When Rain Falls Like Lead by Percey Andrew;

Author:Percey, Andrew;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authentic Media

Jesus has been confronted with the grief of Martha and Mary, and now scans the wider scene. As we look at the text, there are phrases that we have perhaps never seen before, that show us something important about the way Jesus engaged with suffering, hurt and pain. It is possible that we have lost something of their cultural meaning in the way they have been translated. Take, for example, in the passage above, the word ‘weeping’ which is used of the crowd and the phrase ‘he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled’ which is used of Jesus. The ‘weeping’ of those in the scene was very much a traditional mourning for the people of that culture and day. There would have been loud wailing, throwing of dust and beating of chests. This would not have been a controlled and ‘dignified’ affair. This was raw emotion at a painful loss. What is strange is the response of Jesus. He gets angry. Our translations may read ‘deeply moved in spirit’ but the original word taken in context with the other times it is used in the Bible give us a picture of anger.6 There have been many suggestions as to why Jesus gets angry. Perhaps it is the interruption by the crowd of what was meant to be a private exchange. Maybe it was the unbelief of those around him; or the anger at the presence of death and the damage that it causes to humanity. Perhaps it was simply that even after all he had shown them about who he was, they still hadn’t got it. But the fact is that we aren’t told why Jesus was angry, just that he was.

There was something about this scene, about the death of a person he loved, about those hurting and mourning as if their hope was gone, that made Jesus angry. This shows us something important – that God is not unmoved by human suffering. Whether we feel we are expressing ourselves in the ‘right’ way or not as we seek to avoid mourning like those ‘who have no hope’,7 God is moved by human pain, by mine and by yours.

This is the story we have seen of God since the beginning. We see it as God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush, telling him: ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them…’8

God is not unmoved by suffering. In fact, this highlights the exact opposite. Here is a God who is moved deeply from within, a God who experiences the suffering of his people first-hand. He does not ‘feel’ in a way that is removed, but seeks to engage in the process of pain through his presence. In Exodus, he responds by ‘coming down’ to rescue, and in the Gospels we see the God who has ‘come down’ to rescue in the person of Jesus.

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