Daily devotion – How are Christians to grieve?
How are Christians to grieve?
Many Christians are not sure how they should grieve when a loved one has died. Some think that they are to not show any signs of mourning as they have been told by some that they should indeed be rejoicing only, knowing their loved one is now in Heaven.
Still others, are completely overwhelmed by grief and they struggle under the load of sadness and loss. Whenever we need wisdom, there is only one place to seek our answer, in the word of God.
Paul wrote, 1 Thess 4: 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
Paul teaches us that as Christians we are to grieve yes, but to grieve hopefully!
Paul will show us that our grief as believers when one of our loved one’s dies is to be one of balance between two extremes. Often, we think of a person of balance as being one who avoids extremes. But in this case, Paul is calling us to have a balance of two extremes.
Paul did NOT say, ‘Don’t grieve!’ He wants us as believers to grieve when a loved one dies. But he wants us to grieve differently to the way of the world! But Paul also does not say, ‘Instead of grieving, I want you to have hope,’ Nor does Paul say, ‘There is really no hope, so just weep and grieve.’
Instead, Paul teaches us that a Christian can and must both grieve profoundly and fully and yet do so with hope. The question is, how do we do this, this balance between two such extremes?
When Jesus went to visit Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazarus, who was also a friend of Jesus. What did Jesus say and not say to the grieving sisters?
He did not tell them to stop grieving, to settle down, to be strong. When Mary spoke to Jesus, we are told in the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” – John 11:35.
Jesus did not say anything, He just wept!
Jesus then goes to Lazarus tomb and the original Greek of the text tells us that Jesus was ‘snorting with rage’ – John 11:38.
Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. One would think He would have just waltzed over to the tomb knowing He was about to do a great miracle and raise His friend Lazarus back to life.
But instead, He is weeping, grieving and He is angry.
Death was not in God’s original plan; you and I were not meant to die; we were meant to last!
Therefore, the stoic ‘be strong’, reaction to death and grief is wrong. Now comes the balance of extremes. For in our grieving, it must be with hope!
We need hope to influence our grieving. But what hope you say?
Jesus at Lazarus tomb is grieving, He is weeping, and He is angry, even though in a few minutes He will raise His friend Lazarus back to life.
To raise Jesus from the grave, from the dead, Jesus was going to have to put Himself into it, to guarantee resurrection for ALL who believe in Him, Jesus must put Himself into the grave. On the Cross of Calvary, that is what Jesus did.
Because of Jesus death, we are released from sin and death, and we share in His resurrection! Romans 6: 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
That’s our hope and this is why when we are in the presence of death, we cannot let it fester and cause despair. We can add hope to our grief!
The two, grief and hope, are not mutually exclusive, Christ has given them both to us to help us in our time of sadness.
We each have death in our future, not only of our own but also the loss of people we love.
But our God is the God of comfort and the more you know Him and draw closer to Him, will you rest in His comfort indeed!
2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,