As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,
and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
And they were overwhelmed with grief. (Mt 17:22-23)
Grief is a deep sorrow that is often experienced at the death of someone we dearly love. It also is experienced as we prepare for the death of a loved one.
The effects of Jesus’ declaration that He was going to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die was to overwhelm His disciples with grief. In their grief, they experienced a sense of sadness as well as a sense of fear. This fear would have been because they did not know what would happen to them if their Lord were taken from them, especially since they had realized, by this time, that Jesus had become a marked man and so, too, presumably, they were marked men as well.
We have all experienced grief in our lives. It may have come as the result of a loss of a pet or a friendship, or more deeply at the loss, due to death, of a loved one. Each of us have acted differently in our grief. Some of us took a very short time to get through our grief. Others may still be experiencing grief. Some grief has even become pathological: we cannot seem to escape the ramifications of that grief.
The Lord can help us.
He is there to shoulder our burden, to take our grief upon Himself, so that we may be freed from all that cripples us emotionally and prevents us from moving forward.
Are you still suffering from grief over the loss of a loved one?
The Lord is waiting to help you.
FAITH ACTION: Ask the Lord to take away the effects of grief in your life so that you may look ahead positively.