We know that when Jesus walked the earth, He was fully God and fully man. He understands completely every feeling that we have. He lived in a human body with all the physical limitations and the emotional expressions that we experience daily.
Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are yet without sinning.” (AMPC)
In a wonderful mastermind that I have been privileged to be a part of this month, we were discussing the significance of the passage “Jesus wept” in the Gospel’s account of Jesus when Lazarus died. We know that Jesus knew beforehand that Lazarus would die and that God was going to raise him from the dead.
In John 11:4,11 we learn that Jesus believed and released His faith that Lazarus would be raised (we, too, must not only believe in our miracle but release our faith with our words). And in verse 41 Jesus said aloud, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me” Heard is past tense. So, when was He referring to? When He released His faith in verse 4.
So, if Jesus believed and released His faith in verses 4 &11 and in verses 41 & 42 He explained that God had heard Him and He knew that Lazarus would be raised, what happened in between? If Jesus already knew the outcome would be favorable, why did He weep in verse 35?
I believe He was fully revealing His humanity! In verse 33 it says “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.”
Romans 12:15 instructs us to “Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others’ joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief].” (AMPC) We discussed that Jesus is our Master Mentor, always our example for everything in life. We only ever have to look to Jesus and see how He handled a situation to know how we should respond.
One of my spiritual mothers once shared how the Holy Spirit conveyed to her when she was overcome with weeping from a great loss she experienced in her life, that weepings are the “comfort of the Spirit”. When we look at the biological/neurological part of us (for Jesus was fully man in every aspect) we know that the brain is the greatest pharmacy, creating chemical cocktails with every thought we have. And we know that oxytocin and other endorphins are released in our tears, which then eases physical or emotional pain. Isn’t God so amazing to have created us with this capacity to soothe ourselves?!
Perhaps the purpose was two-fold. To sympathize with the family of Lazarus AND to comfort Jesus’ physical body and mind as He was willing to go to the deepest places of His heart which was only a precursor to the mental anguish He would face in Gethsemane in just a few days from then.
This passage encourages us to be reminded that we are NOT what we FEEL. Do we feel emotions because we are human? Yes. But those emotions are just what our brain has told our bodies to feel in response to thoughts created by stress or momentary fear or worry. They are not who we ARE. So, there is no shame in feeling feelings, for Jesus Himself allowed them. The Bible instructs us to “take thoughts captive and to cast down vain imaginations” so we can replace them with God’s HIGHER THOUGHTS, but God designed us with comfort in mind.
In Philippians 4:6-9 Paul instructs us that when we choose to think on things that are true, lovely, pure, and honest, THEN we will have God’s peace in our hearts and minds. Because it will always be our thoughts that create our feelings! Jesus showed us that it’s healthy to feel and express a full range of emotions but that we can then move into VICTORY over those feelings! ~Be Blessed, Jenny
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~JENNY RIEFLIN MINISTRIES~ 