Years of Tears

 "Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone rolled across the entrance. 'Take away the stone,' He said." John 11: 38, 39

    In preparation for my bible study lesson, I read the account of the raising of Lazarus, a passage with which I am familiar. This time, however, I paused to reflect on the possible thoughts of Jesus as He approached the tomb.

    Waves of loving compassion and sympathy washed over Jesus as He wept along with the sisters, Mary and Martha. When He stood facing the tomb of his friend, their brother Lazarus, I wonder if He thought back to the Fall of Man when, like the opening of a Pandora's box, years of tears were unleashed that washed across centuries of tombs and eons of sorrow. Adam and Eve were evicted from paradise as the sentinel cherubim flashed a flaming sword at the eastern entrance, barring them from the tree of life. The death knell had sounded for all of us.

    Perhaps Jesus, when looking at the tomb, thought of His own pending death by crucifixion and the borrowed tomb where His shrouded body would lay waiting, waiting for the Son to rise on that third day when the sting of death will have been eradicated and victory over the grave eternally claimed! The stench of death has been replaced by the aroma of our risen Lord and Savior. Hallelujah! Amen!

    I have attended various funerals over the years enough to testify to the joyous homegoing of the Christian. Yes, their body lay dead, just like any one of us will someday be, but the difference is the hope of glory that is ours in Christ. We have been redeemed from the power of the second death, that is the death of our souls. 

    I can't say for sure, but maybe Jesus was thinking, on that day by the tomb, how much He abhors death just as we do. Yet, He willingly laid down His life so that we may live, drying up the years of tears. 

    Have you thanked Him?

"On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth." Isaiah 25: 7, 8