“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.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”” John 11:32-36
It is the shortest verse in the Bible but these two words speak volumes “Jesus wept.” We may be tempted to think that we are alone in our pain but we can be sure that the Savior shares in our suffering. In fact Jesus is more familiar with suffering than all of us; and in a way we can not understand because in His humanity He was sinless. A sinless Savior who suffered for our good and God’s Glory. Jesus knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead and He knew God was going to be glorified through this miracle, yet He still wept. He was moved with compassion at the site of Mary and the other Jews that were weeping.
Don’t be afraid to take your pain straight to Jesus, don’t think for one moment that your tears are insignificant to Him. Not only does He see the purpose behind the pain in a way that we can not understand in our humanity but He is a compassionate and loving Savior who longs to comfort us in our sorrow. Paul later wrote about the God of all comfort who shares in our pain: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) In this world we know we will experience affliction but we can also be sure that the comfort only God can give will be shared with us too and that in itself is a reason to praise Him!