Jesus Weeps With Us

Devotional Reflection, Friday, September 13, 2024

Proper 18, the week of the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key verses for reflection from today’s reading:

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 983)

AM Psalm 40,54; PM Psalm 51

Job 29:1,31:24-40; Acts 15:12-21; John 11:30-44

Today we celebrate the Feast of Cyprian of Carthage. (See below.)

David’s Reflections

The poet wrote:

Nothing is left unwon,

By Love that suffers. *

In today’s Gospel, Jesus draws near the grieving sisters and friends of his dear friend Lazarus and joins his grief with theirs..  He weeps with them.  Two verses after we learn of his weeping, John says “Jesus, again greatly disturbed. . . “ Jesus bristled at the suffering of his friend  Lazarus and at the grief of his sisters.

What a window into the inner life of Jesus.  Repeatedly, the Gospels say Jesus had compassion, that he was motivated to act by the stirring of his care for the suffering and need he saw.  Today’s terse phrase, “Jesus began to weep,” gives us the most graphic and intense description of that compassion.  Here we encounter a truly human person, one whose emotional life was alive and well, who was fully present with the pain of others, who did not withdraw to protect himself from their distress.

What a window into the nature of God.  As Jesus drew near Lazarus’ tomb, God has drawn near ours.  The Triune God became vulnerable to our existence, our suffering, our rejection by enfleshing God’s Son in the life of Jesus, bringing the Triune God immediately into human experience.  As this same Gospel put it in 1:14, “the Word became a human being and dwelt among us.”  When we have been profoundly touched by death, how reassuring it is to know that Christ weeps with us, sharing our grieving within us?  The ascended Christ has brought human experience eternally into the divine heart.

Jesus’ response to Lazarus reveals God’s response to our dilemma, our vulnerability to sin, suffering, and death.  God comes to us in love and has compassion.  That love suffers with us and for us and wins us.  That same love has fought and prevailed for us.  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection conquered all our enemies and gave us a share in Jesus’ victory over death.  Lazarus’ resurrection becomes ours, a preview of God’s winning love that follows us into and through the tomb to new life and new possibilities.

Nothing is left unwon,

By Love that suffers. *

*Erik Gustaf Geijer, cited by Gustaf Aulen, The Drama and the Symbols, trans.

Sidney Linton (Philadelphia:  Fortress, 1970), p. 177.

Collect of the Day, Proper 18, the thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts;  for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast in your mercy;  through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.  (BCP, 233)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Cyprian of Carthage, bishop and martyr (died 14 Sep 258 CE 

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Cyprian.htm

Collect of the Feast of Cyprian of Carthage

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 97)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen.  (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Gospel, John 11:30-44

30Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.’ 40Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer