Following Jesus Through Loss and Grief
Pause:
Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.
Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.
Read:
Isaiah 53v3: “He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
Matthew 26v36-44: “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.”
John 16v21-22: “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Going Deeper:
In these challenging and unprecedented times, as the world faces the Covid 19 pandemic, one of the things that has become increasingly apparent in life is that change is certain.
When we take an inventory of this moment it is clear that many things in our lives have shifted, that we are all in a period of transition, collectively as communities and as families, and personally as individuals.
Many times, in life, the change we experience is good. We embrace it and welcome it with open arms. But it can also often be incredibly hard and painful, especially when the change and the effects it has on us were never our preferred outcomes.
In these moments the change we experience can produce a loss and grief in our lives that is both difficult and hard to walk through.
For some of us we may have experienced some big losses during this time. Perhaps we have lost our jobs, or income, or people we love. For others we may have experienced loss in smaller, yet still significant ways, that have deeply impacted us. Perhaps we feel that we have lost our freedom, opportunities and plans for the future, a loss of time with our family and friends. Perhaps we are grieving for those around us who are experiencing trauma and transition in this season.
Thankfully as followers of Jesus, God extends an invitation to us to work through our losses, processing our pain and grief with God as we find comfort and rest in him.
In the Garden of Gethsemane we see that Jesus is full of sorrow. He knows the loss he is about to face, that he will be arrested, tortured and crucified. That everything in his life is about to radically change. We see that as he prays in this moment, that he asks for the plan to change, we see that this is not his preferred outcome. In Luke 22v44 we see that he was in so much turmoil that he sweats blood: “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground”.
But we also see that Jesus’ response in his grief and loss is to turn to his Father in prayer. He comes to God to process his pain and struggles with him and it is because of his very sacrifice on the cross for us that we too can do the same.
The reality is that there are many ways we can approach our loss at this time. We can pretend that it hasn’t happened or isn’t that bad, downplaying it to make ourselves feel better. We can comfort ourselves with a plethora of different numbing agents and distractions to ease the hurt we may be feeling or to avoid dealing with the things affecting our lives. We can let the loss consume us leaving us paralysed and stuck.
Or we can look to Jesus, we can learn from him and from his response to loss and grief, and follow him to the Father. Because it’s as we come to the Father that we find true comfort and peace in our pain and a living hope for the future.
How practically do we do this?
We, just like Jesus, can come to God in prayer with our loss and our grief, lamenting to him.
In today’s culture, this type of prayer is not all that common, but we see in the scriptures, specifically Lamentations and the book of Psalms, that it is widely used by the people of God during their difficulties. That they come to him pouring out their anger, disillusionment, frustration and questions before him, in a posture of worship.
Now more than ever we might feel the tension between our love for God, our faith in him and our confusion surrounding why God allows certain things to happen in the world and in our lives. We know the ultimate truths of the Gospel but sometimes we still have questions. In prayers of lament we bring our emotions, grief and questions to God honestly and openly, and invite him to speak into them.
We can bring our specific questions, doubts and concerns to God asking him to help us to trust in him despite the circumstances we might find ourselves in at this time.
Where we feel overwhelmed and afraid we can pour out our hearts to God and ask him to protect us in our weakness. That he would be our strength and our hope, the one we look to and depend on.
Where we find ourselves panicked by the chaos around us we can pray that God would help us to be people who are full of faith, not trusting in the things that are seen but instead in those that are unseen.
We can ask for the Holy Spirit’s power to help us in our struggles, needs, hurts and pain. And for help in applying the truth of the Gospel to our lives about who He is and what He has done.
When we are feeling anxious, or where we have experienced loss and sadness, we can bring these to God in prayer asking him for his peace, comfort and joy.
Prayers of lament are not simply complaints or expressions of our pain and difficulties but a powerful response to the reality of our suffering where we engage with God in the context of our loss and grief.
And more than that, they are expressions of hope. Hope that we belong to a God who hears our cries and responds to them, who cares for us, who knows us intimately. At the heart of lament is a recognition that although there are troubles in this world, because of Jesus we have a hope that is profoundly bigger than those troubles.
As Jesus himself says in John 16v21-22: “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Pray:
Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to your from this passage this morning.
Listen:
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?
Apply:
What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?