Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus's tomb?

There Jesus relieves Himself by tears, which are the witness to His condition as man, and to His sympathy for men and as a man, but also the expression of a heart moved by divine love. It was not, however, the loss of Lazarus, nor His love for the dead man's sisters that was the cause of those tears, for Jesus was going at that very moment to raise Lazarus. In thinking of the latter, what He was going to do would have made joy spring up in His heart. No, these tears of the Saviour were profound sympathy for the human race crushed under the weight of death, from which it could not raise itself, as also for these tried souls.

They are indeed tears of sympathy with the bereaved sisters in their great sorrow, and there is truth in the words of the Jews, "Behold how He loved him". What deep comfort the tears of Jesus have brought to His own in times of bereavement, and how blessed for us the knowledge that, although He knows that He is about to raise Lazarus from death, He can enter more deeply into the ravages of death than any other can, as expressed in His groan and trouble.

The Jews weeping, the sisters weeping, Jesus weeping! What a company! They were weeping, who could do nothing for Lazarus. He was weeping, whose voice could wake the dead.

But the sense of resurrection, though it gave this particular direction to the thoughts of Jesus, left His heart still alive to the sorrows of others. For His was not indifference but elevation... His whole soul was in the sunshine of those deathless regions which lay far away from the tomb of Bethany; but it could visit the valley of tears, and weep there with those that wept.

His being so deeply moved, or groaning, was caused by His having gone down in spirit under the heavy load of sorrow which lay upon the heart of Mary and upon the hearts of those around. Through His sympathy He entered into their grief, identified Himself with it, took it up upon His own shoulders, so to speak, and He felt the burden so heavily in His perfect knowledge of its cause, and in His estimate of its real character before God, that it forced out this groan. And remember that the essence of this burden was death — for death at that moment lay upon the mourners' hearts and upon the whole scene. But death is the judgment of God upon man.

Not that there was the smallest lack of consciousness of His glory; He is the Son of God unmistakably; He knows that His Father hears Him always; but none of these things hindered the Lord from groans and tears at the grave which was about to witness His power.

At Bethany He wept, and apparently in silence; for we have no words spoken by Him between this question, "Where have you laid him?" and His command, "Take away the stone." Tears make no noise, yet they can speak as loudly as the voice of lamentation, and witness to the feelings within that thus find an outlet. Here, and here only, are we told that He shed tears.

He lives, alive in resurrection. And what He was when on earth, that He is still towards His own. We prove now His sympathy as we need it. We shall prove His power as the Resurrection, or as the Life, when He calls us up who are believers to be with Him for ever. It was in this order, as we see, that He acted that day — first showing His sympathy, and then putting forth His power to raise the dead.