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Jesus Wept, 27OCT

To me, the scriptures about Mary and Martha are crucial in understanding Jesus’s pain.  And His need to teach.

Jesus Wept.

Mary and Martha’s story, with brother Lazarus dead, prompts the crucial emotional Jesus to cry because His spirit was troubled… “Jesus wept”… I remembered a bible study which explained it was not just for love and loss of His friend Lazarus, Jesus wept for Mary, and all the others who previously sat at His feet in reverence and even though they had been taught about everlasting life – they then FORGOT that death is not an ending… They forgot – we forget.

Jesus Wept.

Jesus wept from His troubled spirit with Mary that day, and also later He wept entering Jerusalem, wept for the people who heard but did not believe, wept for those who heard but could not process it all, and of course wept for the multitudes who never ever get a chance to hear…

Jesus Wept. Jesus Weeps.

Jesus weeps for our human forgetfulness and flaws. Jesus wept a release of stress, then He picked Himself up and continued teaching His message…

Mary may have forgotten Jesus’s teachings when Lazarus died. Understandably,  she had great grief…… She stayed in the house and didn’t even leave her mourning until Martha came to get her, to tell her Jesus was there. Mary (and we) FORGET to rely on Jesus when times get tough… This “troubled” Jesus – His spirit was moved and was troubled… He knew (John 11) that Lazarus had fallen asleep and He knew that He was to use this moment to teach of God’s power thru Him: “for God’s glory, so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)

Jesus re-taught Martha (verses 21-27) when she came out from the house first (not Mary, but Martha came to talk it out with Jesus first). Doesn’t Jesus want us to come to Him too? Without hesitation? Yes.

25 Jesus said to her, “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?”   –   “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Then Mary came:

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then 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?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.  “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.  Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

So…..

Lazarus was dead, but Mary seemed to be sleeping standing up… Jesus knew what was going on with Lazarus on His death bed, but He had to wait until the right time to show up and teach. Jesus Himself became our lesson. Jesus came to teach…

We lose hope, over and over…  Jesus still returns His attention to us, He lives to teach…

Jesus Himself had to recover from His grief – then He Himself got back up to teach…

We hurt like Mary and Martha,  often we do… We must also remember the saving love of Jesus for eternity…

Amen