Christ Church Sermon, Real Jesus: Sadness, June 7 2026

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Thank you for listening.

Good morning.

Today's scripture is Psalm 34 verse 18.

Psalms 34:18

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in

spirit.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the

church.

>> Thanks be to God.

Thank you, Nate.

So, I have a theory about sadness.

Before I tell you my theory, I'm gonna

leave you on pins and needles for a

second. Before I tell you my theory, let

me take a step back and remind you that

we're in the midst of a sermon series

focusing on real emotions that people

face. We're learning firsthand through

this sermon series that God is not a

distant God who watches our lives unfold

passively from this high post in a

faroff heavenly realm. Conversely, our

God is ever present, always close by,

moving in our lives in seen and unseen

ways, ready and waiting and wanting to

transform our experiences and our

emotions into ones that point to his

presence.

As we dive into sadness this week, let

me tell you my theory, and it's this.

Even though sadness is a universal

feeling that we will all have and all

experience at multiple points in our

lives, I think it's the most taboo and

isolating emotion that we can have as

humans.

Let's compare sadness to the other three

emotions we're talking about in the

course of this sermon series, which are

joy. We talked about that last week,

anger, and anxiety. So, just think about

it for a second. We all love joy. We

could talk about joy all the time. Joy

is a subject that we all connect with

and we all are fine with collectively.

We'll talk more about anger next week,

but we have structures in place in our

society to help us address and handle

anger. Things like anger management

classes. It's not saying we aren't angry

people, but there is a place to talk

about it, to try to work through it. And

the issue of anger is one that's openly

accepted and it's not stigmatized

anymore. Same thing with anxiety, which

is the fourth emotion that we'll talk

about. Decades ago, anxiety was

something that people largely struggled

with in silence. They rarely talked

about it. They even more rarely sought

out help to deal with it. Now, it's

widely discussed and diagnosed in our

culture. You almost can't turn on your

TV without seeing a commercial for a a a

prescription or a medicine that deals

with anxiety.

But sadness, I think, is in a category

all of its own. It's a much more

individualized emotion. And what I mean

by that is we all have our own ideas

about how to handle sadness and those

ideas don't often match each other. So

for example, we often disagree on the

time limit that people can be sad. Some

of us think that when you you're sad

over the loss of a loved one, for

example, you can cry about it, you can

mourn about it, and then you move on.

Others of us believe that that sadness

is indefinite, that it may last for

years or even decades. Some of us are

uncomfortable with crying, that visible

byproduct of sadness. We don't know how

to handle it when someone cries when

they're sad. So, we make excuses and we

get out of dodge pretty quickly. Others

of us have tear glands that don't seem

to stop no matter what we do. And if you

cry in our presence, no problem. We're

going to cry right along with you.

It's impossible to come together and

universally agree, I think, on

appropriate for all timelines and

responses to sadness.

In Inside Out, the Pixar movie that uh

Chris introduced last week, um it

depicts the life of a pre-teen girl

named Riley as seen through the eyes of

her emotions. And in that movie, sadness

is the character that no one knows how

to handle. She shows up and ruins Joyy's

plans for Riley to have this worry and

carefree life. Sadness mopes around,

moves almost in slow motion. She talks

slower. She has a glooier tone of voice.

Her signature color is blue, and it's

like she does indeed have the blues.

Joy thinks there is no place for sadness

in Riley's life. And if we're honest,

that's probably how we feel about

sadness, too. We don't know how to

handle it, and we don't want to handle

it. If it were left up to us to decide,

we would have no part of sadness in our

lives. we would choose a life filled

with joy, not one marked repeatedly and

deeply by sadness.

But what the character Joy discovers in

the movie is that sadness had a purpose

all along. And when we examine the

sadness that we experience in our own

lives and what when when we learn about

its power through the example of Jesus,

we learn that sadness has a purpose for

us too. The question is what is that

purpose? And the answer to that question

is found in today's verse.

In the first part of that verse that

Nate read, we learn that God is close to

the brokenhearted.

Which means that when we experience

sadness, that's an opportunity to draw

closer to God.

When our kids were little, sometimes

they would be so sad about something, a

missing toy, a fight with a friend, a

boo boo on a finger, that they became

almost inconsolable. And the only way to

calm them down was to sit with them and

hold them really tightly. And we would

rock them and rub their backs and make

those um comforting, soothing sounds to

them. And gradually the sadness would

fade.

And then they would do that amazing

melting into you thing that only babies

and toddlers do where it feels like all

the bones in their body turn to liquid

and they just get all limp in your arms.

And they would snuggle there for a long

time while they worked their way back

from the depths of their sadness.

When I hear today's verse, that's what I

envision in my mind's eye. When we are

sad, God doesn't leave us. He's not like

those who don't know how to handle

grief. It's just the opposite. He sits

with us. He stays with us when we are in

the depths.

In my life, when I am weeping tears born

out of sadness or out of grief, I

picture God right there with me. I close

my eyes so that I can imagine him

wrapping his arms around me and holding

me tight, letting me go limp in his arms

and starting to draw his strength in his

love to help get me out of the depth

that I am in.

So sadness creates that space for

dependence on God. We like to think that

we can do everything ourselves, that

we're self-sufficient. We can dig

ourselves out of any emotional crisis we

might be having. But when we are broken

by sadness, there is no need to try to

go through it alone. Instead, we can

view it as an opportunity to draw close

to the God who is already and always has

been close to us and to find in him a

safe place to grieve.

God understands our heartache firsthand

through Jesus's experience. And God is

close to us when we are brokenhearted

because God knows what heartbreak feels

like through Jesus.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was a man

of sorrows and suffering, knowing

sadness well. Some translations say he

was acquainted with grief. Nowhere in

the Bible, I think, do we see that grief

being expressed as overtly than when

Lazarus dies. And we find this story in

John 11. Now, a man named Lazarus was

sick. He was from Bethany, the village

of Mary and her sister Martha. This

Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay

sick, was the same one who poured her

perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet

with her hair. So the sister sent word

to Jesus,"Lord, the one you love is

sick." When he heard this, Jesus said,

"This sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God's glory so that God's

son may be glorified through it."

despite knowing that his friend was very

ill. Note that Jesus did not immediately

go to see him. And when he did finally

get to Lazarus, Lazarus had been dead

and in the tomb for 4 days. Martha is

mad at Jesus because of this,

understandably so. And Mary didn't even

initially go out to see him when he

came, although she eventually did. And

we pick up the story again in verse 32.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus

was and saw him, she fell at his feet

and said,"Lord, if you had been here, my

brother would not have died." When Jesus

saw her weeping, and the Jews who had

come along with her were also weeping,

he was deeply moved in spirit and

troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he

asked. "Come and see, Lord," they said.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, "See how he loved

him."

Jesus stood at Lazarus's tomb and wept.

Jesus wept because he was fully human. A

real person who felt the pain of grief

both his grief both his own and that of

those who were mourning Lazarus all

around him. Jesus was sad because even

though he knew the miracle that was to

come, he missed his friend.

But as we often say here at Christ

Church, God meets us where we are. And

God never leaves us where we are.

God meets us in our sadness, but he also

saves our spirits by transforming that

sadness into hope. Because you see, and

you know the story, this part of

Lazarus's story did not end at the tomb.

Back at the beginning, remember right

after he heard that Lazarus was sick,

Jesus promised that this sickness would

not end in death, and it most certainly

did not.

After he mourned and wept, Jesus told

the mourers to take away the stone that

was guarding the temple. I'm sorry,

guarding the tomb. Very important word.

Then he commanded Lazarus to come out of

his grave, which he did. Still wrapped

in grave clothes. Jesus told the people

standing by to take off the grave

clothes and let Lazarus go. And they did

that, too.

Don't miss that. Jesus knew what was

going to happen the whole time. He knew

that Lazarus was going to die. And he

knew that Lazarus would be raised from

the dead. And still Jesus grieved.

Still, he was sad.

But transformation happened when Lazarus

walked out of the tomb.

Brokenness transformed into wholeness.

Death transformed into life.

Sadness transformed into hope.

When Sarah Slack's infant son, Jesse,

died, she was not doing well

financially, and so she had to have a

garage sale to pay for his headstone.

Wanting to save other families from this

pain, she started the faith-based

organization called the Tears

Foundation, which has become an

international organization that supports

families financially with funeral

expenses and helps them emotionally as

they cope with their loss. The

foundation raises around $5 million

annually.

In 1969, Hal Donaldson's father was

killed by a drunk driver. Consumed by

grief, Hal and his family acknowledged

that they only made it through that dark

time because of the gifts and the

compassion of neighbors who cared for

them. It was that response that led him

to start a foundation called Convoy of

Hope, an organization that partners with

local churches, businesses, and civic

organizations with the goal of helping

people through children's feeding

initiatives, community outreach, and

disaster response. Since its founding,

it has delivered more than 3.5 billion

with a B. 3.5 billion dollar in food,

water, and relief supplies.

Justin and Tamara Rhymer started

Guidelight in honor of their son Elisha

who was born with Down syndrome.

Guidelite was founded in 2005 with the

mission of pursuing Christ centered

transformation in the lives of people

impacted by disability by providing

needed resources to those that the

foundation serves in North America and

around the world. Through Guideline,

tens of thousands of parents who have

special needs children have gotten

resources, retreat opportunities, and

respit care through their sister

organization, the Elisha Project. More

than 50,000 families across multiple

states and countries each week receive

meals and other essential goods to keep

their households going because when you

have children with special needs,

sometimes you have medical debt that you

cannot get under control. So they step

in to help fill in with the essentials.

In total, Guidelite has distributed or

the Elisha Project specifically has

distributed more than 500 million meals

in 20 years.

When Todd Becker was 18 years old, he

was killed in an alcohol-related car

accident. And the shock of his brother's

death almost destroyed Todd's older

brother, Keith. But shortly after Todd's

funeral, a local pastor came and visited

Keith, and he shared the gospel with

him. And because of that interaction,

Keith decided to commit his life to

Christ. He formed the Todd Becker

Foundation. That foundation and its team

travel throughout the Midwest sharing

the tragic yet powerful life and death

story of Todd Becker. They share that

with high school students, challenging

them to fully surrender their lives to

Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Since its inception in 2005, over

100,000 high school students across 14

states have heard the Todd Becker

Foundation's story and message. And

thousands of them have committed their

lives to Christ.

Any one of these people in any one of

these stories could have given up. They

could have surrendered to their sadness

and let it consume them and probably

none of us would have blamed them.

They could have stayed brokenhearted

forever.

Instead, they turned their sadness over

to God, found comfort in God's embrace,

and allowed God to save their crushed

spirits.

And in doing so, their sadness was

transformed into hope for hundreds of

thousands, maybe even millions of people

collectively who may otherwise still be

living in darkness.

Sadness is inevitable for all of us,

even Jesus.

If you are sitting in a season of

sadness right now, keep praying. I heard

a song the other day I hadn't heard

before. It's called Don't Stop Praying.

It's by Matthew West. And um I can't

recite the lyrics because I don't know

it that well, but he said at one point

in the song, "If you can't lift your

head one more time to look at God, do it

anyway.

Don't stop. Don't stop giving that

sadness to God, that grief over to God

because it is God who can make all

things new.

In those moments, remember that the Lord

is close to the brokenhearted and saves

those who are crushed in spirit. God

will hold you through your sadness. God

will mourn with you through your grief.

and hold tight to that promise I talked

about earlier. We serve a God who meets

us right where we are in the depth

depths of our heartache. But God will

never ever leave us there.

No matter how brokenhearted we are, God

will save our spirits. That's what it

says in scripture and that is what we

believe through faith.

Sadness and grief do not have to be the

end of our story.

When we put our faith in Jesus, sadness

never gets the final say. But hope hope

will always get the final say.

Let us pray.

Holy living and loving God.

It would be so easy for us as we go

through periods of sadness to wallow,

to grieve, to not even look for a way

out.

We are so thankful today for the hope

and the promise of scripture.

for the example of Jesus who openly

grieved and yet allowed and and

facilitated transformation to happen so

that we would know that we do not grieve

without hope. There is always hope. Help

us today to surrender whatever sadness

is on our hearts over to you. Help us to

be comforted by you

and then allow us to be transformed

so that that sadness no longer rules our

live lives but in its place hope does.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.