Most of us have experienced the pain and the sorrow of the loss of a dear one to death. Some of us have gone through this with the loss of a parent or both parents (as in my case), even perhaps the loss of a brother or sister or another very close relative or a dear friend. The sense of loss can at times be overwhelming. Everyone deals with grieving differently, for some it takes a very long time to come to terms with the loss. In some cultures they wear black for at least the first year, then move to gray, and later to white; and some never wear another color again. In some cultures family members shave their heads, while others have church masses on the first anniversary. How have you dealt with grief in the past? Do you currently have some unresolved grief that is actually causing you a constant sense of loss and pain? What are you planning to do about it? Some grieving is healthy but some clearly is not.
In chapter 11 of the Gospel of John, we see a family going through the grief of losing a brother, Lazarus. We don’t know what illness overtook him, we just know that from the time the news of Lazarus' illness came to Jesus to the time he died only two days had passed. What was Martha’s and Mary’s faith like? What difference did it make in their grieving process? Clearly Martha had faith in the resurrection from the dead (but in the last days). What about her statement of faith in Jesus in verse 27? And yet she clearly falls short of the kind of faith that Jesus expects her to have, because she objected to the stone being removed from the entrance. Clearly she did not expect Jesus to resurrect Lazarus right there and then. Can you relate to her kind of faith or even a similar statement of faith as hers? In what way does your faith fall short today? Do you truly know Jesus for who He is - the Resurrection and the Life? What does this mean to you? What about the statement in verse 40, do you need to see in order to believe or do you believe first and then see the glory of God?
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