“…suffering can never be solved. It can only be shared in compassion, shared in community, and every effort to put ourselves in charge of the relief effort weakens the very sharing in which our hope resides.” - Parker Palmer
Sorrow, suffering, pain, and death are normal and common living in a world after the Fall of Genesis 3. But we know this is not the world God intended for humanity. Perhaps this is why we resist the reality of brokenness with such force - because we know it is not supposed to be this way. As followers of Jesus, we can rest in the truth that, ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death.’ Because Jesus died a death to sin ‘…once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.’ (1 Corinthians 15:26, Romans 6:10).
Knowing that death has died frees us from the need to fix its sway over this already and not yet world. The death of death enables us to suffer with and to weep with those who weep, rather than attempt to fix something Christ will make new (Romans 12:15, Revelation 21:5).
Jesus, as you wept over the grave of your friend Lazarus, knowing full well that you would raise him to life, may we weep with those who weep, knowing that you will one day make all things new once more. Amen.
With,
AB