It’s the shortest verse in the Bible (John 11:35). When I was growing up, it was the memory verse that we always begged our Sunday School teachers to give us. It’s a widely known verse, yet it’s a verse that I don’t think most followers of Christ understand the full significance of. Here, we have Jesus, the son of God crying. The only perfect person in the history of the word spurting tears.
So why was Jesus crying? If you look at the context, the story is the death of Lazarus. All of John 11 talks about Lazarus’ death and Jesus raising him from the dead. Essentially, Jesus that heard that his friend Lazarus was sick. Jesus stayed where he was for two days, then came. When he arrived, Lazarus was already dead. Mary and Martha show Jesus where Lazarus had been buried, and Jesus saw the grave and wept. The story doesn’t end here. Just a few verses later, Lazarus walks out of the tomb on Jesus’ command. When Jesus wept, he knew the next part of the story. He knew that on his command, Lazarus would return to life from death. But I don’t think that it was Lazarus who made Jesus cry.
Mary and Martha had already had several days to mourn Lazarus when Jesus arrived, but with the death of a close friend, I’m sure they were still torn up with grief. At that time, what Mary and Martha needed wasn’t a miracle, but a shoulder to cry on. Jesus knew what came next, but he joined in with his friends in their sorrow, and through that supported them. Jesus, fully God and fully man, used his human emotions to connect with those people who he loved.
And the same is true for followers of Jesus today. When we come to Jesus, he offers us a shoulder to cry on. He also offers us healing and forgiveness, but he comes to us where we’re at and enters into our suffering with us. Taking it to Jesus isn’t the fast solution, but it’s the only way where we can find support in our times of need and hope for the future.
So many times, I’ve set up my life with a fortress to keep God out fearing giving the Almighty power over me. But that’s just what this story is about, recognizing that God is a god of love and he sent his son Jesus into the world so that we could have a more intimate relationship with Him. Jesus’ weeping is our reassurance that God cares about his children and wants to be deeply involved with their lives. Today, let that thought encourage and comfort you.
An excellent talk on this verse was given by my friend John several months ago called Almighty Tears.