How tenderly Christ leads us into freedom. He is not a bulldozer that comes and rips down the walls of our cell in an instant. He comes into our cell, sits with us, and earns our trust. He empathizes with us in our weaknesses and fears.
The Scriptural example that comes to mind is in John 11 when Christ weeps at the sight of other people weeping over the passing of Lazarus. In this story, one of Christ's closest friends has passed away, and Christ has now entered the city four days after Lazarus' death. He has spoken with Martha and Mary, the brothers of Lazarus, and is surrounded by the crowd mourning the loss of Lazarus.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35).
Why did Christ weep, considering He had the power to raise him and did so following His tears? He did so because He went into the pain of the people surrounding Him. In verse 11:33 it says He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled at the sight of all the people weeping. He wasn't troubled because He didn't have the power to heal Lazarus. He was troubled because people were in pain. And so He went into their pain with them, mourned with them, and then raised Lazarus from the dead.
He does the same with healing in our lives. He has the power to change us. He has the power to make us whole. But He doesn't just dismiss our brokenness as – "Ok, let's fix this thing and move on." He mourns with us the hurt and loss. Here is a God who has the power to do anything, and He stops and weeps tears with us at our losses. There is something more to weeping than just the frustration of not being able to change something. There is something to weeping at the pain itself. Pain was never part of His design for us. And it hurts Him as it does us when we experience pain.
Invite Christ into the pain in your life. You will find Him gentle and tender as He enters the place you are at in your healing.
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