Where have you laid him? John 11:34

Jesus asked Mary to show Him the tomb where her brother, Lazarus had been buried. He could have spoken the words and brought Lazarus back to life, from a distance, or even before He and the disciples arrived in Bethany. Instead, He gives us a quick lesson on how to deal with grief.

Show Him your grief.
Mary and her sister called for Jesus. That simple, perhaps obvious, step often goes undone. We assume Jesus already knows (and He does) so we miss the deep intimacy that comes from laying our hearts open and bare before Him.

See His heart.
By asking Mary to take Him to the tomb, Jesus showed that He is a Savior who doesn't minimize our pain, but is willing to enter into it with us. At Lazarus' tomb, Jesus is deeply touched by the loss His friends are experiencing, but His grief goes much deeper. He mourns for a people who don't yet understand who He is or why He came. He also sees with human eyes, the curse, the pain that sin brings.

What about you? What do you have locked away? Pain. Failure. Loss. A dead spot in our hearts. Jesus asks – Where is it?

Take Me there.

Show it to Me.

Let Me bring that deadness into the light and heal it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Oh, Laz-ar-us! (lynnmosher.blogspot.com)