“Jesus wept” because His good friend, Lazarus, had died.

Jesus felt deeply the pain of that loss. But amidst His pain, His plan was to declare a future comfort. Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, revealing the promise that one day, death will be no more.

Today, we also weep for those who have died.

The promise that death will one day end can be hard to believe when death is all around us. But the God who makes this promise doesn’t do so from on high, never having experienced pain and mourning. He’s experienced it. He died Himself to seal the promise of death’s demise.

And that’s why — just as when our mother or father wiped the tears from our eyes when we experienced pain — so can we receive the comfort of Jesus. Not just a future comfort at the end of all things, but a comfort in the midst of our present grief, from this God who knows how it feels to mourn the loss of those we love.

The same God who feels your pain promises a day when the pain will be no more.

Even today, Jesus weeps with you if you let Him. And He can comfort you like no other.