Trusting in Jesus Even in Seasons of Grief - Your Nightly Scripture - September 27th

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Trusting in Jesus Even in Seasons of Grief

Evening Scripture

John, Chapter 11

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.”

Evening Reflection

C.S. Lewis notably wrote in A Grief Observed that, “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” To add my thought to his observation, no one told me that grief could feel like guilt. Only recently have I connected the guilt I too often carry to the sorrow that continues to ache these long years after my mother passed away.

Often, during times of loss, whether after the death of a loved one, a terminal diagnosis, or the burial of a dream, we fight against thoughts of “what if.” What if we had done things differently, would our loved ones still be here, alive and well? Or, what if we had chosen a different trajectory for our lives, perhaps our health would not be in the condition it is now? What if … [fill in the blank].

Martha and Mary also struggled with a form of “what if” after their brother, Lazarus, died. Both sisters expressed to Jesus their conviction that if only He had been there, their brother would not have died. Having heard the accounts of Christ’s ability to heal, the sisters likely assumed that He could have rebuked the illness or placed His hands on Lazarus to bring restoration of health. But He hadn’t. In fact, Jesus deliberately delayed His journey to Bethany.

What we see in Jesus’ response to the death of his friend, though, shows us that He grieved. He mourned the reality of death that snatches away the breath of those we love. He mourned the effects of sin and what it means to live in a broken world. He wept, and in those tears, we find a love that is great enough to hold all our questions and ponderings.

Not only is He the Savior who understands our pain, He is the Lord who called out Lazarus from the tomb. In Jesus, death is undone, and He gives us the promise of restoration and resurrection. But until that day, when all tears will be wiped away, we can trust in the goodness of Christ even as we weep at His feet. For He grieves alongside us.

Evening Prayer

Lord,

I often carry guilt regarding my grief, that I’m not walking in the path of joyfulness, as a good Christian should. Questions continue to come to my mind as I wonder if I could have done something differently – perhaps the situation would have turned out differently.

But Your Word never commands me not to grieve. I read of how You wept, Lord Jesus, after Your friend died. Two simple words on the page, yet they carry more comfort than I can express.

You understand the ache I feel, the emptiness that gnaws inside me when I remember those I have loved and lost. You do not rebuke me for my lament or tell me to cheer up. Rather, You stand with me and weep.

And as I consider the love You show in my season of grief, I remember that You also stand with nail-scarred hands and feet. You are the Resurrection and the Life. In You I will live even though I die. So, I grieve, but not like someone without hope, for You are my living hope, Christ.

Amen.

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Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.

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Sophia Bricker is a writer. Her mission is to help others grow in their relationship with Jesus through thoughtful articles, devotionals, and stories. She completed a BA and MA in Christian ministry, which included extensive study of the Bible and theology, as well as an MFA in creative writing. You can read her thoughts about the intersection of literature and faith at The Cross, a Pen, and a Page Substack, visit her author Facebook page, or browse the discipleship-based site Cultivate, where she writes with her sister. 

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