Daily Devotions

John 11: 32Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

In the next verse we read ‘When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.’

Again in verse 38 ‘Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave.’ Many have commended that Jesus had purposely delayed his coming to Lazarus’ home because He wanted to demonstrate His resurrection power in raising the dead. While that was true but many have missed out on these two verses.

It was recorded twice that Jesus groaned in the spirit. This groaning is the working of the Holy Spirit as Paul wrote in Rom 8: 26 The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words. This tells us the working of the Spirit who was interceding for the family even as Jesus was still a distance from their home.

The Holy Spirit knew the sadness of Mary and Martha, the Holy Spirit could discern the broken heart of the family members as Lazarus was well loved by the family. This also showed the heart of God for His children. God does not want His children to be sad and burdened with sadness.

This was also the ministry of Jesus that when he came, He called to all believers, ‘give me your burden for my load is light.’ In other words, Jesus who is also God said that He is able to carry all our heavy loads. In this case He knew the heaviness of heart of the family and He sympathized with them and His spirit groaned for them. It was deep intercession that the disciples did not know of at that time.

The mission of Jesus was completed when He demonstrated Huis resurrection power and raised Lazarus even after he had been dead for a few days. It was a mission accomplished.