Jesus wept.
John 11:35
One of the shortest verses in the Bible is John 11:35. I have lost count of how many times this verse has been used as a joke of sorts when the topic of Scripture memorization is being addressed. I have used it myself as I challenged AWANA attenders to challenge themselves to hide even more of God’s Word in their hearts. However, this joking was never meant to negate the importance of having this small poignant verse hidden as well. I myself have clung to it all week.
We find this verse in the context of the death of a friend and a brother. Lazarus had been sick for many days and Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus. They had asked Him to come and to heal their loved one… the one that Jesus Himself loved. Yet, Jesus did not come.
Oh my goodness it hurts when Jesus does not come.
Jesus received the news. He heard the cry for help, but He stayed right where He was. The text says,
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
John 11:5-6
In the very beginning of this chapter the love and devotion that Mary and Martha had for Jesus was established. The text says,
It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
John 11:2
The love, devotion, and commitment that Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus had for each other is, at the very beginning of this chapter, made clear. Jesus loved them and they loved Jesus. The choice for Jesus not to come had nothing to do with His love for them. It didn’t mean that He was refusing to hear their prayer to Him. He hadn’t put a hand up to stop their cry for help or closed His ears to them. He had heard, but He didn’t come.
Lazarus died. Martha and Mary cried. Jesus seemed to hide.
Oh my goodness it so very much hurts when Jesus seems to hide.
Then He came. Four days after they had laid down their loved one in death, He came. Martha and Mary came to Him accusing. They accused because they believed. They knew who He was and what He had the power to do. It was because they believed that it hurt so very much.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled…
John 11:33
Oh the sovereign power it must have taken to keep to the plan when Jesus could have displayed, to our eyes anyway, even more greatly His insurmountable might over death and the grave.
He was angry. The phrase “deeply moved” is embrimaomai and it means to be moved with anger, to admonish sternly, express indignant displeasure with some one; I charge sternly, snort like an angry horse; (literally) “snort (roar) with rage” (BAGD) which expresses strong indignation, i.e. deep feeling that is moved to sternly admonish.
Was Jesus angry at Mary and Martha for accusing Him? Was He angry that they wept? Did He find their weeping offensive, seeing it as a statement of their disbelief?
No, I don’t think so. I believe Jesus was angry at death. He was as mad as a snorting horse at the pain that death brings. I believe He was absolutely enraged with the separation that death brings.
He was also agitated. The word “troubled” is tarassó and it means to stir up, to trouble, put in motion (to agitate back-and-forth, shake to-and-fro); (figuratively) to set in motion what needs to remain still (at ease); to “trouble” (“agitate”), causing inner perplexity (emotional agitation) from getting too stirred up inside (“upset”).
Then we have the verse, that very short verse, Jesus wept.
The word for wept is dakruó and it means to shed quiet (actual) tears; to weep silently (with tears).
Then the kicker of it all… the question.
But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
John 11:37
YES! Yes, He COULD have, but He didn’t.
The raising of Lazarus from the dead is the seventh miracle recorded in the book of John. It’s the seventh and the last, until the miracle of the empty tomb. This means something. The culmination of all the earthly signs, miracles, and wonders were always to climax at the empty tomb of the Christ.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…
John 11:25
I have been crying out to God for healing on behalf of many for years now. Specifically and especially here in these last few months… and yesterday morning as my heart hurt so very much and I opened up His Word to meet with my God and I turned to cry out to Him through Psalm 30 I understood the word “troubled”. I understood tarassó. I could not stop my body from shaking back and forth as I read the words of this psalm back to my God in my prayer.
I have begged Him to move this mountain, but He has made it stand strong. I have sent for Him. I have cried out to Him, but He has chosen to stay hidden and I am so dismayed.
Yet in my pain I heard Him speak, Nicole what healing are you looking for? I have healed. I have healed with the only healing that matters. I never promised earthly healings. I promised to heal the soul. I promised that I would heal your sin and that the grave would not be able to keep any that I have healed. This is My promise, that death has no victory over My godly ones. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Jesus wept. Knowing that Lazarus would be raised by His very own word in minutes, He still wept.
Weeping doesn’t mean you don’t believe. Weeping doesn’t mean you have given up. Weeping doesn’t mean it’s over. Weeping just means it hurts.