Walking With Christ

John 11:35
Jesus wept.(ESV)

Knowing who Jesus is requires acknowledging His divinity, but this often comes at the expense of forgetting His humanity. Verse 33 says that He was “deeply moved”. He wasn’t surprised at the death of Lazarus. He was, however, very much overcome with emotions when He saw those who mourned for Lazarus.

There are times that using English to study the bible can cause the intensity of the words to be washed away such that an emotionally raw scene like the death of a beloved brother to Mary and Martha and friend to those who mourned with them is reduced to “He felt compassion”. Those who have felt the soul crushing emptiness that such a loss can bring know that the description of this scene hardly does it justice.

There are times when we each suffer through a traumatic and life changing event where our whole world is shaken like a leaf in a hurricane. We can feel lost and broken. We lose our sense of reality because what was is no more. We can’t fully process everything that is going on and need to stop to take a moment to breathe. Life doesn’t allow for that. Life moves on. There are still bills to pay, clothes to clean, food that has to be made, and so many other responsibilities that don’t just stop existing when we need a break. We need the world to stop even if it’s just for a minute, but that’s not how life works. It never slows down. It never eases up on the throttle for anyone. This tragic reality is only fair because life makes no exceptions for anyone.

It can be overwhelming. Even if it isn’t a life shattering trauma, life can still be overwhelming at times. The normal day to day existence can build up to the point where we just can’t take any more.

The good news is that Jesus was human too. He became overwhelmed. It might have been because of the strong emotions He felt for those around Him, or the anger towards the money changers in the temple, but it warranted an emotional response from the one who spoke this world into being. It sparked an emotional response from the one who sees the beginning and end all at once.

If Jesus could be overwhelmed by His emotions to the point of weeping, why, then, should we be ashamed of those times when we need a minute to process.

Jesus became overwhelmed and had the power and authority to do something about it. He never fell into despair or lost trust in the Father. We don’t have the power He does, but we do have the power to turn things over to the one who does. Being overwhelmed isn’t a sin. Refusing to hand things over to God when we hit the end of our rope just might be because it shows that we refuse to trust Him. That seems to be the same thing as calling Him a liar. It should be noted here that struggling with trust is not the same thing as intentionally rejecting God’s help. Moments of weakness and doubt happen to us all, but the key is that we do turn back to Him and keep pushing forward with a deepening relationship.

Think about the last time you were overwhelmed. How did you respond in that moment? What could you have done differently to rely on God’s goodness, mercy, and grace more?