Saturday, June 30, 2018

John 11:32-37

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So 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?’

Why I believe

The way to understand Jesus’ divinity, his God-ness, is through the depth of his humanity, which is fully on display in these words. He comes, he sees the sorrow of people he loves and he stands at the tomb of a friend … and weeps.

I love Jesus for this. I don’t love Jesus for his power. I don’t love him because he did wondrous things, like raising his friend, Lazarus, from death.

I love him for his tears … for being profoundly human, for sharing human vulnerability and sorrow. 

Here I know: I am not alone. None of us are. This Love that he is … stands with us, mourning the destruction of life and beauty, aching for restoration.

The humanity of God glistens in his tears, revealing the depth of divine love.

In Jesus’ heart, there is a Voice who speaks, “This should not be! Life must not be reduced to dust. Beauty and joy, color and laughter must prevail, for that is my will, my hope, my dream.”

This is God’s voice, the Loving Spirit who filled Jesus from first to last through his life. Healing and hope begins here.

Our hope for new life each and every day, our hope for final resurrection begin in the wounded heart of God that refuses to be content with anything less than life, life healed, life restored, life raised from every death that lays us low.

Jesus invites us to the privilege of knowing God through his tears that we may know we are loved beyond all imagination by the One whose heart refuses to let us go.

Pr. David L. Miller