“Jesus wept.”
Every Sunday School truant recognizes these words as the shortest verse in the Bible.
Ask them why He wept, and they will smugly reply, “Because he was sad.”
But really, why did Jesus weep?
Was he a wimp? Not a manly man? Was there another Wal-Mart Grand Opening in town?
His friend Lazarus had died four days earlier. But, here is the mystery – Jesus predicted the death of Lazarus while he was still sick. And, to make the resurrection of Lazarus even more dramatic, Jesus waited an extra two days.
Knowing that he was going to perform such a wondrous miracle in just a few moments, why did Jesus weep?
The answer is really quite simple. Jesus wept because he loved.
Jesus cared about his friend, Lazarus. Jesus cared about his sisters, Martha and Mary. But before Lazarus was resurrected, death separated Jesus from his friend – and because he loved his friend and could not bear the separation, Jesus wept.
Think of it like this. You can’t have a left without a right. You can’t have a valley without a mountain top. And, you can’t have the gift of love without the gift of tears.
Jesus loves us so much that he weeps when we are separated from him.
Jesus can weep because he has love.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank-you for the gift of tears. Thank-you for the gift of love. Thank-you for the gift of eternal life so that I will never be separated from you. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Wikipedia: Jesus, Jesus Wept, Lazarus of Bethany,
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Jesus wept.
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
The complete story of Lazarus is only told in the Gospel of John.
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
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.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 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.
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.”
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!”
But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “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.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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.”
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.”
Free Bonus:
While discussing the two natures of Jesus, Pope Leo I referred to this passage and stated, “In his humanity Jesus wept for Lazarus; in his divinity he raised him from the dead.”
The length of time that Lazarus was dead is significant. Many people at that time believed that a person’s soul stayed close to their body for three days with the hope of returning. So after four days, Lazarus was really, truly dead.
This prayer is dedicated to the memory of Rachel Courtney Morrel.