Why
Did Jesus Weep?
I used to joke with my family on Saturdays, "What do you think I should preach about tomorrow?". I would always get the same response, "Jesus wept". I guess they figured if I preached on this the shortest verse in the Bible (Jn 11:35) they would hear the shortest sermon on record. The more I examine that text and the more I think of its import, the more I see that it says volumes about the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The passage that verse comes from tells the story of an extremely important incident in the life of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Remember Jesus has spent quite a bit of time in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany, located some 2 miles from Jerusalem. Jesus taught, ate and laughed in their home. Luke 10:38 tells us that Jesus and his disciples came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. They were close enough that Jesus chided Martha when she was doing the hostest thing and her sister Mary wasn’t helping, but was instead enthraled by Jesus’ teaching. LK 10:41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, [42] but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Jesus was at a dinner one time in that same village. Mary bursts on the scene, MT 26:6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, [7] a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
MT 26:8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. [9] "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."
MT 26:10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. [11] The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. [12] When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. [13] I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Some time later Jesus receives word while he is across the Jordan river, JN 11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [2] 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. [3] So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
But Jesus who loved all people and especially this family in Bethany waited before he came. The sisters wanted Jesus to come right now, if not earlier, but Jesus waits before he comes. While Jesus waits beyond the Jordan, Lazarus dies! Why didn’t Jesus rush to the scene? The fact that Jesus didn’t answer the prayer of these sisters with a "yes" and right now, is not lost on Martha, JN 11:21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [22] But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
And then Jesus has this exchange with Martha, JN 11:21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [22] But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
JN 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
JN 11:24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
JN 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; [26] and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
JN 11:27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Martha went back to the house to get Mary and she rushes out to see Jesus. JN 11:32 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."
JN 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. [34] "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
JN 11:35 Jesus wept.
JN 11:36 Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
JN 11:37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
JN 11:38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. [39] "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."
JN 11:40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
Things are moving along fast now. JN 11:41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. [42] 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."
JN 11:43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" [44] 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."
JN 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. [46] But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. [47] Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
JN 11:49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! [50] You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
Why did Jesus weep? He wept because his mission of breaking the power of sin an death were so important. He wept because he hates what sin and death do to we the object of His love. He wept because even in the face of such overwhelming evidence that he is the resurrection and the life, the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, the Great I Am, the only Savior of the world, people still harden their hearts and choose darkness instead of light. He wept because he realized the battle still ahead on the cross for our sin. He still had to pay the penalty we deserve and pay a debt we could not pay.
He wept because he knew that we would not see what the "resurrection and the life" meant until his own resurrection day. He wept because we do not see how glorious and magnificent he is to save and to keep all who will simply believe in him.
Jesus wept because we still allow the deceiver to deceive us and not live in the truth of what it means to be a son or a daughter of the king.
Jesus wept because we still have to wait until he comes again.