"Jesus Wept"

The following is a memorial lesson I gave at the 2019 All-California Sacred Harp Convention. Memorial lessons are given to remember people who have recently died. You can hear an audio version here.

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In the days of the early church, as recorded in 1 Thessalonians, we see that death was referred to as "falling asleep". Paul says (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For those like Paul, death was a light thing, a closing of the eyes. They had hope in God, who would, or will, resurrect them to new bodies and new life at the end of this age, as he planned.

According to this plan, in John 11, Jesus saw his beloved friends grieve over their brother Lazarus, and offered them the hope of a new body on the last day. (John 11:17-27)

But a few verses later, in John 11:35, we see that Jesus wept. This is a short verse, easy to memorize, and it’s one of the ones that ought to be memorized first, both in itself and with its context. "Jesus wept", in itself, is God with a broken heart. In context, it's God weeping with those who grieve, not because they've permanently lost Lazarus, but because we have a world in which people can't see beyond the grave, though they might want to. Many Christians grieve for people whom they believe have only fallen asleep, feeling in their bodies that they will never see them again, although their spirits know better. Grief itself can be a raging thing, even destroying the lives of the people left behind. All of this is cause for God to weep.

A few verses later, though, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. His sisters can have him back in their lives after all, so soon. Jesus knew he would do this all along. But Jesus wept. He lived in our time, though he didn't have to, and this is a reason why he deserves to be followed with all of our hearts.

So we live in our time of grief, and in eternity, when we think of those who have gone on.