“Jesus wept” John 11:35.
People love this two-word verse. It’s fun to memorize, huh? But why did Jesus weep? There are several statements about emotions here, and they should be considered together:
“When Jesus saw Mary crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was ANGRY in His spirit and DEEPLY MOVED.
‘Where have you put him?’ He asked.
‘Lord,’ they told Him, ‘Come and see.’
JESUS WEPT….
Then Jesus, ANGRY in Himself again, came to the tomb” John 11:33-38.
The first emotion is ANGER: when He saw Mary crying, He was angry and deeply moved. Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus were three of Jesus’s best friends. Mary’s tears make Jesus angry (not at her, in my opinion, but at the reality of death). Her tears move Him deeply.
Then on the way to Lazarus’s grave, Jesus weeps. Maybe they were walking through a cemetery filled with tombs. A graveyard makes Lazarus’s death more real.
Finally, arriving at the tomb, Jesus becomes “angry in Himself again.”
Jesus feels a range of emotions: He is angry, deeply moved, weeps, and is angry again. This is not about Lazarus: Jesus is angry about DEATH ITSELF.
He is angry for Mary and Martha’s suffering—not to mention that of Lazarus—and He is angry for His mother Mary, who has buried Joseph at this point. He will raise Lazarus today, and that will be amazing, but what about Jesus’s own grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends? What about all the funerals He has attended in His lifetime, never meddling, but quietly accepting the awful reality of death? Jesus had the sort of mind that could think beyond today; He was angry over centuries of deaths.
Death was never God’s plan. But death is a motivator for Jesus. This is the battle He came to win! Jesus hates death because He hates sin. And Jesus can save you from both!
“Oh, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Corinthians 15:55.
God, thank you for hating death more than we do, and for joining us in weeping over losses. You rescue us from death.
Read John 11.
ΑΩ
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