The Tears of Jesus

It’s pretty amazing that the shortest verse in the Bible is perhaps the best one for comforting those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. It occurs in John 11, as Jesus is standing outside the tomb of his good friend Lazarus, who died four days before His arrival.

“Jesus wept.”

What makes these two words so remarkable? It’s that Christ knew that He would be raising Lazarus from the dead in just a few moments, and yet He still cried tears. He was sad that Lazarus had died, and sad that his family and friends were grieving:

“When Jesus saw her (Mary) weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”

What a compassionate Lord and Savior to grieve Himself at the loss of someone He loved. It says much about His dual nature, being Man and God, that He would cry in His humanity before resurrecting Lazarus in his divinity.

What benefit is this short verse to us? If ever we’ve been told that we should “just get over our grief,” or that if “we were stronger in our faith we’d be able to stop crying,” this passage would carry us through. No one would dare accuse Jesus of being too emotional or spiritually weak. The fact that Jesus experienced the same emotions of mourning that we do should be of great comfort to us - we have a God who understands that death is the enemy, that losing a loved one hurts, and that our spirits will be greatly troubled by the grief and despair of those around us.

But even greater is the fact that Jesus has the power to reverse the awful reality of death, and will do for our loved ones what He did for Lazarus: raise them from their graves. He not only feels our pain, but does something about it.

Let’s look through our tears to the One who will wipe them away someday, while praising God today for His sympathy toward us. Our losses matter to God, and thankfully He has created Heaven as a place where everything that is so badly broken now will be made finally and perfectly whole.