John 11:17-36 Jesus Weeps with Us

A Funeral Sermon

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” (John 11:17–36, ESV)

I. Jesus weeps with us

• ‌“Jesus wept” - The shortest verse in the Bible, but one of the most powerful. Jesus tears show, that though he was divine, he fully participates in the human experience of grief and sorrow.

• Jesus weeps with us and comforts us in our grief.

• There is no shame in grief. We see throughout this passage that Mary and Martha grieved together with their community and they both took their grief to Jesus.

• The process of grieving the loss of a loved one is necessary, right, and good. It’s important to invite God into your time of grief as well as others that you fully trust so that you may open your heart and share your thoughts, needs, emotions, and pain. This process brings about healing, and God is close to and able to heal the broken hearted.

‌II. Jesus loves us

• ‌Both Mary and Martha said to the Lord, “If Only”

• They lamented the past, what might have been

• But Jesus directs them to the present and to hope for the future. He says, “I Am the resurrection and the life.”

• The brokenness, trials, injustice, and pain that we experience living in a fallen world, should not be construed as evidence that God is indifferent or that he does not love us.

• The longer we live the more we realize that we do not have all the answers. We cannot explain why certain things happen. Like Mary and Martha we might be confused or even angry thinking “If Only” or “Lord where were you?”

• But looking at the world through the lens of the gospel (or the good news about Jesus), we are able to make sense of life. The gospel is the message that though we live in a fallen, broken, sinful and often painful world that God himself entered into our experience and bore our sorrow and grief upon himself.

• For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved (John 3:16-17).

‌III. Jesus will resurrect us

• ‌Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus was fully human and fully God. He came to live the life we failed to live, die for our sins on the cross, and then defeat death and sin through his resurrection bringing hope and salvation to the world.

• As believers in Christ we grieve, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope for we know that if we trust in Jesus though we die yet shall we live.

• Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And we know that in the presence of the Lord there is fullness of joy.

• Ultimately we have the hope of a new heaven and a new earth at the second coming of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the dead. Those who trust in Christ will receive glorified bodies and we will live forever with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit reunited with our loved ones in a perfect world without sin, sorrow, pain or death. We will see every wrong made right and experience the joy of the Lord forever.

‌IV. Jesus invites us.

• ‌Jesus asked Martha if she believed that he was the Great I Am and the resurrection and the life

• Jesus asks us all the same question, do you believe?

• All Jesus asks is that we turn to him, believe in him, trust him, and walk with him

• When we do this, Jesus will make himself known to us

• When we turn to Jesus, he will be with us in the good times and in the bad times, but with faith in Jesus, the hard times will not drive us away from God but will only serve to bring us closer to him.

• Jesus invites you to experience him— his love, his mercy, his grace, his eternal life— today!

‌Benediction:

‌In closing, let us pray: Heavenly Father, as we hold fast to the promises of Your Word, reassure every heart here that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor today nor tomorrow, nor any power, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from Your love in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39, ESV). Comfort those who mourn, bind up the brokenhearted, and fill us with the peace that surpasses all understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen.