The God Who Weeps

Surely one of the most familiar stories we learn as children and probably one of the first memory verses we practice in Sunday School as youngsters is the story of the resurrection of Lazarus and the famous, shortest verse of the English bible: 'Jesus wept'.

Such a powerful story, layered in so much richness of who Jesus is and the nature of the God we serve...I'm afraid that sometimes with its familiarity we become too comfortable with the events the story recounts. Jesus raises a man from the dead. Not just a few moments following death...but several days following death. The smell would have confirmed the harsh reality of '...from dust we are and to dust we shall return'.

Yet in his divine nature we see how he was also fully human. He wept. I believe this is just as astounding as the fact he raised a rotting corpse to life again. God wept. The question is 'why?' He knew Lazarus was about to walk out of the tomb and celebration would ensue. Of course he knew the end to the story.

Yet he wept. When he saw the emotional suffering and weeping of those around him, he was overcome by emotion. He was genuinely in pain for the grief he was seeing in those he loved. The effects of sin and a fallen creation.

Knowing joy was just around the corner was not enough to not weep. He saw value in that moment of hurting with those who hurt...weeping with those who weep...meeting them in their grief and anguish.

Is Jesus any different today? In our darkest hour...in our deepest grief...in our pits of sorrow...not only is he there...he weeps with us. Of course, he knows the end of the story. He sees the ultimate victory. He still chooses to hurt with his children who hurt. To meet us in our weeping, with shared tears.

Children with cancer. The widow and mother of three. The young couple who dies in a fatal crash. The marriage that is over. The diagnosis that will mean life will be forever different. The lost job.  The estranged parent, brother, sister, former friend. The financial collapse with such overwhelming debt it will never be paid. The sleepless nights when peace seems to be a universe away. Our own sins that overwhelm us and keep hurting those we love the most.... Jesus weeps with us.

We do not serve a distant God. The deist should be more miserable than the atheist...at least the atheist has no hope of a God at all, much less one who cares...but for the one who believes there is a God but that he is either not in control, or just doesn't care about our suffering enough to do anything fosters a unique misery.

Read an article just a couple days ago that said purposeless things happen. Randomness just is. But God is sovereign and nothing happens outside his knowledge, will, or control...or we have a puny, impotent God. That is not Jehovah God. There is not an atom in the universe he does not sustain by his will.

What was the purpose of raising Lazarus from the dead? Jesus could have healed him and prevented the very pain and suffering he later weeps over. So why allow his friend to die? For the glory of God. So the people who saw such an event would have forever burned into their memories new life, hope, resurrection...from the very stench of death. To graphically mirror what happens to us.

Before salvation appears in our life, we are Lazarus. We are spiritually dead and rotting. No hope. No life. No union with our creator.

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."

Yet He made us alive through faith in the death he died for us and through the grace he freely provides.

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."

Tears turned to shouts of joy unspeakable. The God who shares our weeping, then brings us shouts of joy.

It is there in the symbolism of baptism: we are dead, buried with Christ, and by his power he raises us to new life in him...from the dead.

We are Lazarus. His story is ours. Jesus weeps with us...for our suffering...for the effects of sin we cannot even fathom...only seeing its evidence in the pain of our lives...

Yet the God who weeps with us raises us up...calls us from our rotting death, breathes in us new life...and turns our weeping to joy.


 

In Spirit and in Truth

Our Lord Jesus. The God-man. Tired and sitting by a well.

In the story of the Samaritan Woman and Jesus, the story begins with the Son of God being on a journey, stopping for a break while his disciples went into town to buy food...so detailed is this beautiful account that we even know the time of day. It's noon. Simple scene. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Enter the scene: a woman....a Samaritan woman. Also quite ordinary...this was, after all, in Samaria.

This is where the ordinary comes to an end.  Jesus does something socially unacceptable in that day. He asks this Samaritan woman for a drink. As the text even clearly indicts...Samaritans and Jews do not associate. For us today perhaps it would be like a Jew and a Muslim meeting up...an unlikely positive exchange, in other words. There would have been at least social tension and suspicion. Not so with Jesus. He knew this woman though they had never met...He knew her in a way no one else ever had or ever would.

She points out the absurdity of speaking with her.  He turns the conversation to Himself.

He speaks of a Gift.  He speaks of what her ears perceived as mysterious, perhaps even magical claim of 'living water' that if she could just drink she would never thirst again. She seems mildly intrigued but very suspicious. I don't blame her. I would have been, too. These are strange, even outrageous claims! How could this guy be speaking truth when there was nothing for him to even draw any water with (he was asking HER to draw the water, remember?). She goes on to boldly ask, "Who do you think you are? Jacob himself never did that and this was his well...you think you are greater than him? I mean, come on!" (Well, that is the modern wording of her reply to his claims of 'living water') (smile).

Not sure if she is genuinely interested or just being smug when she challenges him to go ahead and draw this living water so she will no longer have to draw everyday. The humor is not lost on me.  Pretty sure she was saying to the effect "So if you really can, go ahead, I'd love some of that water so I'd never be thirsty and have to haul this water everyday...go ahead. I'm in."(another smile).

 "Go, call your husband and come back". These words present a fork in the road of this conversation.  "I have no husband." was her honest reply.

 Then in a stunning couple of sentences he rocks her world. "...true...you have had 5 husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you say in true."

 Everything changed in this exchange. It's as if the curtain of earthly reality split apart and the light of Heaven shone through. This was no ordinary Jewish man. Her conclusion was obvious..."You must be a prophet".

When she realizes he is no ordinary man, she still reacts in such a human, superficial way, ( we would have done the same, I'm sure)...she wanted an argument settled about a PLACE to worship. Tell me prophet, on this mountain like our ancestors or Jerusalem? She wanted the answer to WHERE. Just like she saw 'convenience value' to 'living water' but was missing the real message...so she does here as well about the nature of worship.

Jesus takes her question to the ultimate deep level. Neither here nor there...place is irrelevant...but rather it's the HOW. In Spirit and in Truth.

In a day in age where worship was so systematic and ritualistic...centering around types and shadows...he pointed to the nature of worship itself...in spirit..real, authentic pure worship. Our spirits connected to the Spirit he ultimately would send when he left the earth...to our forever Helper and Comforter.  The Spirit that energized the early Church, who energizes our hearts today. When we just 'aren't feelin' it'...he's there...ready to stir the emotions of adoration no matter what circumstance this life throws at us. The glory of a surrendered heart in true worship. Our spirit connected to his Spirit. 'Spiritual worship'. Not a certain place. Not a set of rituals...a spiritual experience of the heart connecting the glory that is our God to these hearts of ours in a surreal and glorious union only the true worshipper can describe.

In Truth. The truth of which he speaks was the very Truth the entire conversation was revolving around: Him. Echoing his outrageous claim "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". He is the truth of which he speaks. His divine identity. His divine mission.

How many times in the NT does Jesus point blank tell someone that he is the Messiah? Not many. Not many at all. Rare in fact. This is one of the times. To a woman. To a Samaritan woman. To a sinful Samaritan woman. Outrageous! Just like Jesus! Love it!

What is his next sentence after the woman says someday Messiah will explain all this?

"I, the one speaking to you---I am he".

She leaves the scene marveling all the way back to her village as she declares to all who will listen what she just experienced. His identity was the truth that changed everything. The truth that still changes everything.

The Truth that would make Paul later declare: "To live *is* Christ, to die is gain". He is the truth ALL revolves around.

Worship is no longer centered around place or earthly temple or purifying rituals. None of that the focus any longer, but rather what it all had been pointing to in the first place...to the Substance behind the rituals...to God's only Begotten Son. He himself having came down from Heaven's Glory to purify a people for himself...to secure our salvation. All the types. All the shadows. All the rituals, feasts, festivals, Sabbaths...fulfilled in the God-man.

God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth.

But part of me still replies exactly as this dear lady did: "Show me a system...a place...a way, Lord...please... Show me something tangible...a checklist would be nice, I want to do worship right...."

Then he proves in our lives who he is as he did to the woman when he said "Go and get your husband". He opens our eyes to his identity.

Then our question becomes the same as hers, echoing back through the ages...the question of all questions:

"Could you be the Messiah?" .

"I, the one speaking to you---I am he."