These past couple days have been a blur. I guess they have
just gone by so fast.
We had a really hard hike the other day. Every step I
realized how much more I needed Jesus to help me move my feet up the mountain.
It almost seemed impossible at times to pick my feet up and keep going, but
only because of God’s grace I did it.
We hiked two hours to go to church. The building didn’t
really seem like a church, I guess because it was the lower floor of a house.
They put foam mats down for us to sit on. While we waited for everyone to come,
we were given some sweet rice and bean curry. The sweet rice was boiled milk,
sugar, and rice. It was not awesome, but I ate it. The bean curry was great
though.
Then we discovered the spiders. There were several big
spiders just hanging out inside the church, but no one cared except us. I guess
it’s just something they are used to which I think it weird because I would
never invite spiders to my church.
I had decided to preach at church the day before. I didn’t
really want to during the hike up, but had already prepared Samuel for what I
was preaching on. So, I trusted in the Lord to bring words to my mouth.
I preached on John 11. I told the story of Lazarus and the
relationship Jesus had with him and his sisters. In John, it says that he loved
them. The author points out that Jesus specifically loves Mary, Martha, and
their brother Lazarus.
When word was sent that Lazarus was sick, Jesus waited a bit
before he went to see him. Jesus knew that Lazarus would die and would raise
him from the dead. It would be to bring glory to God.
When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been in
the tomb for four days. Mary and Martha approached Jesus separately and said,
“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.� Jesus saw them crying
and he saw their friends crying, and this was his response:
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her
also weeping, he was deeply loved in spirit and troubled.� Vs 33
“Jesus wept.� Vs 35
That was the point I made. I wanted them to hear that we
have a God of compassion. Jesus came to earth to live a life like us and in
doing so, he experienced the loss of a loved one.
He wept. Our Lord God wept. He wept because he felt the pain
Mary and Martha did of losing their brother.
He wept because he felt the pain of never seeing him again,
never talking to him again, never making memories with him again, never hearing
his voice again, and never laughing with him again.
He wept even though he knew Lazarus was going to walk out of
the tomb. And it wasn’t just a cry, but weeping.
We need to understand that about Jesus. He cares about us.
He doesn’t just let bad things happen and ask us to suck it up. He wants us to
grieve and grieves with us. He feels
our pain, he weeps alongside us.
I don’t know if any of that resonated with them, but I
believe God used it how he wanted to. I know it resonated with me. I need to be
reminded of the love the Lord has for us.
And I want you to be reminded to.
Jesus wept.
