The Great Reversal of Lent 1
John 11:1–44 • Psalm 126:5–6
Why is it that we can only see the glory of God in tears?
Lent begins with this unsettling truth: the places we most want to avoid are often the very places where God’s glory breaks open. John 11 makes this painfully clear. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus, hoping he will prevent their brother’s death. Instead, Jesus waits. Grief deepens. Tears fall. Hope seems lost.
And yet, when Jesus finally arrives, he does not stand at a distance. He weeps. He enters their sorrow before he transforms it. Only then does he speak the words that change everything: “Lazarus, come out.”
It is striking that Jesus ties this moment to the revelation of God’s glory. Not in the triumph. Not in the miracle. But in the tears.
Psalm 126 gives us the language for this holy pattern: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Tears become seeds. Grief becomes ground. What feels like loss becomes the soil where God plants new life.
Maybe this is why we see God’s glory most clearly through tears. Tears wash away our illusions of control. Tears soften the hardened places of the heart. Tears open us to the God who meets us not after we’ve pulled ourselves together, but right in the middle of our sorrow.
Lent invites us to trust this strange and beautiful reversal: that God is closest when we feel most undone, that resurrection begins in the dark, and that joy is already being sown in the very places we weep.
Pastor Greg
