I got the news that Kurt had passed away on a Tuesday morning at work. It made me gasp in shock. But then I thought of a story from the Bible, John 11:1-44 (ESV), and it helped me to see how even in the hardest situations, Jesus loves us with wisdom, with truth, with compassion, and with power. I hope it helps, you, too:

I thought of this story because it shows us how Jesus loves us with four things: with wisdom, with truth, with compassion, and with power. This gives me hope, and I want to share this hope with you.

Wisdom

First, Jesus loves us with wisdom. Jesus knows how to get the best results, by the best means. He says that Lazarus’ illness is for the glory of God (v. 4). He says that it’s so that people can believe (v. 15). And after He raises Lazarus from the dead, we see people believing (v. 45).

But we can’t always see how Jesus loves us with wisdom. Mary and Martha didn’t. They told Him, “Lord, he whom You love is ill” (v. 3). And this passage says, “When He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was” (v. 6). And that hurts. They asked Him to come heal him, but He never showed up.

And we spent so much time praying for Kurt, saying, “Lord, he whom You love is ill.”

And Jesus never showed up to heal him.

And that hurts.

I can’t answer all the mysteries of our sufferings, but I can point to the mystery of Jesus’ sufferings. Some people might say, Kurt’s suffering taught us how to pray. Kurt’s example showed us how to persevere through our suffering. And that might be true. But that doesn’t answer all our questions. Pastor Bryan Chappell comments on people saying similar things, and he says,

Though all of these reasons are possible, none of them seems sufficient for taking a man’s life, grieving his family, and crippling his church. If I were to base my trust in God on my speculations about what good may have resulted from this tragedy, then my faith would quickly crumble.

So if faith in the ultimate goodness of God does not come from guessing what his good purposes may be, from where does it come? The answer from believers through the ages…is the cross. We trust our sovereign God because he has shown us his heart at the cross. There, where any one of us would have stood and cried out, “This is wrong; God, you must stop this,” our Savior made heaven’s greatest good come out of earth’s worst tragedy. At the cross we learn that God is good and can be trusted, even when everything seems wrong to human sight…[1]

We can’t see all of God’s ways, but we can see the cross. And the cross tells us that Jesus loves us with wisdom.

Sidenote: Jesus Knows Exactly What Each Person Needs

Jesus loves us with wisdom. He also loves us with truth and compassion.

When Jesus finally arrives on the scene after Lazarus has died, both the sisters come to Him separately. And they both say the same thing: “If You had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21, 32).

Two sisters, the same question. And Jesus has two different responses. To one sister, He gives truth. And to the other sister, He gives tears and compassion. Jesus knows exactly what each person needs.

Truth

Jesus loves us with truth. Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live” (v. 25).

When I first heard the news about Kurt, some of my friends could tell that I was pretty sad, and they told me, “He’s probably in a better place.” And at the time, I just agreed, “He’s in a better place.”

But afterwards, I was thinking, “He’s probably in a better place? No, he is in a better place.” Jesus is the resurrection and the life. The Bible says that for Christians, to die is to depart and to be with Christ, and that is far better (Philippians 1:23).

Jesus says, “Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” And Kurt believed in Jesus. He loved the good news that Jesus had died for his sins. Kurt loved it so much that when he was going into ninth grade, I wrote this poem for him:

Kurt has no identity

But one found at Calvary:

“Sinner saved by grace alone!”

Through the blood-love Christ has shown.

Kurt believed in Jesus. And Jesus has a question for Martha: “Do you believe this?” (v. 26). It’s a question for us, too. For people who do believe this, the Bible tells us that we grieve, but we grieve with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). This would be a completely hopeless situation without Jesus. But Kurt believed in Jesus, and for Kurt, Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Compassion

Jesus loves us with wisdom and with truth. Jesus also loves us with compassion. When Martha tells Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died,” He responds with truth. When Mary tells Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died,” He responds with tears and compassion, and we read the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (v. 35).

In C.S. Lewis’ novel The Magician’s Nephew, Digory’s mother is deathly ill, but when he comes to Narnia and sees how powerful Aslan is, he hopes that Aslan can help his mother. But when he finally comes face to face with the Lion, Aslan asks Digory to undo a wrong he had done; Digory agrees.

But when he had said “Yes,” he thought of his Mother, and he thought of the great hopes he had had, and how they were all dying away, and a lump came in his throat and tears in his eyes, and he blurted out,

“But please, please—won’t you—can’t you give me something that will cure Mother?” Up till then he had been looking at the Lion’s great feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion’s eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.[2]

Honestly, it might not be so difficult to believe that God is powerful. But to believe that God is good? That’s another matter altogether—that is, until I see the tears in the Lion’s eyes and start to suspect that he might really love deeper than I do. Jesus’ tears outside Lazarus’ tomb are a strange comfort to me. And I hope they bring comfort to others—if not today, perhaps one day.

Power

Jesus loves us with wisdom, with truth, and with compassion. He also loves us with power. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead in a tremendous display of power. Some people might say, “Wow, isn’t this a wonderful metaphor? This shows us that in even the darkest circumstances, we should never give up.”

But this is not a metaphor. Jesus really did raise Lazarus from the dead, bodily. He has the power to raise Lazarus. He also has the power to be the resurrection and the life for Kurt, and for us who believe in Him.

In the book The Return of the King, Sam wakes up and sees Gandalf alive and well, and he says, “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?”[3]

And Jesus’ answer to us is, Yes, I am the resurrection and the life, and I will wipe away every tear. And I am making everything sad come untrue.

——————————————————————————–

[1] Bryan Chapell, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), p. 14

[2] C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 153-154

[3] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994), p. 930.