John 11:17-37
Jesus Comforts Lazarus' Sisters
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem,19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Sometimes it seems that we are taught from the earliest of ages to repress our negative emotions, like sadness, anger, pain, and frustration...We are often taught not to cry or weep...Jesus wept, when His friend Lazarus died...And He saw Mary weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled...The weeping of a friend of Jesus caused Him sadness and trouble and it moved His Spirit...
Author and Priest Brennan Manning wrote, “To ignore, repress, or dismiss our feelings is to fail to listen to the stirrings of the Spirit within our emotional life...Jesus listened...In John's Gospel we are told that Jesus was moved with the deepest emotions (11:33)...The gospel portrait of the beloved Child of Abba is that of a man exquisitely attuned to His emotions and uninhibited in expressing them...The Son of Man did not scorn of reject feelings as fickle and unreliable...They were sensitive antennae to which He listened carefully and through which He perceived the will of His Father for congruent speech and action.”...
We are to examine and feel our feelings and emotions and release them...Some may move our Holy Spirit...