Susan and Fran were talking one day. Susan mentioned a death that had happened in the family of a woman they both knew. When Fran expressed surprise about this news, Susan said, “Oh, I thought you knew that since you and she are such close friends.” But Fran said, “No, we’re friendly but not close friends. We’ve laughed together but we’ve never cried together. But now that you’ve told me what’s happened to her, I feel for her now.”

            If you’ve ever tried to figure out what to say or how to say it when someone close to you is experiencing grief, then you can relate to Fran’s reply. Our human instinct is often to try to fix the problem so we say empty, pointless things like “It’s God’s will.” Not helpful, right? Or “He’s in a better place.” Maybe and maybe not, but the grieving person still misses their loved one. Sometimes people just need someone to cry with them, to know that their sorrow moves you because you care about them. Nobody knows how to fix that kind of loss, and it’s okay to say so or to say nothing — to just be present with the grieving person.

            There’s a lot to unpack in our gospel passage this morning, but we’re going to pull out two main points to take with us today.

            First, one of the most important things we can take from this passage is the need for us to be compassionate in the way that Jesus was compassionate. Second, we can live well because of the hope we find in Jesus.

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