John 11: Love and Lament

A Bible trivia answer—It’s anything but trivial. “The shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus Wept. It’s easy to pass over. And difficult to understand. So stark. Simple. Profound. Jesus steps into the moment of his friend’s grief, his friend’s death. He steps into the void. Into this great absence. The questions. The groaning too great for words. The regrets. The lost time. The lost smiles. The lost warmth in bed. The lost partner in life; companion for moments such as these. He takes it all in. Sees it all. And he weeps. He feels. He longs. He grieves. He angers. Not simply at the circumstance or consequence of sin. But with. He weeps with you. He weeps with us. And he weeps for. For you. For us. He knows our sorrows. He carries our grief. He, in short, loves us. He loved Lazarus. Mary. Martha. And it is that love that leads him to weep. It is that love that allows, and more importantly invites us to weep. Ir is that love that then lifts the heavy heavy heads. Heads too heavy for our own shoulders. And draws our eyes toward a horizon of hope. A horizon maybe we’re unsure is there or how to see it. But Jesus enters our sorrows and then takes them on his own shoulders to bear them for us. Jesus Wept.”