Controlled Chaos
Jesus is sobbing.
Yep. Call in the marines. This has to be bad.
Jesus is known for a lot of things.
Whipping the tradesmen in the temple.
Creating a feast out of a boy’s lunch.
Silencing nature with his words.
Subduing evil with a command
Ejecting disease with a word.
He’s all power and all knowing.
He’s the one you can trust when your world has come undone.
Which begs the question.
How in the world does God cry?
You probably know the context. He’s in front of Lazarus’ tomb.
He knew Lazarus was sick. He knew it when Lazarus died. He knew that he would command Lazarus and that Lazarus would rise.
He actually told his disciples that he was going to wake Lazarus up.
Now he’s in front of the tomb.
Knowing what happens next, I wonder why he just doesn’t get on with waking Lazarus up.
Somehow, something about his hurting friends gets to him and he breaks down.
Pretty odd don’t you think?
After all, in less than an hour Lazarus would be alive.
I lost someone close to me a few weeks ago.
I know he’s in heaven.
I know he’s been relieved of a lot of pain and stress and wouldn’t want to come back given the choice.
I know I will see him again.
My head understands that God’s got this.
My heart didn’t get the memo.
At the most inopportune moments, I find myself struggling to not fall apart.
It’s definitely very inconvenient for my normally coherent demeanour.
Turns out heartache punches out logic on most days
Turns out I’m decidedly human.
Turns out Jesus was human too.
For a brief moment before his divinity was asserted in the most dramatic way possible, we get to see the heart of a MAN who had lost his friend.
A man who hurt because Mary and Martha did.
A man who loved as we love and felt as we feel.
A friend told me I couldn’t rush the grieving process.
I wish he was wrong.
In the midst of this mess, I’ve been blessed to have had some very special people come around me. They know like I do, that everything will turn out okay, but they don’t beat me over the head with it. It’s as if they understand me even more than I understand me right now and I gotta say, if there is one thing I need right now – it is to be understood.
The fact that Jesus cried makes me feel like he understands me.
The time line between Lazarus’ death and resurrection was way shorter than the time between the death I’ve experienced and the resurrection I believe will happen – nevertheless Jesus felt the hurt.
He shed tears.
That makes it okay for me to do the same.
I don’t expect the upcoming days to be my easiest, but I do expect the God who knows exactly how I feel to walk me through this.
And guess what?
He understands what hurts you too.