Luke Pearson

Dear Friends,

Death is an incredibly difficult reality to talk about and process. The inevitability of death can be both saddening and emotionally overwhelming. When a member of our community dies, there is a sense of pain that binds to our hearts and souls.

For many of us, this sense of binding pain has only heightened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic began back in 2020, there have been over five million coronavirus deaths globally, and over nine-hundred thousand coronavirus deaths in the United States. These are distressing statistics. Each one of these individuals that died had a name and a story. Each one had a life that was known and loved by God. Each one was a beloved member of God’s family here on earth.

So where can we find hope when we are faced with the reality of death? Does God understand our sorrow?

In today’s Daily Office reading from the Gospel According to John, God not only understands our sorrow, but God experiences it firsthand with the death of Lazarus.  Mary comes to Jesus and falls to her feet, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus sees her and the Jews weeping and is so “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” he begins to weep. Then, Jesus tells the crowd to move away the stone in front of Lazarus’s tomb. After the stone is removed, he tells Lazarus to come out of the tomb, and Lazarus appears in front of him and the crowd with his body bound with strips of cloth. At that moment, Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Christ knows our grief, because Christ grieved among us. When we weep for our fellow siblings of Christ, Christ weeps with us. He does this because he loves each one of us and the world at large. Out of love, God chose to become one of us and to share in the pain that binds to us.

My friends, if you are heartbroken by the death of a friend or loved one, do not be ashamed to weep. Whether you weep softly or loudly, Jesus will hear you. Jesus will be by your side, and he will weep with you. Jesus did not weep alone. Instead, he was present with those who shared his pain. Out of our grief, Christ invites us to believe in his miraculous love and works. As our Savior, Jesus frees us from the binds of death, and any cloths of doubt that wrap around our hearts.

Best,

Luke