Jesus is not a helpless mourner when He comes to Lazarus’s tomb. Still grieving, He turns to the tomb and raises Lazarus from the dead. Nobody could do that unless He is God.


But there is another service that Jesus provides when He comes to Martha and Mary’s side. He serves as witness to their suffering and witness to Lazarus’s life. We see from this how Jesus knows our grieving hearts and how every tear we cry is recorded. Consider anew how God knows everything that happens to us. “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record” (Psalm 56:8)?


When Stephen is stoned, he looks up into the skies and sees heaven. Jesus makes it so that Stephen’s brutal death feels like laying his head onto a pillow. And then the King of the universe stands up to testify that Stephen is His servant, His son, one with whom He is well pleased. Stephen’s every loss is counted as gain before Christ. Thousands of years later, we are heartened by the record of Stephen and what it tells us
of Jesus.