The seventh Sign... part 2...

We're going to back up a bit, and start again at Jesus arriving at the tomb of Lazarus.  The sisters are there, the crowd is there, and they are all overcome and held in terror by the grip and reality of this evil thing called death.  The fear radiating from them is palpable, and they have genuine concern for their well-being, as well as that of the loved one who is now, in their understanding, lost forever.  Then something happens...

"Jesus wept."

John 11:35, HCSB

Jesus Christ, the Word, the Son, One with the Father from the point of our creation, is standing in the midst of a crowd who is literally gripped at the throat in fear.  He is looking upon His children, His likenesses all around, recognizing that they truly do not comprehend what death is, and what follows it, and what He has come to offer to them.  He sees that sin, since its entry to the world through the first Adam, has grown powerful enough to move whole towns of people to utter despair, and that this town is no exception to the rule. 

Let me put it to you another way... you look at your children the next time they are scared by anything, and I mean really scared to the point of speechless terror and forced acceptance that they cannot change it or fix it or overcome it or whatever the case may be.  Seeing your own offspring in that state, even imagining seeing them like that, I bet you grow a tad angry, just as I do thinking about it as I type.  I grow angry, not at any specific thing, but rather at a situation that has frightened my children.  My children deserve nothing less than for me to wish to make the world a better place for them, after all, and so my anger at this situation is natural and well-placed.  And in that moment (actually in this specific moment), tears build in my eyes at even the thought of my three little ones. 

Many people use this verse as a memory verse, because it is the shortest in the Bible.  However, as was true with a certain green man from a swampy planet, size is of little importance in the physical form.  These two words carry the depth and breadth of Christ's abiding and everlasting love for His creation, and it is shown and made evident by His willingness to shed tears for that same creation.  Further, as mentioned previously, Jesus sees all time at once, and therefore He wept for you and for me and for our grandchildren's grandchildren, too.  His love is that vast, and is literally without measure or fathom, and in this moment, as He grew angry at the power that sin had gained over the lives of His precious children... as He grew angry that the Truth was clouded by misunderstanding and misguided misinterpretations of the Words of the Father... as He grew angry that these, His children (including you and me), couldn't understand yet because they had not yet been told or shown the power that Jesus brings to conquer death... feeling that fear from them and us, He wept for them and us.

In all my studies, I have found one theological statement to be more true than any other, and it is as simple as it is perfect and infallible, and that statement is this:

"Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so."

From the children's song, "Jesus Loves Me"

Here in these two words, we see the proof in the pudding that Christ's love for us is magnificent, and powerful beyond anything we can measure.  Give thanks for that today!

God bless you all!!!