When Jesus Wept

Given that Jesus is the most perfect, complete man who ever walked on the planet, it sometimes surprise us to think that he experienced genuine emotions.

When I asked my school Scripture class this week to suggest when they thought Jesus got all emotional, some thought it might have been when he was falsely accused or when he experienced the rejection of his own people whom he came to save.

However, one of the most famous times where he expressed his emotion was when he saw first hand the sadness of the sisters of Lazarus, the man who had recently died.

Jesus knew that the pain of the death of his friend would ultimately be used through the ages as a remarkable testimony to the power of Jesus over death, which would bring great glory to God the Father.

Yet even though this was the ultimate aim, it didn’t stop him personally feeling the pain of grief from death.

Jesus knows what it means to experience the loss of a loved one, and he knows how it hurts in ways that words cannot express.

It is for this reason that Jesus is able to truly comfort us when we turn to him in our grief, knowing that he has felt just the same kind of thing that we’ve felt.

But the great power of Jesus comes with the hope that death is ultimately dealt with by his own victory over death, so that the weeping that comes from death will one day cease as God, himself, wipes away our tears.

The power of Jesus over the grave gives us confidence that death is a part of life that will be put behind us as we ultimately pass from this life to the next, safe in the arms of Jesus.

JODIE McNEILL