BIG BOYS DO CRY

JESUS RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD  (John 11:38). Bethania - the tomb of  Lazarus.

Mary, a follower of Jesus, approached her Lord at the sudden death of her brother and with some bitterness and hostility said, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus, deeply moved by her tears, asked, "Where have you laid him?" When Mary and her companions took Him to the town cemetery, Christ stood before the tomb, and wept. Seeing His tears, friends of the family remarked, "See how He loved him". In that incident, once and for all, Jesus refuted by His tears the notion that "big boys don't cry". He who remains history's perfect and complete man stood by a graveside and wept.

A passage from the pen of Paul has been seriously misunderstood. Paul wrote to his friends in Thessalonica, "We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4;13). Unfortunately, some Christians strugle under "bad grief" because they have left off the last phrase of the sentence and have missed Paul's point completely. Paul does not say we are not to grieve. Grief is an emotion like love, or fear, guilt or anger and probably a mixture of all of these. Religion does not make us immune from or to emotions, and it is as pointless to deny grief as it is to deny laughter. Christians, in company with all men, experience grief, but unlike others, Christians do not grieve as people without hope. The assurance of the resurrection and the trust in God's power to turn bed Fridays into Good Fridays keep grief from being overwhelming; but nonetheless, God gives no crowns to those who refuse to weep. ( Haddon W. Robinson)

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