Christian Funeral - a deadly celebration?
Have you ever felt guilty for experiencing grief? It might seem like a strange question — why would you feel guilty for grieving? But sometimes Christians do feel guilty, precisely because we believe in Jesus . Belief in Jesus, so it is thought, should remove any reason for grief. Jesus loves me. Jesus died for me. Jesus is in control. Jesus raises the dead. With such beliefs, how could any real Christian give in to grief? Believers commonly subscribe to this equation. But this equation is completely wrong — as seen in the life of Jesus himself. His friend Lazarus died. And the shortest verse of the Bible gives us Jesus’s reaction to this death — “Jesus wept” ( John 11:35 ). But this simple statement may cause some confusion. It is clear throughout John 11 that Jesus knows exactly what he is going to do about Lazarus’s death (John 11:11, 14–15, 23). If he knows that Lazarus will be up and walking again in about five minutes, why does he weep? Jesus weeps because Lazarus has died ...