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John 11 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

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  Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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  few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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  exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now. When you're ready, let's dive
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  into God's word together. In John Chapter 11, Jesus friend
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  Lazarus dies. This results in Lazarus sisters
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  Mary and Martha both telling Jesus that if he had been there,
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  their brother would not have died.
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  These sisters are grieving and in their grief they release the
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  pain of having lost their brother out on Jesus.
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  Now you may know already how this story ends.
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  Lazarus does not stay dead. In verse 43, Jesus calls out to
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  Lazarus who had at this point been dead for four days.
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  He calls to him saying Lazarus come forth and just like that,
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  Lazarus is raised to life again. A breathtaking display of Jesus
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  power over death and a beautiful foretaste of Jesus own
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  resurrection. Later in this gospel I want us
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  to rewind though. Let's take a moment to look at
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  how Jesus responds to the death of Lazarus and to the grief of
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  Mary and Martha. Listen to the scene that takes
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  place between Jesus and Mary in verses 28 through 35.
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  It says when she had said this, she went away and called Mary
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  her sister, saying secretly, the teacher is here and is calling
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  for you. And when she heard it, she got
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  up quickly and was coming to him.
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  Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in
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  the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her
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  in the house and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up
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  quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she
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  was going to the tomb to weep there.
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  Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell
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  at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my
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  brother would not have died. Mary's in deep grief.
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  She's just lost her brother. She feels helpless and at her
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  weakest. She feels that Jesus abandoned
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  them in their time of need. The passage goes on.
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  When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews who came
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  with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was
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  troubled and said, Where have you laid him?
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  They said to him, Lord, come and see.
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  Jesus is moved by Mary's grief. He does not offer her cheap
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  consolation. No, He is genuinely moved.
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  He's embodying the instruction that Paul gives in Romans 12 to
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  weep with those who weep because in the very next verse, the
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  shortest verse in the whole Bible, that grief Jesus feels
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  inside makes its way out. Listen to verse 35.
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  Jesus wept. He wept.
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  The God of the universe, who had humbly taken the form of man and
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  stepped into a broken world, wept at the real painful effects
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  of that brokenness. His friend was dead and his
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  friends were weeping, and so he wept.
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  And this is our Saviour, as we read in Isaiah 53.
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  This is the Man of sorrows, the one who bears our griefs, the
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  one who carries our sorrows. This is the one who offers rest
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  to all who are weary and heavy laden, the one who is gentle and
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  humble in heart. Friend, we live in a world that
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  guarantees that one day soon you will find yourself in the
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  position that Mary found herself weeping in sorrow and loss.
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  But friend, if you are in Christ, you have a Saviour, an
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  advocate who is well acquainted with your griefs.
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  He carries them, He bids you cast them on him, He weeps
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  alongside you, and he is even now reconciling all things to
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  himself. He is coming soon to make all
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  things new. He knows your pain, He feels
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  your pain, He will comfort you through that pain.
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  And he is coming again, one day soon, to make an end to all of
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  that pain.