A Word from the Vine No. 552: Jesus Wept

Hello again, friends. This is A Word from the Vine, and I'm Pastor Loren Christensen, coming to you from the Danish Countryside Chapel here in Exira.

There's a verse in the Bible that's only two words long, and lately it's meant more to me than passages ten times its size.

"Jesus wept." — John 11:35

Jesus is standing outside His friend Lazarus's tomb. He knows — He knows — He's about to raise him from the dead. And He weeps anyway.

I used to wonder why that verse was even in there. If He knew the ending was going to be good, why cry?

I think I understand it a little better now. Grief isn't a sign that you've lost your faith in how the story ends. It's just what love does when something it cherished is gone, even for a moment, even when heaven is certain.

So if you've been telling yourself you shouldn't still be crying, or you should be "over it" by now, or that your tears somehow mean your faith is thin — friends, Jesus stood at that tomb and wept, knowing full well what He was about to do. Grief and hope were never enemies. They stood right next to each other, at the same graveside.

This is Pastor Loren. Thanks for listening to A Word from the Vine. And remember — the Gospel isn't just something we believe. It's something we live, tears and all.