He Sees You
By Joslyn Jayaram
John 11:28-37
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[a] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
This chapter conveys so much emotion. Here we are, Lazarus has died and Jesus didn’t make it “in time.” His sisters, Jesus’ close friends, so sad because they hoped that He would help, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 32). The deep loss of their brother cuts at the heart of these two sisters in mourning, Mary even falling at Jesus’ feet (v.32). Can you feel their pain? Not just grief at loss but even disappointment in their Savior. It was clear what their hope was in verse 37, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” They wanted a healing. Both Mary and Martha had the faith that Jesus could do it, He just didn’t. Jesus had a much bigger plan… but we’ll get to that later this week. For now, let’s sit a moment here, right here in grief and disappointment.
Have you ever been here? Total despair in loss? Wondering why your faith didn’t get the answer you were hoping in? “Doesn’t faith move mountains?!” You cry out to God! Totally lost and confused, frustrated, and heartbroken. This is real.
You know what I love about Jesus? He came to this very place to do something both Martha and Mary wouldn’t even be able to fathom, He was going to do the impossible, and yet He never made light of their grief. This was an extremely sad moment in their lives, and what did our Almighty God do? He wept (v.35).
If you are in a place in your life that has caused you despair and loss, I want you to remind you today, before the hint of any answered prayer comes, God sees you. He loves you. He’s crying right along with you. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that compassion beyond understanding? Even when He comes to restore, our own Savior doesn’t make light of the pain. He doesn’t say, “stop crying,” “it’ll be alright.” No, he weeps with us.
1 Peter 5:7 (AMP) “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].”
Prayer: My Amazing, Loving Jesus, I pray in our despair, we don’t turn away from you even when we may feel disappointed in Your timing. I pray for Your awesome comfort that goes beyond all understanding and Your very real presence that weeps along with us. I pray that for those of us that are feeling lost, confused, and alone, that none of it is wasted, and like Mary and Martha we, too, have an amazing testimony of Your resurrecting power.