SPEAKER_01 0:10

Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to Pillar's Abide in Me podcast, a weekly opportunity to abide in Christ through weekly pillar sermon and worship reflections. I'm Christian.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And I'm Trish. Hear these words from the book we love. When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, The teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, See how he loved him? But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, already there is a stench, because he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone, and Jesus looked upward and said, Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said this, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and when he saw the Jews with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in his spirit and deeply moved. Jesus knows what he's about to do to Lazarus, but he is not some messianic robot. He lets himself feel. That Jesus is intimately present with us in our pain and grief. But if that's as far as it goes, it's not enough to give us hope. Isn't that what Saint Paul instructs us in 1 Thessalonians? To go ahead and grieve. But to grieve with hope, how do you do that? It's only possible if we have a God and a savior whose love goes beyond compassion and empathy, goes beyond being with us in our struggle. Jesus weeps with us. In the end, we need a God and Savior who can do something about it. A God and Savior who can change our situation and rescue us from heartache, who turns our weeping into shouts of joy.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

For our part as a pillar community, we love to be praying for you. So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com. Let us pray. God of our salvation, you have restored us to life. You have brought us back again into your love by the triumphant death and resurrection of Christ. Continue to heal us as we go to live and work in the power of your spirit to your praise and glory. Amen.