It was one of the saddest days in my life, July 5, 2015 — my only sister, Dedita, succumbed to cancer of the lungs, on that day, in San Jose, CA, U.S,A. I received a lot of messages in my Facebook account offering words of comfort. One message sent by Pres. Ben Malayang of Silliman University stood out: “Even Jesus wept!”
This two-word, three syllable verse, Jesus wept, (John 11:35) is the shortest verse in the Bible. Jon Bloom states: “But for all its grammatical simplicity, it’s packed with unfathomable complexity.”
The weeping of Jesus is recorded twice in the Holy Bible: the first one is in John 11:35 and the second one was when Jesus wept over Jerusalem and grieved over mankind’s hard hearts: “So Jesus wept for their hardness of hearts, as He did not want them to perish but desired them to come to repentance,” Luke 15:7.
Why did Jesus weep? (1) Compassion for suffering — Jesus felt deep compassion for those who were suffering. That’s why He wept — not because Lazarus was dead — He wept when He saw Lazarus’s sisters crying. Tears touch the heart of God. He saw her Mary weeping with deep sobs and wailing — so He wept. Tears speak louder than words — no interpreter is needed. The psalmist has declared: “You have taken note of my journey through life, caught each of my tears in Your bottle,” Psalm 56:8. (2) The calamity of sin — another reason why Jesus wept was due to the calamity of sin. Death had consumed every human being that God has created, including Lazarus, Jesus’s dear friend. (3) The cost of redemption. The third reason for Jesus’s weeping is the cost of what he was about to pay to purchase not only Lazarus’s short-term resurrection, but his everlasting life. The cross was just days away and no one knew that Jesus was going through an emotional upheaval. He was dreading his Father’s wrath. Bloom further contends that, “Jesus, who had never known sin, was about to become Lazarus’s sin, and the sin of all those who had or would believe in him, so that in him they would all become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and (4) The cause of His own death — Jesus knew that raising Lazarus would actually cause the religious leaders to finally take action to put him to death (John 11:45-53). Giving Lazarus life was sealing Jesus’s own death. The four reasons for Jesus’s weeping at Lazarus’s tomb give us a glimpse into how God views our suffering and death.
For His anger is but for a moment. His favor is for life; weeping may endure for the night, but , joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5
Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. Revelation 21:4
It is okay to cry. The last reference to crying in the Bible is stated thus: God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation 21:4
Be assured that we have a Lord who is watching over us all the time. He is touched by our broken hearts and weeps with us just as He wept at Lazarus’s tomb.
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Author’s email: nenita.tayko@foundationU.com
