Jesus Wept

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

JESUS WEPT

John 11:28-35

28 And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. 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." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. 35 Jesus wept.

NIV

The shortest verse in the bible and it would seem there is actually no explanation why Jesus wept. Our scholars are all over the map with trying to look scholarly, giving us their various attempts to give a reason why he wept. Here he is at the tomb of a dear friend and he sees the two sisters, also dear friends filled with grief. The main thrust of our scholars points to the humanity of Jesus and his sorrow over the death of his friend. They make the point that it is human to weep over the death of a loved one, and Jesus was fully human and he was showing his humanity, empathizing with all who were mourning.  It sounds good, but we have to remember that Jesus told his disciples that the sickness of Lazarus would not end in death. The reason he waited until Lazarus died was so that God could bring glory to Jesus through this situation. He had full knowledge that he was going to bring Lazarus back to life. The fact he wept might be connected to the lack of faith of his friends, Mary and Martha. Both of them expressed faith in him that he could have healed their brother had he come sooner, but neither of them had faith enough to even consider Jesus could bring Lazarus out from the tomb. It seems right to think Jesus had spent a considerable amount of time with the three of them. Mary was the one who poured perfume over his feet and wiped them with her hair. That could have been the same time when he was with them and Martha was so busy making dinner preparations and was so upset because Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus instead of helping. The three of them had to have known him closely and knew he was the Holy One of God, but still both Mary and Martha did not ask him or think he would bring Lazarus back from the dead. Maybe that is why he wept. How much time he spent teaching them the truth of God, and still they had not gotten it fully. They were still thinking with physical minds. How many years have we been in the word of God? How much have we studied the truth? How much has the Spirit poured into us the reality of God, the realm of heaven and have we fully come to a complete understanding? Some have even rejected portions of the Holy Scriptures, or rather dismissed them by accounting them only to historic happenings. Could we believe Jesus still can do miraculous things, including raising someone from the dead? In some sense, he has already raised us from the dead. When we lived in our sin, we were simply dead men walking, but now we have life. Could we believe Jesus is still in the healing business? We have to believe that as we have experienced divine healing. Can we believe that God will give us whatever we ask for in the name of Jesus? Just how real is our faith? We believe enough for our salvation. We believe enough to expect to go to heaven when we die. We believe enough to be healed. We wonder if all believers really do. That is not judgmental, but if the church really believed there would be more miraculous healing, wouldn’t there? So it may be back to believing enough for salvation, but is that all there is to our faith? Is it possible that Jesus weeps over our lack of faith?