Coracle Trust E-Reflections

Lent: Consoling presence

Friday 15 April 2011

“Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” John 11: 32

Read John 11: 1-37 and return.

Longing for God

When we experience great loss, we wonder in pain where God was, and if he could have stopped the event from happening. Like Mary we fall weeping at Jesus’ feet, overwhelmed by pain that feels so much bigger than us. We can hardly see Jesus for our tears. Jesus responded to Mary by feeling so profoundly moved by her grief that he, too, cries. He already knows what is going to happen (John 11 verse 4) - he intends to raise Lazarus from death. But in his perfect humanity and complete divinity, he experiences Mary’s pain so acutely that he weeps with her. Restoring Lazarus from death to life foreshadows Jesus’ own death and resurrection, a few days later. In fact, this event was the catalyst for the Chief Priests and Pharisees deciding to kill Jesus.

Jesus and sorrow

On the cross, Jesus’ identification with our sorrow goes even further, bearing all of our pain and brokenness in its entirety, resulting in agonising separation from God - a separation from Himself. He experienced what it is like to feel abandoned by God, as Mary felt in that moment, as we sometimes feel. Perhaps it was this agonising and profoundly mysterious separation from God that killed Jesus within hours rather than days, as was usual for crucifixion. Later, there is hope and newness, as Jesus too returns from death, defeating our ultimate separation from God. In any perceived abandonment by God or feelings of separation, in reality we can know that Jesus is there with us. We can slowly become aware of His warm consoling presence, utterly identifying with us in that place. And in the place, there is the fragrance of hope to come. Liz Holt (Two Halves of Life group)