The compassion of the Lord

John 11:33-36 (NIV)

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.  Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

Jesus wept--the shortest verse in the entire Bible.  The Greek word used for wept simply means to ‘shed tears’.  This is the only time this word for wept was ever used in the Bible.   Why did Jesus cry?  He was deliberately late to respond to Mary and Martha’s pleas (11:6).  He had said that Lazarus’ illness would not end in death (11:4) so He knew that the eventual result would be happiness.  He is God Incarnate so He knows that earthly death is not the end.  So why did He weep?

Have you ever wept when you did not expect it?  You have watched movies where all of a sudden you start crying?  Something reminds you of a past experience with a loved one and you shed a few (or many) tears.  At the end of a long grueling day something is said or happens and you start crying unexpectedly.  Do you think that Jesus wept unexpectedly?

Jesus wept because He was human as much as He was/is divine.  He reacted to the grief He saw from the family and friends of Lazarus as any compassionate human being would react.  Plus verses 3 and 5 exclaim that Jesus loved Lazarus.  His weeping showed His emotions of not only compassion, but also love, mercy, sorrow, and even anger and frustration.  This shortest verse in the Bible reminds us that Jesus understands any and all emotions that you may have at any time.  It reminds us of His extreme caring for you.  You should never try to hide your emotions and feelings when you pray to Him.  Those who wrote the Psalms did not hold back emotions, even those that expressed rage and frustration against God.

However, I wonder if Jesus wept also because He was hearing such selfish words being expressed (verses 21 and 32).  Both Martha and Mary and likely others were complaining that Jesus had not arrived fast enough and had no concern (or understanding) about how God can be glorified through suffering and death.  Of course, that is true for all of mankind, we naturally only think of time and events here and now, not for eternity.  We only think of our own interests most/all of the time and not about God’s interests that transverses times and individuality.  Jesus might have been weeping over the attitudes He was seeing that are the same today, “what’s in this for me?” 

Jesus may have wept because of all the cynicism that He was seeing and hearing.  Read the words of verse 37; don’t you feel the underlying sarcasm?  All the good that Jesus did and does, yet if He doesn’t respond the way we want him to at any time, do we not have the same kind of attitude as those whose words are recorded in verse 37?  Isn’t it so human to view others as only as good as whatever they were or did the last time you interacted with them?  It’s this prevalent attitude we see all the time—“If you don’t meet expectations every time, well, that’s not good enough for me”.

Jesus wept for many reasons.  He continues to weep at times today.  A main learning point I take away from this shortest verse of the Bible is that I hope that Jesus weeps with me not because of me because of my sin and rebellion.  I hope that readers take away the same point.  May my life (and your life) be full of love and compassion and caring for others that sometimes will cause me to weep and knowing that my Lord weeps with me.  May my life (and your life) be empty of any cynicism, grumbling, or selfishness that will cause my Lord to weep because of me.  May my life (and your life) be full of the character of our Lord, full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  May Jesus not weep because we quench the Spirit and do not exhibit these Christlike qualities in our daily lives.  May He rejoice and we rejoice with Him every day for the rest of our lives.