Does God grieve?

Psalm 78:40Oh, how often they [God’s people] rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.

Luke 13:33“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”

Many parents have grieved when a child rebelled, and our heavenly Father certainly feels this grief deeply.

Genesis 6:5-6The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.

Ezekiel 34:2-4“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty.”

Mark 3:3-5Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.

God feels grief and anger over the evil caused by human sin—and particularly toward false shepherds who abuse his flock.

Matthew 14:12-13Later, John’s disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened. As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

When John the Baptist died, Jesus needed time alone to process his grief.

John 11:23-27, 32-36Jesus told her [Martha], “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. . . . When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!”

Mary and Martha knew their theology—they knew their brother would live eternally and be given a new body someday. That didn’t prevent the pain and grief they felt when Lazarus died. Clearly, Jesus understood that Lazarus would live eternally—and Jesus even knew that, within the hour, he would raise Lazarus from the dead. Yet Jesus also grieved. It wasn’t out of mere politeness; Jesus was angry, deeply troubled, and moved to tears. He fully experienced the wrongness of death and the pain it caused, and his grief was so evident that people cried, “See how much he loved him!” (John 11:36).

Isaiah 53:5He [the Messiah] was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

Matthew 26:36-39Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

John 19:1-3Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.

John 19:16-18So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross.

For some of us, anticipation of loss begins the grieving cycle. Jesus knew his death was coming—and he knew the pain he and his loved ones would go through because of it. As he prayed for strength to face that suffering, his soul was “crushed with grief to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). He even sought out his friends to comfort him in his grief. Jesus is perfect and sinless—God with us. Yet grief was just as heavy of a burden for him as it is for you or me. Our God is not above our grief.

Isaiah 53:3He [the Messiah] was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

Matthew 26:23He [Jesus] replied, “One of you [Judas] who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me.”

Luke 22:48Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Mark 14:27, 29-30On the way, Jesus told them, “All of you will desert me. . . .” Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

Luke 22:56-57, 60-61“This man was one of Jesus’ followers!” But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!” . . . And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Mark 14:50Then all his [Jesus’] disciples deserted him and ran away.

Isaiah 53 gives the most famous prophecy about Jesus, and one of Isaiah’s central points is that our Savior would experience rejection and grief. We often think of the physical pain Jesus experienced before his death, but take a moment to consider the betrayal and abandonment Jesus faced in his darkest hour. His closest friends and most devoted followers—people he had spent years teaching, traveling with, eating with, and laughing with—abandoned him to save their own skins. Death isn’t the only way to experience grief in our relationships, and our Savior knows this better than anyone.