In the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead we read how Mary and Martha come to Jesus to tell him that their brother is very ill and will die and can Jesus please come before that happens?
Jesus waits a couple of days before going to where Lazarus by that time has died and is laid in a tomb.
When Mary comes to Jesus we read this in John 11:33
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
Jesus knows that in a short time death will be defeated. He has even already declared that he is going to raise Lazarus getting the dead but a few verses later we read the famously short
“Jesus wept.”
As I read this story its not Lazarus’s death that causes Jesus to cry–that’s a temporary problem–but rather the pain he sees in the faces of those he loves.
When you find yourself in a season of mourning, don’t run from it, but rather follow Mary and Martha in running to Jesus, carrying your pain with you. He is the God who became man to feel your pain, and heal your pain, to redeem your pain.
Run to him. Take others with you.
Worthy of Imagination 