9/2/18 - Jesus Weeps - John 11:1-44

Last Saturday I received news of a childhood friend who was suddenly and unexpectedly killed. For many, permanence is the bothersome thing about death. "I will never hold them, touch them, speak to them again." These words are commonly spoken by those who view death as the grand exit. However, the believer sees death in a different light. I think of the words of the great preacher Dwight Moody who sometime before his death penned his own eulogy… “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment, I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch; that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.” When Jesus appears at the grave of his good friend Lazarus he weeps. Why cry knowing Lazarus will be brought back to life? The tears of Jesus represent God's love for all humanity. People remain separated from God and dead in their sins without knowing Jesus. Jesus understands what it will cost him to rescue us. Jesus must be buried so we can be raised. Jesus must enter the beast of the belly so we can enter the presence of God. "Look at how he loves Lazarus!" they say. Let's not forget that his love for us is the motivation for his death.