Jesus wept.
At the grave of Lazarus, two sisters and a crowd of mourners stand in tears, and Jesus is there among them. Two words record what He did, and they raise the question every grieving person asks: does God feel what I feel?
Two words set apart
The chapter divisions and verse numbers in our Bibles were added by people, not by the writers. One commentator notes this, then draws attention to what happened here.
Everyone knows that the verses of our Bible are a human arrangement. Yet who can doubt that the Spirit of God guided the one who made it, in putting these two words into a verse of their own! They should stand alone, because they open a window into the very depths of the Lord's heart. They have comforted mourners in every age. They will keep comforting His people until God Himself wipes away every tear from their eyes.
No rebuke for tears
Mary was weeping. What He did next shows how He treats sorrow in His own people.
The sight of human tears drew a groan from the loving, sympathising heart of the Son of God. Let all mourners remember this. Jesus did not rebuke Mary for weeping. He did not make light of her sorrow. He did not tell her she ought not to feel, that she ought to be above anything of that sort. No — that would not be like Him. Some heartless people may talk that way, but He knew better. He was the Son of God, but He was also a real man. So He felt as a man ought to feel. He knew what a person feels when passing through the dark valley of tears.
Not tears for the dead man
Jesus was about to raise Lazarus. So the tears had another cause.
The sisters had reason to weep for the loss of their brother. But the Lord had no need to weep for a man He was about to raise. It was not for the dead He wept, but for the living — not for the loss of Lazarus, but for the sorrow of Mary and Martha. In a little while, love will raise Lazarus, but first love will weep with Martha and Mary. He broke His heart to bind up our hearts, and shed His tears to dry our tears.
Others widen the circle further, past the two sisters to everyone death has ever touched.
These tears of the Saviour were deep sympathy for the whole human race. Death crushed it with a weight it could not lift. He felt for these tested souls too.
What the onlookers made of it
Watching Him cry, the crowd said He must have loved Lazarus. Commentators differ on whether they were right. Some say His plan to raise Lazarus rules that out. Others place it beside His sympathy for the sisters.
They are truly tears of sympathy with the grieving sisters in their great sorrow. There is truth in what the Jews said: "See how He loved him!" What deep comfort the tears of Jesus have brought to His own people in times of loss.
Power and feeling together
He knew He was about to raise Lazarus. He could have done it without a tear. He did not.
He wept as He was reaching the grave of Lazarus, though He knew He carried life for the dead. He who had just said, "I am the resurrection and the life," wept. Divine power left His human feelings free to run their full course.
Quiet tears, lasting comfort
The original word for weeping here is precise. It marks out one kind of tears from another.
The word here means shedding silent tears. It is not the word for loud wailing that Luke 19:41 uses. But those silent tears of Jesus have moved the hearts of grieving believers for two thousand years.
That is why sorrow is not wasted on a believer.
"God comforts the downcast." If we were never downcast, we would never know that precious care of His. A stoic does not need the comfort of God. It is worth having a broken heart to have it bound up by our most merciful High Priest.
Summary
- Tears, first. Before power raised Lazarus, love wept with the sisters — He shed His tears to dry theirs.
- Tears, real. He was a real man, and He felt as a man ought to feel; He never told Mary she should be above weeping.
- Tears, wide. They reached past one grave to a whole race crushed under a weight it could not lift.
- Tears, free. Divine power did not silence human sympathy; the One who said "I am the resurrection and the life" still wept.
- Tears, lasting. Silent tears have comforted mourners for two thousand years. A broken heart is worth having, if He is the one who binds it up.