Death. Some would say it's the last act in our earthly existence. For those who follow Jesus Christ, how are we to view death? Well, I can tell you that death has always been extremely difficult for me to cope with, ever since I was little. In response to the difficulty of dealing with death, I'd like to look at how Jesus himself reacted to death, which gives me great hope and comfort.
"Jesus wept," -John 11:35. This is the shortest verse in the Bible, yet it is perhaps one of the most powerful as well. In this verse we see the humanity, love, and compassion of our Lord and Savior as he reacts to the death of his good friend Lazarus. Yet to simply leave it at that would be an injustice, because if we look at the verses around it we see so much more going on.
You see, it wasn't simply that Jesus was sad that Lazarus died, although even if that was all it was, it would still be powerful in conveying the depth of emotion that our God experienced in the flesh. Jesus wept after seeing the grief and sorrow of those he loved, who were deep in mourning over the loss of their loved one.
I think it shows more than that though. Some translations indicate that Jesus was not just moved to tears by the loss, but that he was deeply troubled and angry at the sorrow caused by death. Here's an example of the verses before in the Amplified translation:
"When Jesus saw her sobbing, and the Jews who had come with her also sobbing, He was deeply moved in spirit [to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death] and was troubled," -John 11:33 AMP.
Jesus was God in the flesh, and he knew death was not part of his original design. We were not originally meant to experience death, it only came into the picture when we chose to follow our own path instead of following the will of God our Creator and father. Death came into the picture after Adam and Eve willingly disobeyed God's commands and decided to take hold of their own destiny, so the result was death, as shown in Genesis:
"And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever,'” -Genesis 3:22 NIV.
So when we look at the big picture and pull this all together, I think it is incredibly remarkable to see the compassion shown by Jesus when he walked on earth. Certainly, God could choose to respond to our grief by saying that we did this to ourselves, but instead he enters into our pain, suffering, and grief, and experiences it with us.
The story doesn't stop there though, Jesus goes on to be crucified by the religious leaders at the time, and to experience an incredibly brutal and painful death himself, in order to provide the solution to the problem of sin and death. God, in his infinite goodness and love, showed his kindness to a creation who rebelled against him, by personally entering into creation and experiencing the very worst thing possible, which was a direct result of their rebellion: death. Jesus paid the price on our behalf.
So where is our hope in all this? Just a few verses before he wept, Jesus shares that hope with Martha as he comforts her:
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die,'" -John 11:25-26 NIV.
Jesus is our eternal hope, and death is not the end for those who believe in him.
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