By Jennifer Stultz
Crossing the Threshold
Barclay College biblical studies student

“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35).

It is the shortest verse in the Holy Bible (KJ version) but it carries so much compassion that can help those who are also at a weeping time in their lives.

I have felt much sorrow this past week, as have many, many others in the state of Kansas, the United States, even world-wide, as families lay to rest their loved ones who were killed (total number 67) in a tragic aircraft collision that took place Wednesday, January 29. Everyone who experiences life will also experience death; it is just a given, how humanity works, but death is not something many of us deal well with.

As Christians, those who believe that Jesus Christ was sent from God, who created all, to live in human form on earth, not only to show others how to live but also then to lay down his own life in repentance for the sin of all humans, to be crucified to death, then buried, then resurrected by God, to show humanity that there is an afterlife, and we are welcomed to it, because He (Jesus Christ) has gone first to make a place in heaven for us.

That’s a lot to take in and believe, especially when our minds, hearts, and souls are mired in the everyday hills and valleys of life on earth.

And then something like this tragic plane crash happens and we are shaken up. Why did this happen? How sad that so many young people (skaters in their teens, preteens) were on that plane and lost their lives, along with everyone else. Futures were cut short, huge holes of sorrow left in the lives of their loved ones.

This was the situation Jesus experienced when his good friend on earth, Lazarus, died, as told in the Bible book of John, chapter 11. Find a Bible and read the story, and think about it. Jesus and his disciples were on the move, traveling around, preaching the good news when he received word from Martha or Mary (also good friends of Jesus, and the sisters of Lazarus) that his friend was very sick and dying. Come quickly, they asked.

Jesus did not come quickly. He finished his work, then traveled to where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, only to be told he was too late. Lazarus had died three days earlier.

Everyone was crying and sad because they all loved Lazarus. Jesus felt such compassion for them all, that he wept with them. He didn’t lose control and wail and scream, he “groaned in his spirit.” There is so much about this story to learn that cannot be compressed into a space-hemmed column, but one important message from this story is that Jesus’ tears, shed with friends in compassion, helped lift their souls and led to the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead! Many believed in Jesus’ because of that great miracle he performed that day and found the path to eternal life.

We can do likewise when troubled times bring us down in the world. I am not saying we can resurrect people from the dead, but that our shared tears of compassion can be turned to actions that lift the rock of pain and roll the stone away from men’s souls so that all may seek understanding and comfort from God.

Messages of sympathy, empathy, and shared sorrow mean so much to those who travel the valleys of death. We must not forget to do more than just post a little set of praying hands on a Facebook page. We must also send those tangible cards of care, make a phone call, take over a container of potato soup, spend time listening to and talking with those who are suffering when their loved ones leave this earth.

We all travel this same journey one way or another. It is not something we should fear or regret. Those who have hope in Jesus can lift the stones of disbelief and lighten the heavy darkness of despair that sometimes holds people down simply by sharing that “Jesus wept.” He knows sorrow and as his friends, our lives must point upward to heaven where our loved ones are already with God. We who have that hope must share it in times of death and despair.