Posts
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
