In the midst of Jesus’s ministry on earth a message was sent to Jesus. “Jesus, the one you love, Lazarus is sick.” It was a plea to have Christ come heal him, it was a S.O.S. hoping to get Jesus to run over to the neighboring town and heal him. However, there was no rush, there was no panic, there was calmness. Jesus knew that this sickness would not end in death and while all those around Him urged Him to go still He waited. Jesus knew that through this sickness God would be glorified and He knew that those around would put their faith in God because of this sickness. By the time Jesus had gotten to Lazarus he had already been dead four days and had been placed in the tomb. Lazarus sisters both were placing blame in Jesus tell Him repeatedly, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” After hearing this and comforting them, Jesus asked to see him as they brought Jesus to the tomb, knowing that Lazarus would rise, knowing that this would glorify God, and knowing because of this people’s faith would strength, Jesus did one thing.
Jesus wept.
Jesus, wasn’t afraid to show his emotion. He didn’t mask how he felt by pretending He wasn’t sorrowful. He didn’t want people to know that He was strong. He didn’t care if people perceived Him as weak. Jesus let His true emotions show, He did the one thing that He needed to do. Jesus wept.
Even though Jesus was about to perform possibly one of His greatest miracles, he was still sad that the one He loved was dead, even if for just a moment. A simple fact we often forget is Jesus is God. God made the universe, He created the world, He parted the see’s, He made the skies rain manna for 40 years, God the only all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good being that ever was. No one has or had as much power as Jesus. Yet, Jesus didn’t worry about trying to make those around Him believe He was strong. He wasn’t scared that people would think He’s weak. He was honest and true, at that moment He was sad and He knew it was okay.
How often in our lives do we fail to see this though? How often do the circumstances in our lives make us feel such raw emotion but we fail to show it? We suppress it. We hide it. We put the family on our back. We put our friends on how back. We put God on our back instead of letting God put us on His back. Instead of looking to Jesus to be the rock, we decide that we will be the rock. We will be strong when we are sad, we will hide what burns inside of us, and we will fool everyone around us into thinking that in those moments where we need Him and them the most, we are perfectly fine. We try maintain an image that no matter what happens in life we will always be fine. We are fearful of what those around us will think if they see us upset. We’re afraid they’ll think we are weak. We’re afraid that seeing us as weak will make them pity us more, respect us less, and love us because we are dependent on them. We bottle everything up and in the end our “strength” leads to our demise.
Even though Jesus knew the situation would bring greatness to God and knew it was only momentary, even though He knew He had complete control on the situation, Jesus wept.
In 2 Corinthians Paul writes “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
We don’t have to hide how we feel. Just as Jesus wept, so it’s okay for us to weep. It’s okay for us to be transparent in our feelings, it’s okay to not be strong. For Paul writes when we are weak there we are strong.
So often we believe that being emotionally strong means never crying. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In times of distress even though Jesus knew He could change everything Jesus did one thing.
Jesus wept.
What do you do?
Do you hold it in? Do you shoulder the load? Or do you pray? Do you cry out to God? Do you give the load to Him to carry? Do you fake smile and pretend you’re okay?
Jesus wept.
What will you do?
gsehlers 