Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus's tomb?

After patience has had her perfect work; in love's due time, the Lord comes to the bereaved sisters at Bethany, and reveals the deep love of His heart, as He talks with them, and walks with them, and weeps with them. He is going to deepen their love by His words of love, and ways of love, and tears of love. What depths of love lie behind those sublime words, "Jesus wept." It was a wonderful sight to see a sinner weeping in the presence of His love, but more wonderful to see the Saviour weeping in the presence of our sorrow. That we should weep because of our sins is a small wonder; that He should weep because of our sorrows is a great wonder — a wonder that discloses how near He came, and how near He is to a sorrowing saint.

Why, we may ask, these tears? The Jews, standing round the grave, misinterpret the tears, for they say, "Behold how He loved him!" Truly, the Lord loved Lazarus, but the tears were not the expression of His love for Lazarus. The sisters may weep for the loss of their brother; there was, however, no need for the Lord to weep for one 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, 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. In so doing He declared His love and deepens our love. Thus He uses the trials, the sorrows, and the rough ways of life to unfold the treasures of His love, and draw out our love to Him.

The Jews, seeing that Mary had got up and gone out, followed her, thinking that she was going to the grave to weep there; they but thus add their voice to the testimony rendered to the power of death over the body and the soul, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" (v. 37). Jesus feels it; He groans and is deeply moved in His spirit, but the love which animates Him and the testimony which He had come to render to the truth, press Him on towards the grave where the body of Lazarus lies. He asks, "Where have ye laid him?" They conduct Him to the sepulchre. There Jesus relieves Himself by tears, which are the witness to His estate 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, that which 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. The Jews thought that the tears of Jesus had their source in His affection for Lazarus: "See how he loved him!" they say. This was very natural, but that which He was about to do forbids us to entertain the like thought. The remark, already quoted, of some amongst them (v. 37) only renews the groans of Jesus, in recalling the thought of the subjection of men, not only to death, but to the dominion of death over their spirits.

With Mary a special bond of sympathy existed. We do not read of Martha falling at the feet of Jesus, nor of her tears. The sorrow of death lay on Mary's spirit very heavily, as indeed it lay upon His. Though 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.

"Jesus wept"! Wondrous, significant fact! He wept not for Himself, but for others. He wept with them. Mary wept. The Jews wept. All this is easily grasped and understood. But that Jesus should weep reveals a mystery which we cannot fathom. It was divine compassion weeping through human eyes over the desolation which sin had caused in this poor world, weeping in sympathy with those whose hearts had been crushed by the inexorable hand of death.

Two things follow, two marvellous things, in connection with the Lord, which, if they are beyond our comprehension, may not be passed over; for they are called forth by Mary's tears, and the tears of the Jews who came with her. It says explicitly that "when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." This was the first thing; and we may surely be allowed to ask, What was it that evoked this groan from the Lord's inmost soul and thus troubled Him? Without discussing the exact force of the word rendered "groaned," we may at least say that 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 extorted 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; and consequently we may say that the Lord in this scene anticipated His death upon the cross; only here He took up and bore this judgment in His compassion and sympathy, whereas on the cross He bore it for the glory of God in making atonement for sin. How precious it makes the Lord to our own hearts when we see such a manifestation of His love and sympathy for His own in their griefs, and as we learn anew that in all their affliction He was afflicted.

His thoughts, when He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, were upon Lazarus in his grave, for He immediately said, "Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see." Then we have the second thing which is to be reverently noted: JESUS WEPT. No words could enhance our wonder at this remarkable statement; it is one to be observed and meditated upon in the presence of God, as our hearts pour out their thanksgivings in that we are permitted to witness, as it were, this precious evidence of the ineffable sympathy of our blessed Lord. All know that the verses of our Bible are merely a human arrangement; and yet who can doubt that the Spirit of God controlled the one who made it in putting these two words into one verse! They indeed should stand alone, inasmuch as they afford such an inlet into the inmost recesses of the Lord's heart. They have been the comfort of mourners in all ages, and they will continue to minister consolation to His people until God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. His tears, it may be added, expressed His sympathy, but the sympathy itself flowed out of His heart of unfathomable and unquenchable love.

John 11:33-35. Martha's conversation with the Lord becomes the occasion of revealing the mind of the Lord as to His people, whether sleeping or living. Mary's tears become the occasion of disclosing the heart of the Lord, as we read, "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in (the) spirit, and was troubled". Yet more, He mingled His tears with theirs, for we read, "Jesus wept". Was it for Lazarus that He wept? Surely not, for was He not about to raise Lazarus from the dead? It was not the loss of the dead that drew forth His tears, but the sorrow of the living.

The Jews wrongly interpret these tears as being a token of the Lord's love for Lazarus. He did indeed love Lazarus, but there was no need to weep for one that He was about to raise from the dead. It was the sorrow of the living that drew forth the tears of Jesus, as we read, "When Jesus saw her weeping … He grieved in spirit and was troubled," and His trouble found vent in tears, for "Jesus wept."

But the knowledge of the Father's purpose to raise Lazarus in no wise diminished the exquisite sympathy of our Lord for the mourners. His tears flowed spontaneously, if I may with reverence say so. He wept, not mechanically as part of a plan, but because His loving heart was moved with compassion for the sorrows of bereavement.

His tears told the Jews how Jesus loved Lazarus, and they, like the sisters, could not understand why He had not prevented him from dying. In a human fashion and in a worldly way, they reasoned that the love that showed such sympathy might have shown its power at the first by healing the sick man. But unerring wisdom and unfathomable love had ordered the circumstances. The Father was directing, the Son was obeying, and all was working together for good, that is, for the glory of God.

Martha was at least more matter of fact, Mary so crushed by her sorrow as to be hardly able to look up. This, together with the weeping of her comforters, deeply weighed on the spirit of the Lord Jesus. How real is His sympathetic concern for the sorrows of mankind occasioned by sin! To His question as to the grave of Lazarus they answer, “Lord, come and see” (v. 34). This expression has been used twice in chapter 1, first by the Lord, inviting others into His circumstances (v. 39), and by Philip inviting Nathanael to see the Lord (v. 46). But all that man has to show the Lord is a grave! How could He forbear thinking of His own imminent death and burial for the sake of mankind in its sinful, ruined state? He wept. But this was not merely for Lazarus, as they supposed (v. 36). His was genuine sympathy for the sake of the sisters, and no doubt true, divine sorrow in contemplating the sad results of sin in the world. Some made the suggestion, could He not have prevented the death of Lazarus, since He had done other amazing works? How much greater was He than they supposed! But He made no reply to this.

John 11:36-37. Yet how little did those sorrowing people understand the cause of His tears. The Jews say, "Behold how He loved him". Truly the Lord loved Lazarus; nevertheless, it was not love for the dead but, rather, love for the living that drew forth His tears. If His spirit was deeply moved, if His tears flowed, it was the expression of His sorrow over the human race crushed under the weight of death, with no power to relieve its sorrow, and without faith to use the power that was present in the Person of the Son of God. All were under the weight of death: Lazarus was in the grave, death already doing its corrupting work; Martha and Mary both say, "If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died"; and the Jews say, "Could not this man … have caused that even this man should not have died?" None realised that the One Who is the resurrection and the life was in their midst.