Every Morning — September 13, 2026: He Cried Anyway
Knowing the outcome doesn't cancel the pain of the moment.
Key Scripture
John 11:32–35 (WEB)
"Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, 'Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.' When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, 'Where have you laid him?' They told him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus wept."
Devotional
Two verses before this, Jesus had already said the plan out loud: "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God" (John 11:4). He knew Lazarus would walk out of that tomb. He knew the ending before anybody else in the story did.
And He still cried.
That detail alone should stop us. Jesus wasn't confused about what was about to happen. He wasn't grieving out of uncertainty, the way we do when we don't know how a situation will end. He had the full script in His hands, and He still let Himself feel the weight of the moment in front of Him.
We don't usually give ourselves that permission.
How many times una don hear — or say — "But you're a Christian now, why are you still crying like this? Where's your faith?" As if trusting God's outcome means you're not allowed to feel anything on the way there. As if maturity in Christ equals a straight face at every funeral, every diagnosis, every disappointment.
Jesus just quietly dismantled that idea two thousand years ago, standing outside a tomb He was about to empty.
He groaned in His spirit. He was troubled. Then He wept — the shortest verse in most English Bibles, and one of the most loaded. Not despite knowing the resurrection was seconds away. Right in the middle of knowing it.
This tells me something important about how God relates to our pain. He doesn't rush us past grief just because He's already planned the comeback. Mary and Martha were both hurting, and Jesus didn't respond with a lecture about faith or a reminder of the miracle to come. He stood with them in it first. He let the loss be real before He did anything about it.
"He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3) — but notice the order. He heals the brokenhearted. He doesn't skip the broken part to get to the healing.
Maybe you're holding something right now where you already know — or believe — God is going to move. You've prayed, you've got the promise, you're standing on the Word. And you still feel like crying today. That's not a lack of faith. That's just being human in front of something painful, exactly like Jesus was.
You're allowed to weep at the tomb even when you know the stone is about to move.
Prayer
Lord, thank You for showing me that grief and faith can exist in the same breath. Where I've been holding back tears because I thought they meant I didn't trust You, give me permission to feel what's real. Meet me in the waiting, the way You met Mary and Martha. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Dig Deeper
John 11:1–44
Psalm 147:3
Psalm 34:18
Romans 12:15
Reading Plan
Today's Reading
John 11
Psalm 147
Romans 12
Today's Thought
Jesus didn't need to cry to fix anything. He cried because the moment deserved it. So do yours.
From Every Morning — September 2026 by Margaret Nwakaego Usio.