Praise the Lord, Grace & Peace, great people of our “Great God”…JESUS!

It is obvious that in times like these, many of us experience sorrow and heartbreak as we journey on this road called life. These experiences can bring much anguish to the soul, which houses our emotions, intellect, and will. So many people in the world, and even saints, turn to alternative solutions to evade life’s negative issues and events, only to find out that it drives them deeper into more sorrow and despair. As I thought about this crisis, I began to reflect upon my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because He is so sympathetic and caring concerning the diverse movements in our lives. I often experience musical movements when I listen to Classical music while meditating or reading; hence, for this Golden Nugget, I would like to provoke the thought: “My Jesus Flows Like a Symphony When We Need SYMPATHY.” To provoke further gospel provocation, the following scriptures will be used to establish my premise:

(Joh. 11:35) “Jesus wept.”

(Isa. 53:4) “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”

 Heb. 4:15 “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

The following words from this thought are defined as follows:

Symphony…an elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, at least one of which is traditionally in sonata form. A symphony is merely a sonata for orchestra.

Sympathy: feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune.

My brothers and sisters, when we examine the eleventh chapter of the Gospel according to John, we observe a major theme: Jesus Christ’s sympathy for His people. It shows how He deals with the beloved family in Bethany. He allowed them to go through the process of despair and to walk through deep water so that they could be thoroughly tested through the trial of their faith. The Apostle Peter conveys to us in 1Pe 1:7-9 “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” Now, when we look at this through the eyes of the natural man, it might seem as though all hope is gone, and every ray of light has faded away from the horizon. The documented fact is that Lazarus was dead and buried. It was over! And yet the Lord said, “This sickness is not to death.” How was this? What did He mean?

It was imperative during such a time as this that they listened to the voice of Jesus. The same applies also to us today! We have to be in a position to tune in to His living, joyous, strengthening, and encouraging accents to sustain us, because this is the only way we can perpetually vindicate and glorify God. This is not only on our sickbed, but also in the chamber of death, and at the very gravesite itself.  For we know assuredly that death is not death if Jesus be there. The grave itself is but the sphere in which the glory of God resurrected power shines, and comes forth!

It is both comfortable and terrible for many of us to be prone to trusting, clinging to, and leaning on what is palpable and tangible, forgetting “The things that are seen and temporal,” which sometimes have more influence on us than “the things which are unseen and eternal.” This is why He allows various calamities to impinge on us, giving us the opportunity to lean on Him, the Eternal Rock of our Salvation, so that He may display His sympathy toward us! It is because of God’s deep-seated love, compassion, and Sympathy for us that He shows how jealous He is for our love and confidence, and hence, He will clear the scene of everything that might separate our hearts from Him.

Saints, we may not welcome all of God’s methodologies, yet we have to praise him anyway, because He is wiser and more gracious than any mortal soul! For He will accomplish the expected end, even when it appears harsh and severe. I have learned through my own experiences that he was showing Peter sympathy and compassion when he washed his feet, as stated in  John 13:6-7: “Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”

Yes, my brothers and sisters, I reiterate, we may not always appreciate how the Lord deals with us in those immediate situations and circumstances, but we have learned that the past has now become the hereafter! We can look back upon the whole course of those events, and can see the sympathy from the light of His own blessed presence, and know that from the heaviest stroke of His hand was also His strongest expression of love and sympathy at the time. Glory! GOLDEN NUGGET!

I’m sure that Martha and Mary might have wondered why death was allowed to enter their lives at the time. It is obvious that they looked day after day, hour after hour, moment after moment, as they looked for their beloved Lord and friend to enter; but instead, He kept away, and death entered, and all seemed to be lost.

When someone asks why this was? I personally think of a musical symphony with several movements, with the Crescendo often indicating the highest point reached, marking the progressive increase in sound intensity! Saints, please note how Jesus progressively responds to Mary and Martha’s concerns. “These things said He: and after that He says to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps.” Wow! What sympathy, and touching affection! What gracious intimacy! What a tender way of linking Himself with the family of Bethany on one hand, and His disciples on the other hand! “Our friend Lazarus sleeps.” Hence, it was a gentle sleep. Death can never be death in the presence of the Prince of life. The grave is but a sleeping place. “I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” Such words could not have been uttered if Lazarus had been raised from a sickbed. It is because of Jesus’ Sympathy that he allows “Man’s extremity to be God’s opportunity,”  and we see that the grave afforded God a far better opportunity, and testimony than Lazarus’s sick bed.

This was the optimum reason why Jesus kept away from His beloved friends. He waited exclusively for Lazarus to lie in the grave for four days; when every human hope had vanished; when all human channels had proven to be powerless, and valueless.  Jesus was saying “I go”  not to raise him from his sick bed, but “that I may awake him out of sleep.” Hence, the glory of God would shine in the full essence of His brightness.

My brothers and sisters, Faith must be displayed for God to show you His sympathy! The  natural man will always say “No Way!” Because he craves something tangible, something that the eye can see. But faith will always find the true sphere to lean absolutely upon the only living God.

It is a waste of time talking about faith if we remain strangers to exercising its power! A mere confession of our profession is completely worthless, especially for us and those who have strived to depend on God. We have learned from our experiences that He deals only in our moral realities. The Word of God verifies this, as stated in James 2:14, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith? and have not works, can faith save him?” It does not say, “What doth it profit though a man have faith?” Glory be to God, those through grace have it, knowing that it profits in everything. By faith, the sinner is brought into a living relationship with Jesus Christ to experience His Sympathy, and is justified through faith unto Him, for His Sympathy!

In my evaluation of Jesus’ relationship with Lazarus’ family, He exemplifies optimal Sympathy! I noticed three prominent things that stand out in the 11th chapter of John: First, is our Lord’s own path with the Father; the Second is, His profound Sympathy concerning the family in Bethany and us; and Third, the Lord’s grace linking us unto Himself, as it pertains to His blessed work of sanctification through His Holy Spirit. Jesus always walked with God in a calm and unbroken communion. He walked in the most implicit obedience to the will of God and was ruled in all things by His glory. He walked in the day, and He never stumbled. The will of God was the light in which our perfect workman, servant, and Lord was able to carry out His work. Jesus knew His only motive for living was to do His Father’s will, as He perpetually displayed God’s Sympathy for mankind through Himself! GOLDEN NUGGET!

My brothers and sisters, we see how this perfect Sympathy meets with human sorrow, when Jesus is with these two afflicted sisters at their brother Lazarus tomb. If there were any question that needed to be answered during this moment of trial, due to the physical absence of the Lord; it would be answered abundantly during that moment! In verses 33-35 of chapter 11, we see a deep-rooted concern with Sympathy… “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said to Him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.” This is so amazing, here we have Jesus, God in the flesh, groaning and weeping, our Resurrection and The Life, the Quickener of the dead, and our Conqueror of the grave; about to deliver the body of His friend Lazarus from the grasp of the enemy known as death and the grave (HELL); which is a preview for all those who die in Jesus Christ, who are looking diligently for His glorious appearing! Yes, our Jesus, who enters into human sorrows, and absorbs all our terrible consequences of sin, and the misery, and desolation that exist in this sin-sick world, because of the fall of the first Adam, our natural federal head.

This scripture “Jesus Wept” known as the shortest scripture in the KJV, but not in the original languages; imply that those tears and groans, emanated from the very depths of the perfect God Man heart, that could only feel what a perfect sinless human heart could feel as designed by God. Truly exemplifying every form of human sorrow and misery, with divine Sympathy! Yet He was perfectly exempt, in His own divine person, from the sin that dwelt in man; and all of its consequences!… Glory! It is because He is exempt by His very nature and His pure, perfect grace afforded us; He is able to enter into all the aforementioned and make them His own. GOLDEN NUGGET!

Saints, Jesus wept not for Himself, but for others.  Yes, He wept with them. Mary wept, and the Jews wept. All this is easily grasped and understood. The very fact that Jesus wept reveals a mystery which we cannot fathom. It was divine compassion, weeping through human eyes over the desolation which sin had caused in this poor world, weeping in Sympathy with those whose hearts had been crushed by the inexorable hand of death.

Let all who are, or have been, sorrowful remember this. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Many circumstances have changed, but His heart has not. His position is different, for we know him no more after the flesh, but His SYMPATHY is the same. I reiterate “We have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin.” There is now a perfect heart on the throne of the Majesty of the heavens, and that heart sympathizes with us in all our sorrows, in all our trials, in all our infirmities, in all our pressure as we live. He perfectly enters into them all. Our Lord and Savior Jesus gives Himself to each one of His beloved members in His body upon this earth, as though He is only concentrating on one individually!

How sweet and soothing it is to know this!  It makes it all worth it to endure various sorrows in order to experience the precious Sympathy of Jesus Christ. Lazarus’ sisters of Bethany said, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” But if their brother had not died, they would not have experienced Jesus weeping, or heard His deep groan of  SYMPATHY with them in their time of sorrow. I can truly say from my own experience that it was, and is, when I am at my lowest that I have felt the intensity of His sympathy, through my own tears! The scriptures state in Psa 34:17-19  “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”

Hence, I must admit, it is better to have the Sympathy of Jesus heart with us in our sorrow, than the power of His hand keeping or taking us out of it. I further establish my premise with this question: Was it a much better testimony for the three witnesses, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in Daniel 3 to have the Son of God walking with them in the midst of the furnace, than to have them escape the furnace by the power of His hand? I believe our response has proven to be Unquestionable! It is because of their experience that we are able to build up our faith to see the exploits of God in our own lives.

And such it is in every case. It is imperative that we all remember that, as we have our own furnace experience, Jesus proves and displays His power and Sympathy to us by getting in there with us.

We are all going to have deep waters of affliction. There will always be trials, sorrows, tribulations, and difficulties. And whether we want to accept them or not, Jesus wants us to feel them, because His hand is in them for our good, and for His glory. Hence, it is a privilege to be able to say, as stated in Rom 5:1-5, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

Saints, we have to praise God for this! It is foolish to deny that there will be trials, sorrows, and tribulations on every hand during this walk with Jesus Christ. I truly believe unequivocally that the consciousness of Christ’s Sympathy and the intelligence of God’s objective in all our afflictions enable us to rejoice in them! The Lord would not have us to be stoics! He orchestrates deep ocean waters like a symphony, that He may walk with us through them; and when the objective has been accomplished, He delivers us out of them with our joy, and His own everlasting praise.

My brothers and sisters,  please remember what the Apostle Paul reminds us of concerning His pain and sorrow in  2 Co. 12:9-10: “He said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong.” At first, Paul longed to be rid of the thorn in the flesh, whatever it was. He besought the Lord three times that it might depart from him. But the thorn in the flesh was better than pride in the heart. It was far better to be afflicted and purged, rather than puffed up and alienated from the comforting process of the Lord. For it was far better to have Christ’s Sympathy with him in his temptation than the power of His hand in delivering him out of it! GOLDEN NUGGET!

Let us continue to walk in the levels of maturity deemed necessary, especially in this age of deception, when everyone is offering us a pie-in-the-sky gospel to appease and comfort our flesh and ego. Which is totally contrary to scripture, which states in Php. 3:8-11 “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

Always know that to be made conformable, you and I have to go through something, which entails a need to be shown Sympathy by Jesus Christ. Hence, we should all remain cognizant that “My Jesus Flows Like a Symphony When We Need SYMPATHY.” God Bless you, and continue to strive for a “JESUS DAY!”