When Your Circumstances Challenge Your Faith

Reflection

There are a few times in Scripture where we see Jesus crying, and you know, I never paid a lot of attention to it. I probably glossed over it as a minor thought in the Scripture. But when I started looking back over those passages, I realized they showed something important about Jesus. He experienced human emotions. He knew what it was like to grieve, to be troubled, and to weep. But in this particular story, I began to see something that made me stop and think.

When we think about crying, we usually assume there is sadness attached to it, or maybe stress or grief. And certainly Jesus was compassionate toward the people around Him. Of course He was. But when I looked more closely at this scene, I started going back to what had happened earlier with Mary and Martha.

We have already seen Martha with Jesus. She was busy taking care of all the responsibilities of hospitality while Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet. Martha became upset because she felt like she was carrying the weight of everything herself. Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the better part. Mary wanted to sit and listen to Him.

Now here they are again, and Mary is at Jesus' feet once more. But this time, she isn't sitting there listening to Him teach. She is weeping. Martha is there too, and both sisters have essentially the same response to Jesus: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

That got me thinking.

Martha had already told Jesus that she believed in Him. She said, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” She knew who He was. She believed He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Yet when Lazarus died, she still struggled with what had happened. Mary did too.

Their mouths were saying, I believe You are who You say You are, while their circumstances were making it difficult to understand what that belief meant right then. And I see myself in them.

I can say that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I can say that I believe He is faithful and that He is good. I can tell you that I trust Him, but then something difficult happens and suddenly I can find myself thinking differently. My circumstances begin speaking louder than what I already know.

My circumstances begin speaking louder than what I already know.

I think, Lord, if You had been here, this wouldn't have happened.

Maybe you've had that thought too. Maybe not in those exact words, but perhaps you've wondered why God allowed something to happen when you know He could have changed it. You believe in Him, but the situation in front of you is challenging what you believe about Him.

Deeply Moved by Our Grief

That is what makes verse 33 so interesting to me. When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the people who had come with her weeping, the Scripture says that He “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.”

Jesus was deeply moved. And then we read those two simple words.

“Jesus wept.”

I don't think we have to say His tears had only one cause. Jesus was compassionate, and He certainly cared about Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and those who were grieving. But the passage gives us another detail that makes me look at this scene differently. Jesus was troubled, and just a few verses later, He reminded Martha of something He had already told her.

“Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”

Jesus was bringing her back to belief.

Trusting Beyond What We Can See

Martha had already said she believed He was the Christ, yet she was standing in front of the tomb trying to make sense of a situation that seemed completely beyond hope. Jesus didn't simply leave her in that place. He reminded her of what He had said.

Then Jesus prayed out loud, and He told the Father that He was doing it because of the people standing around Him, “that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”

And then Lazarus came out of the tomb.

What a moment that must have been.

The people who had been standing there grieving were now standing there looking at the impossible. Jesus had not been absent. He had not forgotten Lazarus. He had a purpose in what they could not understand.

And that is where this story gets very personal for me.

Sometimes I do the same thing Martha and Mary did. I confess that Christ is my Lord and Savior, but then something happens in my life that I don't understand, and I begin to waver. My mouth says one thing, while my thoughts and emotions begin saying something completely different. I'm learning not to automatically default to that way of thinking.

That doesn't mean difficulties won't hurt. It doesn't mean I will never have questions or moments when I struggle. Martha and Mary were grieving, and Jesus didn't pretend that grief wasn't real. But there is a difference between experiencing an emotion and allowing that emotion to determine what we believe about God.

I may not understand what Jesus is doing, but that doesn't mean He isn't doing something. I may not see the answer, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

And sometimes, like Martha and Mary, I am standing in the middle of the story without knowing what Jesus is about to do.

That is where faith becomes more than something I say—
It becomes something I have to live.

Before You Go

If you're in a difficult place today, don't let what you see convince you that Jesus has forgotten you. You may not understand why He has allowed something, and you may even find yourself struggling with the very faith you have always said you believe.

Take that struggle to Jesus.

You don't have to pretend that everything is easy. You just don't want your circumstances to become bigger than your Savior. Remember who Jesus is when you cannot see what He is doing. Remember what He has already said when your emotions begin telling you something different.

Martha and Mary couldn't see what was coming when they stood before Jesus that day. They only knew that Lazarus was dead. But Jesus knew the rest of the story.

And He knows yours too.

Keep trusting Him, even when you can't see what He's doing.