Friday 3rd November - John 11

Today’s chapter is John 11

Tom writes:

With three words he raised a man.  And one of the words was restrictive; if he hadn’t named Lazarus who knows how many wrapped bodies would have emerged from the tombs?  It was quite a display of power.  It could make you feel very intimidated.  But he also wept.  He wept.  I must confess I have never wept over someone else’s misfortune.  I’ve cried over the depth of my sin and blubbed with joy while trying to give my wedding speech.  But feeling someone else’s pain to the extent that my heart breaks a little?  That requires a depth of empathy beyond anything I have acquired.  I like to feel that I’m the one who can get the job done.  I’ve got the stiff upper lip that helps me make the right decisions even in the difficult situations.  Jesus is so much greater than me.  He wailed like a baby and sorted out the problem.  To have in one man both the epitome of supportive friendship and the pinnacle of transformative power, well, that man would have to be a liberator of epic proportions. 

I would want that man to be my shepherd… wouldn’t you? I’d want that man to come to join me at funerals. I’d like that man to be present at my funeral as well. And, the good news is we can have him. We can come to him - the Son of God who has come into the world - both with trepidation and with boldness.  We shuffle towards God Most High, towards the One who wields intoxicatingly potent power.  And we fling ourselves heavily upon the extended embrace of the Lord who Sees Us, the one who came to build solidarity with us.  We know that God feels raging sorrow over the pains that plague us.  We know that the Almighty Maker and Restorer of All is not unmoved by our plight.

Question for reflection

Have you ever felt Jesus weep over you or with you?