Does God cry?
Does God Cry?
The question of whether God weeps — whether the divine heart knows sorrow — is answered not by abstract theology but by the person of Jesus Christ. In Him, God entered fully into human grief, and the tears He shed were not merely human emotion but the expression of the heart of God Himself.
The Tears of Jesus at Lazarus's Tomb
The shortest verse in the Bible — "Jesus wept" (John 11:35) — is also one of the most profound. F. B. Hole draws out the significance:
F. B. HoleThough He was on His way to lift the weight of it for a season in this particular case, He felt its weight in a measure infinitely deep, moving Him to groaning in spirit and even to the shedding of tears. He wept, not for Lazarus, for He knew that in a few minutes He would recall him to life, but in sympathy with the sisters and as feeling in His spirit the desolation of death brought in by sin. The word used here is the one for the shedding of silent tears, not the word for vocal lamentations, which is used in Luke 19:41. But those silent tears of Jesus have moved the hearts of sorrowing saints for nearly two thousand years.
An earlier article in The Bible Treasury on "The Death of Lazarus" (1866) emphasises the same truth — that Christ's weeping was not mere sentiment, but the character of God revealed in a Man:
He sympathizes with the sorrow, and then removes the cause of it. He "wept" first, and afterwards said, "Lazarus, come forth."
No prospect of the future, be it as bright and certain as it may, can rightly close the heart to the claims of the present. The follower of Christ will "weep" as he enters the house of mourning or the chamber of death, though he knows that the power of resurrection, in season, will close the scene in all its own magnificence and joy.
The Weeping Over Jerusalem
There is a second, and even more anguished, occasion of Christ's tears — not silent this time, but loud lamentation (Luke 19:41). C. E. Stuart sets the scene:
But there was one heart which was sad that day. He who was the object of that popular ovation could not restrain His tears as He surveyed Jerusalem. ... It was the fortunes, and the sufferings of the city about to come on her because she rejected Him, that called forth those tears. ... "When He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this day, the things that belong to peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." ... He wept, whilst the air rang with the Hosannas of the multitude.
Hamilton Smith connects this directly to the sorrow of unrequited love:
Hamilton SmithIn this touching scene on the Mount of Olives we see a yet deeper sorrow — the sorrow of unrequited love. ... The depth of His sorrow can only be measured by the height of His love.
His love had been lavished on these poor people, but they only rewarded Him evil for good, and hatred for His love. ... The hardness of our hearts only called forth a sorrow that found expression in His tears. We broke His heart at last, for He could say, "I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me."
What a scene! Outside the city, the heartbroken Saviour weeping over sinners: inside, hardened sinners seeking to destroy the Saviour — seeking to shed the blood of the One who shed His tears over them.
God Grieved at His Heart — Before Christ Came
The question reaches back into the Old Testament. Before the flood, Scripture says, "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Genesis 6:5-6). An article on "Man's Fall in Relation to God" makes the point searchingly:
In considering the fall of man we are apt to concentrate on the dire consequences for the human race, and to lose sight of what that dreadful event meant for God.
How this must have grieved God at His heart! His creature had turned against Him, having wrong thoughts of Him, and accepting the word of His enemy as truth, and His word as false.
And in An Outline of Sound Words, reflecting on Genesis 6:
Man's prosperity, music, art and science had not in the least degree improved his state of moral depravity. So great was the evil in God's sight that He swept the earth with a deluge, removing man and all his works from the face of the earth.
The Strong Crying and Tears of Gethsemane
The sufferings of Christ went deeper still. An article in The Bible Treasury on the sufferings of Christ writes:
"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him out of death, and was heard in that he feared." ... How infinitely, in obedience, in suffering, and in every perfection as man, He transcends our best or most successful efforts to follow in His footsteps!
Christ ... wept over Jerusalem in the knowledge of her coming judgment. These sorrows, keenly realised by Him in their whole nature and extent, could only have been so realised when the nation had finally committed itself by rejecting Him.
Grieving the Holy Spirit
Nor did God's capacity for grief end at the cross. J. N. Darby, speaking of the Spirit's indwelling:
J. N. DarbyHow we are called upon not to grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, that we may not occupy Him with our faults and failings, instead of with those blessed things which are ours in Christ.
Synthesis
Does God cry? Yes — profoundly so. God's tears are not weakness but the very expression of His love meeting the ruin that sin has brought. In the Old Testament, God is "grieved at His heart" by human wickedness. In the person of Jesus Christ, that divine grief became visible: silent tears at the grave of Lazarus, loud weeping over Jerusalem, and "strong crying and tears" in Gethsemane. Even now, the Holy Spirit who indwells believers can be "grieved."
What is remarkable is that God's sorrow never turns to bitterness or withdrawal — it always moves toward redemption. He wept, and then He said, "Lazarus, come forth." He wept over Jerusalem, and then He went to the cross to die for those who rejected Him. The tears of God are always the prelude to the power of God.