Welcome to Day 27 of Journey to the Cross, a forty-day devotional leading to Easter. Not every trip is full of joy. Today we look at the tears along the journey. A few days ago, we saw that Jesus delayed in coming to Lazarus so that God would be glorified. We pick up that story in John 11.

When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.” After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

John 11:33-44

Some vacation destinations are popular not because of good memories, but because of the tragedies they keep in our consciousness. The memorial of the Murrah bombing in Oklahoma City has moved me to tears. When I went to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, there was hardly a dry eye in the building. Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are quite moving. Traveling to such places, so full of painful memories, is bound to bring tears. Tears are a part of everyone’s life journey. Tears transcend age, race, and ideologies. All people across all time have wept in the presence of profound beauty, sadness, or pain.

When Jesus came to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, he wept. Jesus’s journey had taken him to a place of profound sadness. Overcome by grief, he paused. He wept. And then He acted. With the tears still in his eyes, Jesus raised Lazarus from death to life. Jesus did not languish in his sadness. He called Lazarus out of deep, slumberous death.

When tears flood your world, Jesus does the same for you. He will pause to weep with you. He will be compassionate toward you. And then he will do something about your sadness. He will call you out of the tomb of despair and bring you new life. This new life is made possible because of His own journey to the cross of Calvary. The book of Revelation tells us that at the end, for Christ’s followers, there will no longer be any pain or weeping. How great it is to look forward to the joy of the Lord’s eternal presence.

Today as you pray, thank God that He comforts us in our affliction and sorrow. If you are dealing with anything that is causing you despair, as God to call you out from that tomb into the joy of His salvation.

Thank you for joining me for Day 27. Come back tomorrow as we talk about being “Along for the Ride.”