At that moment, Jesus offers truth. It doesn’t necessarily change what has happened and how Martha (or Mary) feels. But what it is meant to do is bring comfort and hope. Jesus speaks into Martha and Mary’s pain and suffering and reveals that he is their light in their darkest days; he is their hope in their hopelessness; and he is their breath when they feel they cannot breathe.
Question 3: I’m Hurt, Do You Care?
Fast-forward a little in the story and we see Mary now approaches Jesus. She has been in the house while Martha engaged Jesus. Now, it is her turn. I’m imagining Mary is grieving slightly different than Martha. Martha seemed to have more of an angry grief, whereas Mary has more of a desperate (broken) grief. It’s not that one is right and the other wrong. It just means that we all grieve (and respond) to pain and suffering differently. Mary literally falls at Jesus’ feet and said what Martha said, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Basically, Mary expressed how hurt she is. She’s sobbing. She’s probably been sobbing so much she’s physically weak and exhausted. She’s devastated. Her world has been turned upside down. And she is wondering, does Jesus care?
In the depths of human response to the depravity of life, we see one of the clearest pictures of the divine descending into our misery depths to express how much he cares. What does Jesus do as Mary and others wept in their pain and suffering? He wept.
What does Jesus do in our moments and seasons of pain and suffering? He doesn’t pity human suffering. Rather, he identifies, sympathizes, and empathizes with our trouble, our grief, our pain, our suffering, and yes even our tears. Jesus too, is torn-up at pain and suffering.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. What he does next separates him from all other religions, philosophies, and ideas as it relates to pain and suffering. Jesus not only descends into the darkness of our pain and suffering—identifying, sympathizing, and empathizing with us—but he redeems it by reversing it through resurrection. Deeply moved and troubled by the ultimate cause of pain and suffering—death—Jesus went to the place where Lazarus was put to rest. After having people roll away the stone, he called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And come out he did!
Imagine if you were Martha and Mary. How would Jesus raising Lazarus change you? In short, my morning would be turned to dancing, my sadness into gladness, my hurt into happiness, my gloom into grandeur, my darkness into light, my sorrow into joy, my weeping into singing, and my grief into glory. He would have reversed, redeemed, my pain and suffering.
What Jesus did with Lazarus was both a prelude to his impending death and resurrection as well as a foretaste to what he will (one day) do with all those who call him Lord—who look to him as Savior and King.
So, does Jesus care that we are hurting in our pain and suffering? Absolutely! And he cared so much that he did something about it. This is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:16–18)
