Rooted · Week 2 · Monday

Even Jesus Grieved

He kept it together at the funeral, at the house afterward, and at work on Monday morning. He thought that was simply what a strong man was supposed to do.

When his father died, he quietly became the one holding everyone else up. He planned the service, answered the phone calls, comforted his mother and steadied his own kids. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, without ever quite deciding it on purpose, he concluded that grieving was a luxury he could not afford. If he let himself feel the full weight of the loss, he was sure he would not be able to carry everyone who was leaning on him. So he stuffed it down. He stayed busy. He called it being strong.

He called stuffing it down “being strong.”

What Jesus Did First

Then he read something he had skimmed straight past a hundred times before. When Jesus got the news that John the Baptist, his cousin and the man who baptized him, had been beheaded, look at the very first thing he did.

The Son of God, who could have done absolutely anything with that grief, chose to pull away to a lonely place and feel a real loss. Sit with that for a second. Grieving is not a failure of faith. It is not weakness. Even Jesus grieved. If the strongest man who ever lived made room to mourn, then the man stuffing it down to look strong has the definition of strength exactly backward.

He Grieved and Still Showed Up

And here is the part that sets men free. Read the very next verse. When the crowd tracked Jesus down and interrupted his grief, he did not resent them for it.

He grieved, and he still showed up for the people who needed him. It was not one or the other. That is the picture so many of us miss. We think we have to choose between feeling our loss and carrying our family, so we bury the loss in order to do the job. But Jesus did both. He made room for the grief and he still had compassion left to give.

Near to the Brokenhearted

So this man finally stopped stuffing it. He took the loss to his own quiet place, and more than that, he took it to God, who turned out to be far closer than he had let himself believe.

Near to the brokenhearted. Not standing off at a distance with his arms crossed, disappointed in the tears. Near. When a man takes his grief honestly to God instead of hiding it behind a busy, capable front, he is not being weak. He is finally letting the One who is near actually get near. Keep your eyes on Him, not the wind.

Tomorrow · Sent Into the Storm