Climbing a hillside 7) B2 Positives in heart-break

It doesn't take great imagination to visualize the Lazarus story.  We are told that Jesus when he hears his friend Lazarus is ill, deliberately delays his visit. He tells his disciples he is going to 'wake him out of sleep'. Something is going to happen to show God's glory. Eventually he visits and Martha meets him, chiding him: Lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died.  She returns to Mary who is surrounded by friends mourning Lazarus.  When she hears that Jesus has arrived Mary goes out and her friends thinking she is going to the tomb go with her.  She drops at the feet of Jesus: Lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died. (We've heard that before!) Weeping she leads him to the tomb with accompanied by her sorrowing friends.. 

And when Jesus reaches the tomb he too breaks down and sobs. The words 'deeply moved in spirit' are difficult to translate. It's an expression that can be used of a horse snorting and heaving.  An involuntary heartbreaking of grief. The greatest man who ever lived sobs. The sovereign Lord weeps with his friends and they say "See how he loved him"   Jesus knew about real tears in a real world.  He sympathizes with us in every way.  But how could this heart-break possibly be positive?   Let's note some issues:

1. Sorrow can open us up to God like nothing else. Sorrow is among the profoundest of our emotions. It goes deep - discovering wo we are, and why we are living as we are.  The one thing you have been certain of sorrow is that it is not trivial.  Leon Bloy, a French novelist and a Christian once wrote: There are places in our hearts which do not yet exist and it is necessary for suffering to penetrate there in order that they may come into being. 

The singer Mica Paris was featured in Songs of Praise recently about her faith. With her sister alongside she was asked about how she coped with the death of their younger brother Jason, aged 22, who was murdered in 2001.  Mica said: 'You know death is a game changer. You are never the same after that.  You either want to die with the person or you want to change the world because of their death.  And it took a long time but God is the real comforter'.

Sorrow can lead us to new, deep places to discover God's comfort and peace in fresh ways. However, you can keep suffering at arm's length. I think of Stan whose robust cheerfulness made a joke of nearly everything.  He said he had a matter-of-fact approach to life. When a mate died he raised a glass and told a funny story.  When he was told he had incurable cancer he said it was no big deal. Now in his seventies he'd had a good run.  And knowing my faith commitment he said: As for the church and all that I have no time whatsoever. All they ever want is your money'.

In this beatitude Jesus does not want us to deny pain and sorrow.  For when hearts are truly emptied and wounded, made vulnerable, then our Lord can slip in with the very pain.