Jesus Wept

So this one is based off of a real life conversation I ended up in where God gave me the words to speak where I wasn’t qualified to.

To preface, my main form of ministry is as a youth group leader at the church that I attend. Even though I haven’t gone to Bible college, I do have a bit of experience answering questions that kids from 6th grade on ask.

But while I was at work, a coworker talked to me about how their mother recently passed away. Some of the first words out of their mouth “I know I’m not supposed to mourn as she was a follower…” Then continued to justify something that someone must have told her about how Christians aren’t supposed to mourn loss of their own.

I was at a loss right after. How was a youth group leader like me supposed to respond to this with no training in grievance counseling or even experience for the matter? I sent up a little prayer to God like “How do I handle this?”

The first words out of my mouth were “Jesus Wept…”, hence the title. Then I continued on about the story in the Bible about how Jesus wept after Lazarus died, even though Lazarus was a believer and Jesus knew that he would bring him back to life.

Even though I don’t remember exactly how I worded the rest, because I was speaking from God’s wisdom in that moment and not my own. And hopefully I can do it justice in writing format. So as Tenacious D once sang, “This is just a tribute.”

By reading this, I hope that other Christians are reassured that it’s okay to grieve loss whether that loss was another believer or not.

Grief for the unsaved

To begin this one, I’ll speak of the one form of grief that all Christians seem to think is okay. That is grief of those who are potentially unsaved.

We are supposed to feel sad for them and pray that they did get right with God before they met their demise. It reminds us of what’s at stake if we don’t minister to others as we’re called.

Jesus Wept

As titled this is the part where I reference the Bible where Jesus wept for Lazarus.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

• John 11:14-15

Jesus knew that Lazarus had passed while they were away. Even though he said in verse 4 that his sickness would not end in death. So it was the plan all along to revive him.

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

• John 11:24

Martha’s answer back to Jesus when he told her that her brother would rise again, this signifies that Lazarus was a believer.

Jesus wept.

• John 11:35

Probably the shortest verse in the Bible.

With that aside, Jesus was half divine, but also half man. So at least to a certain extent, he felt human emotions while he was here. But he could not sin. So this shows that it is not sinful to cry over believers who have passed on.

Transformation Aspect

As Christians we believe that there are two primary transformations when and after we become believers. The first one is becoming saved. It’s the moment we feel in our heart that we believe in God, and that Jesus, the Son of God, our savior; was sacrificed for our sins. The second transformation is transitioning from our earthly bodies here to our spiritual bodies in Heaven. At that moment we’ll be different.

Grief isn’t just feeling sad because something or someone is lost forever, it can come from remembering how something or someone was before that moment, on top of rejoicing over the new. Those two emotional aspects alone can overwhelm someone to cry. It’s normal, it’s okay, and it’s as God designed us to be.

Because of this, people can and will cry during Baptisms, graduations, weddings, and I have seen the response at induction ceremonies as well.

In a way, a Christian death is a graduation of a spiritual scale. We graduate from our bodies to the spiritual realm of Heaven. If someone can cry at a graduation ceremony without being ridiculed, they should be able to cry over a Christian who died without criticism.

No hate for the misguided

Even though there’s apparently some Christians that tell others that it’s not okay to grieve for other Christians, I don’t have any hate for them. I just believe that the notion is misguided based on my analysis of it against scripture.

So if someone tells you that, correct them gently and kindly. I don’t want ill will to come from someone reading this.

More to come (Possibly)

On the ending of this, I may post a Part 2 if I think of more.