Spiritual Bypassing

“Just get over it.”

“It must be God’s plan.”

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Remember, Jesus loves you.”

“Praise the Lord anyhow.”

These phrases and others like it sound so spiritual. Yet they are actually what’s called spiritual bypassing, a way to not deal with trauma and even ignore it by spiritualizing it.

But let’s take a look for a minute at how Jesus dealt with people who suffered from trauma. After all, if anyone could say these things to people, it would be him. But that’s not what he did. Not even close.

In John 11, Lazarus had died, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were absolutely devastated. Jesus came to see them, where he would soon resurrect Lazarus from the grave.

But Mary didn’t know that. At one point, she and her friends are sobbing, as we might expect. And what does Jesus do?

“Jesus wept.”

And there we have it. The shortest verse in the Bible. But packed with so much meaning. At Mary’s darkest hour, Jesus entered into her grief with her.

He didn’t ignore it. Didn’t push it away. Didn’t rationalize it. Didn’t tell her to stop her whining. Didn’t justify or explain anything.

He simply sat with her, not speaking but crying with her.

Not only did he show such genuine compassion for her, but he *knew* (she didn’t) he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead! He could have so easily glossed over her grief. But he didn’t. He was so kind and compassionate and loving.

And then, he got busy, raising Lazarus from the dead.

We can learn so much about ministering to grieving people from Jesus.

See Luke 11:32–38.