THE GRACE FO GRIEVING

THE GRACE OF GRIEVING

By: Rev. Arnel Tan

Then Jesus wept. John 11:35 NLT

Seeing the Son of God weeping, grieving for the death of a friend is not only an awesome and mysterious, it’s comforting too others who are grieving too. This is a grace modeled by Christ that gives permission for us to grieve our loss. To express it in tears when words fail to articulate what we feel inside. Tears are language that God understands because He too had to shed it Himself. Grieving is an act of grace simply because it is showing that we are not man and woman of steel, somehow our personalities may differ but inside we are all the same. We are WEAK!

The grieving of Christ as expressed in his weeping models a unique grace of how the One who is willing to grieve is a comfort to others who are grieving and an encouragement to those who refuse to grieve over a loss. It is in this time that His weeping more than his preaching has ministered comfort to many. Some were touched, while others demanded for more spectacular miracles. By the way we don’t weep or grieve to create an impression we grieve and weep to express our humanity and to surrender to God’s sovereignty. Tears per se are not a requirement for repentance yet for those who repent often we find it difficult not to shed tears.

The grieving of Jesus allows us to see not a divine crack or weakness rather a taste of grace that our tears are valued by the Almighty. How opposite from what the world taught us that crying is weakness. Here we learn that the cry of the helpless and the grieving is the beginning of an unsuspected source of strength! In a nutshell, it’s OK to cry! Personally, I am not a stranger to tears, somehow I am beginning to be conscious of it especially when I am preaching. Above the “embarrassment” that weeping brings to a minister the freedom and relief it brings inside is overwhelming. I remember the Psalmist saying “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.” (Psalm 126:5). That’s not just a good stuff to quote that’s a good seed to plant and a harvest to enjoy!

What do you think is the message of “Jesus wept” to you? For me it’s a language of grace that is expressed in grieving. When will grieving end and moving on begin? No one can really tell when the grieving stops. Probably it won’t end in this life. The good news is in every time we grieve God weeps with us and provides grace to finally accept what humanly we can never accept. After some time of intense grieving while doing my afternoon walk at the nearby cemetery (a God given spot to grieve), I found a deep sense of freedom inside, sound of shackles dropping and a fresh song from my heart saying or singing Horacio Spafford’s hymn “it is well with my soul” and this time it’s not just a song you sing in funerals, it’s a song of a soul finally set free! Thank you weeping Savior, thank you for allowing me to weep too, no wonder why You can wipe tears.