KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 13 May
Jesus wept
It has the distinction of being the shortest verse in the New Testament, at least in English translations. It also has the distinction of being one of three passages in the Gospels where Jesus meets us mourners in the presence of the deaths of those who are dear to us, and as such, it seems, dear to God.
The Gospels only come to be written in the light of the resurrection and reveal the power of that idea at work on human minds. It changes us and changes how we face hard and difficult things such as sorrow and loss, such as suffering and death. Thus these three passages read in Chapel show us something of the pattern of death and resurrection as it pertains to human experience. In this way, these passages connect to other powerful works of literature and religious philosophy that equally concern how we look upon suffering and death.
Jesus raises the twelve year old daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, who has just died. Mark gives us the word in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke: Talitha cumi – “little girl, I say unto thee, arise”. Jesus raises the only son of the widow of Nain as he is being carried to the grave. “When the Lord saw her”, the widow, “he had compassion on her and said, ‘do not weep’”. It is an amazing and touching scene. Do not always be weeping, he is saying. Compassion is an exceptionally strong and significant word in the New Testament. At a time when we are worried about things on the surface, about contagion through touch and by way of proximity with one another, this word refers to the inner core of someone’s being, to the heart, lungs, liver, bowels, or the womb.
It is in the heart of Jesus that he holds converse with the Father and gathers us into that eternal love. Compassion is the deep care and concern which we have for one another. The conjunction of seeing and having compassion appears in several places. Jesus sees the multitude in the wilderness and has compassion on them. Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion on them for they are like sheep without a shepherd. In the great parable of the Good Samaritan, “a certain Samaritan” sees the man who was wounded and lying half dead and has compassion on him.