When Grief Encounters Grace

John 11:33-36 (ESV)

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. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

Two words change everything about how we understand grief: "Jesus wept." Not "Jesus explained" or "Jesus fixed" or "Jesus gave a theology lesson." He wept. The God of the universe stood at a graveside and mourned alongside his friends.

All the while, Jesus knew exactly what he was about to do. In just a few minutes, he'd call Lazarus out of that tomb alive and breathing. He had resurrection power in his back pocket, yet he still entered fully into the pain of the moment. He didn't skip past the grief to get to the miracle.

When you're drowning in loss—whether it's death, divorce, dreams that died, or friendships that ended—you don't need someone to rush you toward "healing" or remind you that "everything happens for a reason." You need someone who will sit in the darkness with you and weep.  Jesus’ followers are at their best when they empathetically listen to those who grieve, and at the right time point them to Jesus’ death-defeating power.