Jesus Wept.

Perhaps one of the most powerful verses in all of the Bible is one with the fewest words, found in John 11:35 where it says, "Jesus wept." The statement is in reference to Jesus' visit with Mary and Martha to see Lazarus. Word had come to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, and when Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had already died. When Jesus went to see the tomb, he found Mary and her friends weeping, and when Jesus saw this, he was deeply moved, and wept with them.

Often when this story is referenced attention is given to the display of Jesus power when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Some even see this event as a foreshadowing of the story's upcoming events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. But don't let get lost the emotion that ocurrs before Jesus display of power. Jesus had great emotion and he wept. Jesus was not only a man of great intellect and wisdom, who taught as one who had real authority. Like us, Jesus felt deeply about people.

To know Jesus is to know him with your heart, in that places where emotions run deep. Today, I encourage you the read the story of Lazarus' healing in John 11. When you do, read it with your heart and not just your mind. If you do, then you too may weep as you read, and a whole new meaning may emerge when you read Jesus' words, "I am the resurrection and the life."

How To Be Perfect

I've just started a new book that came out this year in 2011 written by Daniel M. Harrell called, "How to Be Perfect". It tells the story of 19 members from Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts who joined with their pastor in a month of obedience, living the life of faith as outlined in the O.T. book of Leviticus. What an experiment that must have proved. I'm looking forward to finshing the book. There is one comment I ran across on page 111 where the author Harrell writes, "To obey God's commands is to be like God." I found this both inspiring, challenging, and interesting. In the creation stories, the presumption of human sin is in our desire to believe we can be as God. There is a difference between "as" and "like".

To be "as" someone is to assume you can be that person. To be "like" someone is to try and imitate that person. When Jesus said to "be holy as God is holy" he was commanding us to be like God, to let our character reflect his holiness; but always with the knowledge that God is God, and we are God's creation. Too many of us live as if we are the god of their own lives, but too few of us live as if we are striving to be like God. Let the Holy Spirit be at work in all of us. Perhaps the words of our Communion liturgy will have more power when we say - "make this bread and cup be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood." We can learn how to live like Jesus - in grace.

Dennis