One person suffers and we all suffer, including God.

God in His great love for us is constantly reaching out to heal the broken-hearted and comforting those who weep and mourn.

Many have forsaken God, but God has not left us. We may blame God for the loss, the death of a loved one, but God doesn’t blame us. Jesus bore his own and our suffering on the cross, even before he reached Calvary his suffering his body weakened by the suffering that he endured. We read as he made his way through the streets of Jerusalem to beyond the city wall, he was too weak to carry his cross. Simon of Cyrene was commandeered to carry it for him. Jesus in his weakness probably struggled to breathe, only to rest when the soldiers nailed him to the cross.

Such was his love for us he bore the pain of hatred, anger, resentment of those who curse God and mock when someone says, ‘God is love.’ Yet God’s love was manifested in Jesus when he was heard to say, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” The Jewish people acted in ignorance when they sent Jesus to Pilate for sentencing. They did not believe the Messiah would come and die. “In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “But he cannot save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Mark 15: 31,32.

Jesus wept when he heard from the sisters Mary and Martha that Lazarus had died. The mourners standing at Lazarus’ tomb said, “See, how he loved him.” Mary said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Isn’t this the plea of many of those who blame God for the death of someone they love, why weren’t you there to save my love from death?

There at Lazarus’ tomb Jesus spoke to his Father God, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear my prayers. But I have said this in the hearing of the mourners that they may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus then shouted, “Lazarus come out.” The dead man came out, they removed the burial wrappings and Lazarus was alive.

Jesus had said earlier to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; those who believe in me though they die yet shall they live and whoever lives and believes shall never die.” This means Lazarus had been raised from the dead to continue his life until he died, but he had received eternal life through his faith in Jesus. John 11.

When Jesus was dying, he said, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit!” and then he died.