Grieving

Jesus, God in the flesh, shows us real, human emotions of grief and lament throughout the Gospels. He weeps over Jerusalem. He grieves when his friend, Lazarus, is dead. He is moved with compassion for those suffering around him. And, Jesus shares those emotions with God. Let's journey in our minds to the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus knows he is about to be crucified, so he goes to the garden and expresses real, genuine grief in prayer. Some Bibles call this story "Agony in the Garden" because in the story Jesus says, "I am deeply grieved, even to death" (Mark 14:34, NRSV).

An old hymn, "Man of Sorrows" describes the nature of Jesus's life. Its first stanza says "man of sorrows, what a name, for the son of God who came." Our present day lives are filled with picture-perfect social media posts, phrases like "man up" or "don't be a cry baby," and constant pressure to exude cheeriness. It's no wonder we forget that our God calls us into holistic and deep shared life. God, embodied in Jesus, shows us that a commitment to truth and compassion means we are allowed to respond to the hard realities of life with grief. In fact, if the Psalms of lament show us anything, it is that God even encourages it.