“Jesus Wept”
[John
11:28-37]
June 12, 2016 Second Reformed Church
We continue with the history of the
death of Lazarus.
We remember that Jesus received word
that His very close friend, Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, was
desperately ill. And Jesus’ response was
to tell His disciples that they would not go to see Lazarus for two days. He did that so when they arrived, Lazarus
would be dead – in fact, four days dead – very dead – for the sake of what was
going to happen.
Jesus arrived on the outskirts of
the town where the cemetery was, and Martha heard He had arrived and she ran to
greet Him. She expressed her frustration
about her brother’s dead, while acknowledging Jesus’ Sovereignty over life and
death, and that He is God the Son and Savior.
This morning, we continue the
history and as we look at the next section of text, we especially look at the
famous and shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.”
After Jesus met with Martha, He sent
for her sister, Mary, and waited on the outskirts of town. And we may wonder why Jesus waited outside
the town – that He did not go to their home where they were mourning.
The reason that is implied by what
happened is that Jesus wanted there to be as many witnesses as possible to what
was going to happen,
“When she had said this, she went
and called her sister Mary, saying in private, ‘The Teacher is here and is
calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now
Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where
Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling
her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she
was going to the tomb to weep there.”
Martha ran back to the house and
told Mary that Jesus wanted her. And she
rose and ran to where Jesus was. The
Jews had seen Martha run off to see Jesus, but they stayed at the house –
probably in keeping with the character of the sisters: Martha was a take-charge, everything in its
place kind of person, while Mary was more of a contemplative emotional
type. The Jews stayed home when Martha
ran off, because it was Mary who needed them more than Martha.
So, when Mary ran off to Jesus, they
thought that she was coming apart – running back to the tomb to cry out
there. But she was going to her
Rabbi. She was going to talk with Him as
Martha had. And all the Jews ran after
her, so there was a great crowd that arrived with her at the place where Jesus
was.
“Now when Mary came to where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died.’”
Mary arrived where Jesus was and
fell before Him in a posture of respect and offered, as her sister had, the
frustration of not understanding why her brother had to die, given Who Jesus is
and all the others that He had healed.
Was that the entirety of the
conversation? We don’t know. But we can see that Martha and Mary were of
the same mind about Who Jesus is and what He is able to do.
As we continue, we see, first, Jesus
was sorrowful and sympathetic.
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews
who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and
greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord,
come and see.’ Jesus wept.”
We need to remember what the Scripture
tells us: Jesus is 100% human and 100%
God in one person. How that is possible
– it is a mystery – but we can understand the necessity of it being true for
salvation.
Here the point is to understand that Jesus
has the same human emotions as we do.
Jesus truly loved His friend Lazarus.
He truly loved Mary and Martha.
He felt the pain of loss in His friend’s death. He understood and sympathized – even
empathized – with Mary and Martha about the death of their brother – after all,
Jesus had brothers and sisters, too.
Any of us who have experienced the death
of a loved one will understand that we can come to the funeral or the house of
mourning with a steady face, but when we see the family and friends and others
who are there crying, our souls join with them in mourning – in weeping for the
one who has died.
You may remember in our funeral liturgy,
we mention that God the Father understands the sorrow of death, even though the
Father has never been a human, because His Own Son, Jesus, died on the cross,
sending shockwaves through Heaven.
The author of Hebrews explains, “Since
then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect
has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw
near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16, ESV).
Our God and Savior has a human body – a
human nature – so He understands our sorrows.
He knows what it is to suffer – more than any other human, in fact. He knows what it is to mourn the death of a
loved one. He can sympathize with us –
and He does sympathize with us – which is why we can come into the throne room
of God in our pain and distress and confusion and cry out to God and He will
give us the grace we need in that moment.
The Father loves us so much that He sent His Son as a human that He
would understand everything about being a human – so He could perfectly
understand and love and comfort us as we follow after Him in faith and
obedience.
Do we cry out to God in our pain and
loss? He is there. He loves us.
He understands everything we go through, because Jesus has gone through
it all – except for sin.
Paul reminds us that as brothers and
sisters in the Body of Christ, we are also to sympathize – to feel what others
are feeling – and to be supportive and encouraging in the good times and in the
bad: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15,
ESV).
Paul goes through a lengthy explanation of
how each of us is a different part of the body – all needed, but differently
gifted. He concludes by saying, “If one
member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice
together” (1 Corinthians 12:26, ESV).
We are to be happy for our brothers and
sisters who receive a blessing, not envious or coveting of what they have
received. We are to recognize the sorrow
of our brothers and sisters suffering loss without recrimination or
uncaring. If we tell those who are
rejoicing that they don’t deserve it or that we are deserve it more, we sin
against them. If we tell people who are
mourning it was no big deal or that they deserved what they got, that is a sin
against them. (Of course if someone is
rejoicing due to sin or sorrowful due to sin, that is another matter.)
Jesus wept tears of love for Mary and
Martha because of their pain. He wept
tears of love as He experienced the loss of a dear friend.
Second, Jesus was angered and troubled.
As we read, “When Jesus saw her weeping,
and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly
troubled,” we need to understand that this verse can also be translated, “ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the
Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply angered in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
Why would Jesus be angered and troubled
about Lazarus’ death?
If we remember again that Jesus is 100%
human and 100% God in one person, we can see reasons for God being angry:
First, death was brought into the world by
the sin of our first parents. Adam and
Eve joined together in cosmic rebellion against God at the prompting of the serpent,
and their acting against God brought sin and suffering and death into the
world.
So Jesus was angry and troubled as He
thought of why we die – by the sin that caused death to come into the world and
the sin that continues in this world, despite God’s great mercy and forbearance.
Second, the devil, the first rebel against
God, tempted Adam and Eve – he put the doubt in their minds against God – and they chose to call God untrustworthy.
Jesus was angered and troubled by the fact
that the devil seeks to bring humans to the Hell he is condemned to. As Peter warns: “Be sober-minded; be
watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds
of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has
called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm,
strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1
Peter 5:8-11, ESV).
Third, Jesus was angered and troubled
because Mary and Martha – and much less the other Jews – did not understand
that Jesus did not have to be physically present to heal Lazarus. As much as they understood, they failed to
fully understand Who Jesus is – at this point.
We shall see that Jews did even less so.
And so Jesus wept. He wept for the human condition marred by sin
and for those that participated in the fall of humanity. He wept because we are born cut off from the
God Who created us, and there is no hope except through the life and work of
Jesus – which is why He was there. The
Father sent the Son to make right the separation that sin caused – that we
might be one with God and have joy in living and dying and rising to be with
Him, perfected and glorified forever.
Jesus was angry and troubled because of
sin and its effects on the whole Creation.
Are we angry and troubled about sin, or
are we angry with God?
Third, the crowd’s observation was lacking
and offensive.
“So
the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who
opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’”
Some of the Jews saw Jesus passionately
weeping over the death of His friend and merely saw a man who loved His friend
and mourned His death. They did not
understand that Jesus is God and the death of Lazarus – as painful as it was
for Him to bear as a human Who loved His friend – the death of Lazarus occurred
for a greater purpose – the glorification of God.
They
only saw the humanity of Jesus and did not recognize Him as God the Son and
Savior. They were blind to the fullness of Who He is.
Others
wickedly belittled Him – pouring salt in His wounds – speaking of Him in an
accusatory
tone, wondering how He could enable a man who was born blind to see, but could
not heal His friend. (We see how
powerful an impression the healing of the man born blind left on the people.)
We may seem justified in calling out
to God and asking Him why He did something a certain way – why someone got ill,
why someone died – Job came to the point of telling God that he understood that
God has a right to do whatever He wants with His Creation, but, he thought, God
at least owed him an explanation for all the evil that befell him. But God told Job, “No, I don’t owe you an
explanation.”
Then what shall we do with this?
We need to remember that Jesus
understand our sorrow and He is sympathizing with us as we suffer for any
reason other than sin. We can come to
Him to receive comfort and grace through prayer to be able to live each day,
not matter how weighted with sorrow we might be.
We need to remember that Jesus is
angry and troubled over the results of our sin, and the Father loves us so much
that He sent Jesus to make all those who believe right with Him.
We need to confess God as Sovereign and believe that all
things are in His control, and this loving Father has promised us: “And we know
that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who
are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV). And the day is soon coming when these words
will be reality in every way: “When the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is
written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O
death, where is your sting?’ The
sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57,
ESV).
This is our hope – when loved ones die – when anything
goes wrong or is painful for us – God is working all things together for our
good and Jesus has conquered death – it is cannot hold us – we shall rise in
our bodies and become like Him, if we believe.
Let us understand that Jesus is not merely a human and
His ways are not our ways. So when
sorrow hits, let us comfort one another, turning our attention and our hope to
the promises God has made, and they shall sustain us until the day that all
things are made new.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for
understanding what it is to be a human and for mourning with us in our
sorrow. We thank You that Jesus has made
the way of salvation and we shall be restored – the day is coming when there
will be no more death and suffering and crying.
Help us to support each other and turn to You as we suffer, as well as
when we have joy. Help us to trust You
and not be crushed by our sorrow. And we
ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
