ANTICIPATION!

It was great. I found out that Jason Upton was coming to Fort Lauderdale. I have been listening to his music exclusive for 9 months straight. I bought my tickets online in June and was anticipating the tickets would be sold out.

The concert was held at the church called, "Church of the Healing Rain." The church is fairly small looking on the outside and looking from the perspective of going to a church that has over twenty thousand people. The people were friendly but that is not why I went there. I was ready. I purchased my ticket in advance. Finally, the time came as I walk into the sanctuary that Jason Upton walk out on the stage toward his Korg piano. There were a total of 4 on the stage. A drummer, electric guitarist, bass and Jason Upton on the keyboard.

I couldn't help it. I couldn't help but to cry through the first song. I was trying to understand such great emotion that came over me. Was it the anticipation has finally settled? Was it that my favorite song was played first? Or was it the feeling of expectancy in the room that brought me to tears?

"Jesus wept."
John 11:35

Jesus is expressing a feeling. Not only did Jesus weep, but he was hungry and thirsty and tired. Yes, Jesus is the one mediator between God and man. Jesus.

"When Mary came to
the place where Jesus
was and saw Him,
she dropped down at His feet,
saying to Him, Lord,
if You had been here,
my brother would not have died."
- John 11:32

Martha in verse 21 said the very same thing. Martha heard directly from Jesus that he is the Resurrection and the Life. That your brother will rise and not when you anticipate. Martha is the one that tells Mary the Teacher is close and is asking for you. Mary proceeds "...if you had been here, my brother would not have died." It is important to get into the scriptures and feel how Mary and Martha are feeling. It is a sober setting. Sober due to death of a brother. Sober due to expectations of Jesus not being there. Just a thought, there is probably disbelief that he actually died considering the nature of the relationship with Jesus.

"Jesus wept."
John 11:35

Then.

"The Jews said,
See how [tenderly] He loved him!
But some of them
said, Could not He Who
opened a blind man's eyes
have prevented this man from dying?"
John 11:36,37 AMP

I was always told that Jesus wept because of the unbelief of the people present. The Scriptures need to take complete and utter precedence over what scholars, theologians or anyone thinks. In verse 37, we have a peculiar question.

Could not He Who opened a blind man's eyes have prevented this man from dying?
In KJV, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man would not have died?

When some of them said, could not this man, the greek word is houtos. Literally, meaning this. Houtos is used in both instances of this verse. Meaning some of them, are questioning Jesus's authority to heal the blind man. Furthermore, if Jesus really did open the blind man's eyes then Lazarus would not have died. How audacious? If I understand that question correctly, some of the Jews are question Jesus Christ, their coming Messiah, who is right in front of them and yet did not believe.

The occurrence of the man who was born blind is in John 9. The Jews did not see again what was right in front of them. I have always pondered their unbelief. Did they anticipate a different coming?

Jesus wept.

I wept because people in the room at the Jason Upton concert anticipated not a man playing guitar but another opportunity to worship God, this time in song and dance.


Believe God to do great things because He is God, not houtos.