Scripture: John 11:32-44
Journal: How does God feel about your pain?
How is he with you in your pain? How
is he at work redeeming it? How is he
for you in your pain? What does the
knowledge of that do within you?
Reflection: All groans are not created equal; John 11:33-38 is prime
evidence of that. In John 11, Jesus
finds himself in the hometown of his dear friend Lazarus. It has been four days since his death and
Jesus, and Lazarus’ sisters, are on the way to his tomb. As expected, there is a lot of grief and
sadness and mourning and pain. And
twice, as the story unfolds, we see that Jesus is deeply moved in spirit and
troubled by what he sees.
The word used here for deeply
moved (translated groan in the KJV), both in verse 33 and verse 38
of John 11, is embrimaomai. It
means to snort with anger or indignation. It is a completely different word than the
one (also translated groan) used in Romans 8:22 and Mark 7:34 (stenazō),
which describes a more compassionate “groaning with.” The word used in John 11 clearly has a bit of
an angry edge to it. I suppose that’s why
Eugene Peterson (in The Message) translates John 11:33, “a deep anger welled up
within him.”
Which raises a great
question: Who or what, exactly, was Jesus angry at? Some say that Jesus was angry at Mary for her
lack of belief, but I don’t buy that for a second. That is simply not the Jesus that I
know. A Jesus that is angry at us when
we grieve the loss of a loved one is not the Jesus I see in the gospels. In fact, Jesus was heartbroken for Mary and
Martha, which is why he wept. His anger
is not at them, but at the brokenness of this fallen world. He was not angry at Mary, he was angry
for Mary, which is a whole different type of anger altogether. This was an anger over the fact that this was
not the way the it was intended to be.
And I really like that.
That type of anger assures
me that God is constantly at work making everything right once again. He is not just sitting idly by as we wallow
around in our pain. It also shows us
that he is not just with us in our suffering (which is huge in and of itself),
but he is actually working for us. Thus,
each of us can rest assured that at some point he will redeem all of the pain
and all of the suffering and all of the brokenness we have experienced over the
course of our lifetimes. That’s why he
says to Martha: “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the
glory of God?” Death and suffering and
brokenness and decay and pain do not have the final word, life does. Thanks be to God!
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Thank you, O God, that death is not the end
of the story, but life is. Help me to
really believe that as I navigate this fallen and broken world. Amen.
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