Title: Tears of Jesus (John 11:31-44)
Contents The Tears of Jesus (John 11:31-44) - Rev. Il-guk Eom
[John 11:31-44]
Faith is accepting new challenges. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is moving forward. And the Lord is the one who looks at our faith, waits for it to mature, and endures until we accomplish great works with greater faith. Sometimes he tests our faith to mature, and he is the one who adds to our faith when we do not have it.
As I meditated on this text, I thought about why the Lord came here and why he shed tears. And I wondered if Jesus loved Mary more than Martha. Because Jesus wept before Mary's confession, not Martha's confession.
The tears of the Lord have two meanings. One is sympathy, the tears that know our hearts. He knows the heart of Mary, He knows the heart of Martha, He knows the sorrow of the Jews. You know that it is very sad that the beloved Lazarus, who had done so much good at that time, died. When we are in pain in our hearts, the Lord suffers as well. Then the Lord will be sad.
However, today's sorrow and today's tears are tears of a second meaning beyond that. Verse 33 says, “When Jesus saw him weeping and the weeping of the Jews who had come with him, he was troubled in spirit and grieved.” These Lord's tears are more than sympathy. The fact that the Lord shed tears meant that his heart was moved deeply spiritually and by the Holy Spirit. This sorrow for Mary and Martha, who received special love from the Lord, is perhaps the sorrow for our church today. These are the tears of a desperate father for the church and for all mankind.
What was it that made Jesus cry so sadly?
I do not want to say that the Lord loved Mary more than Martha. The Lord valued Mary's devotion and love, and He loved Martha's zeal for her work. In the 10th chapter of Luke, Martha is busy working for the Lord and Mary is looking at the Lord while listening to the Lord. At this time, the Lord does not neglect or dislike working diligently like Martha, but he is evaluating the faith of Mary, who looked to the Lord, enjoyed and enjoyed living with the Lord as more mature.
Ladies and gentlemen, isn't this what our church looks like today? How much work do you do?
I am busy with various tasks such as short-term missions, discipleship training, and homeless ministry.
It is also good to do a lot of missions and ministries and to revive vigorously. Excessive zeal and excessive ministry can bring much fruit. How many people want to do the Lord's work and are doing it? But, aren't there many times when the love for the Lord is less than the zeal for work? If so, that's a problem. We must not lose a close relationship with God in the midst of busy work, and we must not lose the pursuit of longing for God in order to move on to a more mature faith.
What does the Lord want for the church in the 21st century? Could it not be that he wants to have the spirit of Mary and live as Martha? In Luke 10, the Lord was sorry for the church that would become like Martha. So the Lord promises to lead our faith to the faith of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
Look at Mary's faith looking at the Lord, saying, 'I am satisfied with the Lord alone.' The Lord said to Martha, 'Everything is meaningful because of you. I do not want to do anything else because I love looking at you.' demands the heart of He tells me to look at me.
The Lord in today's text is not welcome and is standing at the entrance of the town. Is it that death and darkness have overtaken them that they do not welcome the Lord? They cannot welcome the Lord because they lack faith in the Lord who has overcome the power of death. Neither Martha's faith nor Mary's faith became the faith the Lord wanted. So even they cannot welcome the Lord who has the power of resurrection. They do not think that Lazarus can come back to life with one word of the Lord. However, the Lord is late and he is making a confession full of complaints that Lazarus is dead. We are blaming the Lord for coming late. Although he came late, he cannot confess that he is the Lord who can save Lazarus.
Why did their faith change so suddenly? Because of deep wounds. The Lord knows that the churches will be hurt in the end times. He knows that the churches will get hurt and fall in this time we are living in now. So are you crying with regret? So are you saying this?
What are the consequences of deep wounds? There is a saying in Proverbs, “A wish is slow to come true, and it breaks the heart.” Here they had a hope that Lazarus could live, but it was delayed and Lazarus died. After four days of death, the Lord does not come so that the invoice can smell. They were deeply wounded. There are wounds in our church, even when we look at ourselves. This is not the church of God, and it feels like there is no church like a church. But it is because I have a wound in my heart, because my heart is stained with wounds and I do not have the faith to see the glory of God. Even if the Lord of resurrection comes to us and speaks to us, if we close the door of our hearts, the Lord cannot work among us.
The Lord approaches them with infinite love, but because of their attachment to their wounds, they do not see that love and turn away from Him. The Lord's sorrow and tears are for this reason. In a situation of despair, unbelief that does not expect the Lord makes the Lord weep with sorrow.
The pity that God has for our church is not because we do not do missionary work or because we do not do much work. Looking at the church in these last days, God is really sorry because there are no martyrs. It is because there are no mature believers who go to the cross. There is no faith in the resurrection. Because there is no one who can prove that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Resurrection. That is why the Lord is weeping with sorrow. He is weeping at the sad reality of pouring out the grace of the blood shed on the cross in vain because of the lack of faith in the resurrection.
What does the Lord want to teach the Saints in these last days? He wants us to not only give us the power to bear the cross and intimacy with God, but also to give us the power of resurrection to become a victorious and overpowering church in the last days. Is today's church doing missionary work and the ministry of the Word moving toward the position of the early church, which had many martyrs? It is not because the maturity that leads to the power of resurrection has not been achieved. The Lord wants our faith to mature. The members are a respected elder who serves the image of a mature believer in the kitchen and parking lot, a person who is zealous for short-term missions and devoted to the Lord's work, a person who devotes all of his possessions and works faithfully to church work, and the power of the Word and prayer. We are looking for people who are doing a vigorous ministry. But that's not maturity, it's just self-glorification. It is maturity that meets the standards I have made, but not the maturity that the Lord desires. If you are satisfied with that, you will never be able to move on to the resurrection faith.
Does the Lord want you to be fully used? The Lord demands. Today, he wants us to move forward with the eyes of faith. How would you respond to the Lord's question of your own death and sacrifice? Our Lord wants the church to take hold of the cross. We believe that self-sacrifice and surrender, great and small, and our total trust in the Lord will be the riches that God accepts. I believe that we should pray so that our church may become an overwhelming church with the power of resurrection in the last days.
Who do you want to be? We would like to revisit our goal for once. Shouldn't we change the title of our prayer, "God, please allow me to bear the cross, and lead me to deny myself and carry the cross"? In the name of the Lord, I pray that you will readjust the level of our faith with the faith that God requires of us, and go beyond the faith that Mary had and move on to the faith of the resurrection.