Angry, wept, shouted!

 John 11:1-45 v 33 “ When Jesus saw her ( Mary) weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within Him.”

V 35 Then Jesus wept

V 43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out.”

The two sisters Mary and Martha had a brother Lazarus. He was sick. They sent a message to Jesus telling Him His dear friend was sick. Jesus knew that God was to be glorified by this sickness so he waited two days before heading back to Judea. Jesus’s friends warned Him that Judea was not a safe place. Jesus replied that the twelve hours of daylight are safe but at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light. He talked of Lazarus sleeping so his friends were not as worried, “He will soon get better.” Jesus had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead. So, they went with Him back to Judea. Martha and Mary heard that Jesus was close by at Bethany and Martha ran out of the house to meet Him, Mary stayed at home. Jesus stayed where He was and told Martha to tell Mary that He was there. Mary came out to Him followed by other mourners. When Jesus saw Mary weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within Him.” Jesus asked to be taken to the grave of Lazarus. Then Jesus wept.  He asked for the stone to be rolled away from the grave. Then He looked up to heaven and said “Father, thank you for hearing me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out.”

Even Jesus gets angry! Two devout followers Martha and Mary did not have enough faith to believe that He would help his friend. When he saw them crying, Jesus was angry. However, when He saw the tomb of his friend Jesus when He was still angry, He wept too. Then Jesus shouted,” Lazarus come out.”

A definition of anger from a dictionary: – a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.  I know this kind of anger. Out of the blue someone usually who you care about says something and this strong feeling comes out of you that can be just annoying, or more displeasure or downright hostile!

From a biblical perspective: anger is a passionate and active response of the entire person to a real or perceived wrong. Yes, been there too, sitting at a Church meeting and having to get up out of my chair due to this active response of my entire body.

From a psychology perspective: – Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something you feel has deliberately done you wrong. Anger can be a good thing. It can give you a way to express negative feelings, for example, or motivate you to find solutions to problems. Oh yes, I have found it to be true too that I can be motivated to find solutions due to my angry response.

It is part of how we are made and Jesus , our God, experienced it too. Making Him vulnerable to his other emotions felt at the death of a friend. He wept. A sign of weakness or a sign of deep feelings and compassion for others? There is strength in our weaknesses. And Jesus responded loud and clear for all to hear “Thank you to God for hearing Him” and then He shouted at Lazarus to come out. Which he did. A miracle for all of us to shine light into our darkest moments.

Prayer: Almighty God who gave us strong feelings to motivate us to do good things thank you for listening to our prayers. Amen.