Deeply Moved

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DEEPLY MOVED

John 11:32-47

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. 36 Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 "Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"  41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."  43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."  45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

NIV

Again, there are several truths we have to deal with in this portion of the narrative, but we just could not separate the narrative, so we might have to camp out here for a couple of days. The first issue we should consider is Jesus being deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Why was he moved so deeply? It seems it was because he saw Mary weeping as well as the Jews that came with her. Everyone was weeping because Mary’s brother was dead, and her dear friend Jesus got there too late to do anything about it. He has been in the grave for four days already and now it’s too late to do anything about it. What this seems is although they knew Jesus could do miracles, their faith was simply not as real as they thought. But why was Jesus deeply moved in his spirit and troubled? The Greek word actually means to groan in the spirit. This word does not imply that he made a groaning sound, but that it was an emotion within. What is interesting is that Greek word translated as deeply moved is used as, to be very angry, to be moved with indignation. Our scholars of old just could not wrap their minds around that, so they had to say that because Jesus was divine and it is against his loving and compassionate nature to be groaning with anger or indignation. They insisted this Greek word meant something else in this case. But we cannot agree with these scholars of old, these commentators of past times. Why couldn’t Jesus be upset with his friends? Why couldn’t he be a little indignant within? He has spent so much time with them, teaching them the truth. They have seen him do miracle after miracle. He has just told them that if they believe in him although they die they will live. He just told them he was the resurrection and the life. He just told them that whoever believes in him will never die. And yet, they are weeping because their brother died. How would we feel if we told people something over and over again that we were capable of something and that situation arose where we have to apply our capability, and people simply said they cannot believe we can do it? We know we can, because we have done it before, but they don’t believe us. Would we feel moved in our spirit, a little angry, a little indignant? Although Jesus is fully God, he is also fully man. Could he not be just a bit upset at the fact they did not believe him? Being moved in that way does not mean it was sinful, just being deeply moved and troubled. Yes, he is divine. Yes, he always has compassion for people. Yes, he loves everyone. All that love and compassion and mercy is true, but to be troubled implies he was not happy with their disbelief. It is not like Jesus did not know that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He already told his disciples he was going to do that. He was not sorrowful that Lazarus was dead. He was not moved with grief over the death of his friend for he knows his friend would live again. Even this verse, “Jesus wept” has been so filled with comments about his sorrow, his grieving over the death of Lazarus. Why is it so difficult to see that Jesus was not weeping over Lazarus in the grave, but over the disbelief of his friends after he told them the truth? Look at his prayer and it tells us everything. He was not praying to the Father to give him authority over the dead. He was not praying to the Father to raise Lazarus from the dead. Everything he said was so people would believe he was the one sent, the Messiah, the Christ who has been given all authority, even over the dead. We should make sure we do not cause our Lord to be moved deeply and troubled because we do not trust him, or believe everything he said. Let us live full of faith, full of trust, full of the life he has given us. We can never say, “Lord, if only you have been here” for he is always here, always with us, as he promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, we believe, no need to be deeply moved over us.