And here, in this passage, the Creator of the universe, in
the form of a human being, looks on the misery and grief caused by sin and
mourns with us, being one of us.
Jesus wept.
Have you ever wept for sin and its consequences in the
history of the earth? Have you ever wept for the sorrow of death, just in
general, not necessarily for a loss you’ve suffered but for the despair all
mankind and, indeed, all creation faces as a result of man’s sin?
Although I cannot be sure if this is exact or not one source
reports that 55 million people die every year, over 105,000 per day, or two
people every second. This statistic does not take into account the untold
millions suffering from starvation and disease. Nor does it take into account
the million and hundreds of millions suffering mentally and emotionally,
grieving, distraught, anxious, and afraid. There are millions of children and
women who have been sexually and physically abused and elderly people with no
way to care for their own needs. Adam’s sin, which we have inherited, has a
devastation that is its consequence that is unimaginable.
In many of the houses you drive by on your way to work or
the store there are dramas in play that revolve around heartbreak, betrayal,
manipulation, exploitation, and disillusionment. Many of you suffer from things
you have done or things others have done to you in your life. Many even suffer
from seemingly random acts, chance acts, which deprived you of someone you
dearly loved. And, in the end, there is, on top of all the pain and suffering,
a grave.
It is not a “glorious” death most of us face but a
whimpering, gasping, drug-clouded death in a hospital, nursing home, or at
home, perhaps alone with strangers who see death every day, and many times
without a familiar face nearby to look for compassion and sorrow in at our
passing. I want to impress upon you, who in this age have been so removed from
death in a way our ancestors were not, the despair and the grief that Jesus
stood facing.
Some commentators have insisted that the following phrase,
spoken by Jesus in the popularly called ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is about mourning
for the existence of sin and its consequences.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall
be comforted.
God sees the anguish and sorrow of heart that death, the
primary result of our sin here, causes. He, too, wept. Have you? Thank God,
Jesus Christ has overcome death.
Hebrews 2:14 ¶ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that
through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the
devil; 15 And deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
When Lazarus’ name was called he arose to meet the Lord.
1Thessalonians
4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
But, like many of us adults who were saved in our prime of
life he needed help directed by the Lord to be unbound from the vestiges of his
former condition. Unlike the little 12 year old child who arose immediately and
was commanded to be fed by the Lord in Mark 5:42 or the son of the widow of
Nain in Luke 7 who was perhaps older and needed help even to get up to be
delivered to his mother Lazarus represents that middle age between childhood
and the older adult who believes.
God can save us, call us forth, to leave the tomb of our sin
and wickedness, but we are often still bound in our graveclothes and need help.
It is the duty of the body of Christ on earth to edify and instruct the
Christian newly delivered from the grave, not to bind them in different
graveclothes, keeping the living person bound nonetheless. The call to every
preacher and teacher, indeed, to every mature Christian is to take the new believer
and, as Jesus commanded Loose him, and let
him go.
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