John 11:35 reveals that “Jesus wept” as he was about to head to the grave of his beloved friend, Lazarus. Since the earliest centuries of the Church Age, Christian doctrine affirmed the incarnate Son of God had both a divine nature and a human nature. Jesus will always be “fully God and fully man”. Over the years, whenever I’ve thought about the scene of Jesus weeping, I’ve tended to assume he was grieved in his human nature and not the divine. But is that a valid assumption?
An intriguing window into the heart of God appears in Genesis 6:6 which discloses that when the LORD saw all the wickedness of mankind upon the earth in the days before the Flood, “He was grieved in His heart.” Based on this passage we see the heart of God can truly be grieved. He is not an “unmoved mover”, who simply created the cosmos and left us to find our own way forward, as once envisioned by Aristotle.. Rather, God’s heart can be moved as He observes our journey. In fact, we see in scripture that God experiences a wide range of emotions including anger, grief, love and joy. And the Bible tells us that as human beings we are created in His image. This includes the ability to experience a wide range of emotions. God truly understands the emotions we feel.
We may be left to ponder whether Jesus was grieved in just his human nature or his divine nature as well, but what we do know is that Jesus himself walked in sorrow and he understands a broken heart. He personally experienced the outright betrayal by one apostle (Judas) as well as a three-fold denial by another apostle (Peter) during his path to the Cross. The betrayal and denial by those two apostles must have deeply grieved Jesus’ heart. Likewise, he understands our grief and he sees into your heart. As our eternal High Priest, Jesus sympathizes with us in all our troubles. His arms are always open to us. We can always approach him when we need his grace and strength in times of need (Heb. 4:15-16).
So if your heart is broken, if you are aching with grief, invite Jesus into your brokenness. Allow him to share your tears and, in return, bring healing to your heart and soul.
Pastor Dave Korinek