to trust and believe in the one who rose from the dead assuring us that we too will be delivered from our grief and will spend eternity in the fulness of your joy. In Jesus’s name, Amen.