Tag Archives: grief

Dealing with Grief…

How did Jesus deal with Grief:

  1.  Jesus had the experience of receiving unexpected bad news: His dear friend and cousin, John the Baptist had died.  We are not alone in our surprise and grief: our Lord himself lived through grief and sadness. When we are overcome with grief and sadness, Jesus is there with us.
  2.  Jesus needed space and time to process, John’s death.  In Matthew 14:13, “He slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself.” Jesus needed time to be alone with the Father.  Seek comfort from the Father today.
  3.  Even while Jesus was grieving He had compassion on others.  Overlooking His own personal needs, the bible said,  “He heard that the crowd followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick”.   Whether these people knew or not that Jesus had sought some privacy to grieve, they came to Him anyway.  Most of us would say, “Leave me alone now, I’m too sad to witness to you about Jesus, I’m too sad to pray for you…can’t you see, I’m sad too.” But not Jesus, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.  He didn’t come to earth to be served but to serve others…and He remembered His purpose–even while grieving.  We too should remember our purpose, always.
  4.  Jesus not only had compassion on them and healed their sick…He feed them too.  Wonder why we have food after funerals?  Jesus always modeled how we should live.
  5.  AFTER Jesus healed and fed the crowd, AFTER he took care of their needs–He sought time to be alone.  In His aloneness, He prayed.  He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. We still need to process grief with the Father…take time to do that.  Take time alone, to process your grief with God.  Don’t let grief overcome you in that you forget your purpose.  God will be there to heal your broken heart and comfort you.

Father, be near to those that grieve the loss of a loved one today, or the loss of a job, or friendship, or whatever they may be grieving the loss of today.  Let us not become consumed in grief that we forget our purpose in serving You.  Rather, bring balance to our time of service and grief.  Help us to process our grief like Jesus, through quiet time and prayer with You.  I pray for them now Lord, Your strength is made perfect in our weakness.  Thank you for understanding our sadness and for giving us time with You to grieve.  Speak to our hearts.

Jesus Responds to Grief

In Matthew 14:13, we are told that when Jesus heard the news that John was dead, he got on a boat and went to a desolate place. You see, Jesus was grieving. He was heartbroken to hear what happened to John. So Jesus wanted to spend some time alone, praying, and thinking. You have to wonder what thoughts were running through Jesus mind when he heard the news. Jesus may have been thinking about his mission; the cross. Jesus knows that what happened to John the Baptist is going to happen to him. Jesus knows that he came to die for the sins of humanity, and he knows that the cross is coming. I am sure hearing about the death of John made Jesus painfully aware of his coming death–he just wanted to be alone with His father.

So Jesus gets in the boat and heads to a desolate place. However, the crowd hears where Jesus is going. So they travel by foot and meet Jesus on the other side. As Jesus is approaching the shore, he sees the crowds gather, waiting for him to arrive. You almost feel sorry for Jesus. The guy just wants to get away to mourn the loss of his friend, and he cannot get away. Life is like that, isn’t it? It never slows down. You lose a family member or friend, and you are back at work the next day like nothing ever happened. All you want to do is get away and be by yourself and grieve, but the demands of life do not allow it. Life just moves too fast.

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes for a second. How would you respond to seeing the crowd on the shore? You might think, “Really God, ministry now? I just want to be alone!” You might even wish the crowd would just go away. However, Jesus does not respond in either way. Jesus sees the crowd, and he has compassion on them and he immediately got to work healing their sick. Although Jesus grieves the loss of his dear friend, his grief empowers him for ministry. In the midst of his emotional pain, Jesus turned out instead of in. Rather than turning in on himself and thinking “woe is me”, he turns out to serve and to love the crowd.