When God walked this earth there are 3 times we know of that He wept:
1. John 11:35, with those grieving Lazarus death;
2. Luke 19:41, sorrowing over Jerusalem; and
3. Hebrews 5:7-9, the writer is apparently
referring to the Garden experience when Jesus said
“Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me.”
A recent message was about John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible,
“Jesus wept.”
It is apart of the story of Jesus arriving in Bethany shortly after Lazarus’ death.
Mary, Martha, and others were weeping in sorrow.
I am still astounded that Jesus didn’t just say,
“Stop crying, it’s going to be all good in 20 minutes at the most.”
That’s how men typically deal with emotions. We try to fix it, first. We want everything to be okay and sometimes say, “It’s okay” when it isn’t or “Just calm down.”
If we can’t fix it, we try to explain it often with silly platitudes. Even a scripture verse can become a platitude— trying to explain something tragic with just a ‘have faith’ or ‘God works all things for good’ type Bible verse.
And if we can’t explain, we just deny or ignore that someone is upset or that there is a problem.
Back to the story.
Jesus response to the those weeping?
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
Jesus inspired Paul’s command,
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, Romans 12:15.
Seeing their deep sorrow,
He did not say, “Don’t cry. It will be okay.”
He was deeply affected by their grief and there it is–
“Jesus wept.”
One of the hardest acts of humility is to just be with someone and
Just Be —
letting go of thinking about past or future;
not thinking about what you are going to say;
without being impatient;
not fixing the problem or giving advice;
letting go of your own agenda.
Another factor is that even if we are maturely walking in grace,
we all carry around at least some unhealthy guilt, shame, fears, and pride.
Jesus wasn’t burdened with those things and was free to just be.
The deeper we walk in grace, the more we are unencumbered with dysfunctional guilt, shame, pride, and fear the more we are able to stay in the moment and just be with someone.
Another thought
John wrote,
“For whoever does not love their brother and sister,
whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen,” 1 John 4:20.
I wonder then—
if we can’t give full attention to our brother or sister and
just be there with them, how can we learn to give God our full attention?
