What does it mean to groan in the spirit (John 11:33)?

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.

The word translated "deeply moved" occurs elsewhere for a "strict" or stern "charge," as in Matt. 9:30, Mark 1:43; or an angry speech, as in Mark 14:5. Here it is rather the inward feeling than the expression, approached rather nearly by such use as that in Lucian (Nec. 20), of (it would seem) groaning. It means the strong, and it may be indignant, affection the Lord experienced at the power of death over not the Jews only, but Mary, wielded as it still was by the enemy. This is still farther expressed by the phrase that follows, as well as by verse 38. His tender sympathy appears rather in His weeping (verse 35), after asking where they had laid Lazarus, and the invitation to come and see. His indignant sense of Satan's power through sin did not interfere in the least with His deep compassion; and what we see here is but the counterpart of His habitual bearing the diseases and taking the infirmities, which the first Gospel applies from Isa. 53:4 (Matt. 8:17). Never was it mere power, nor was it only sympathy, but the entrance of His spirit into every case He cured, the bearing of the weight on His heart before God of all that oppressed sin-stricken man. Here it was the still greater ravage of death in the family He loved.

But we may note that in our Lord's case, profound as was His grief, it was His servant. "He troubled Himself." It did not gain the mastery, as our affections are apt to do with us. Every feeling in Christ was perfect in kind and measure as well as season. His groaning, His trouble, His weeping — what were they not in God's sight! How precious should they not be to us! Even the Jews could not but say, "Behold, how He loved him!" What had they thought, had they known He was just going to raise the dead man? If they did not recall His power, it was only the unavailing regret that He Who healed the blind had not forefended death in the case of Lazarus. They were utterly at fault about this sickness, as blind to the glory of God as to the way of it, that the Son of God would be glorified thereby. Faith in the glory of His Person alone rightly interprets and appreciates in its measure the depth of His love. "Jesus wept." What a difference these words convey to him who sees nothing but a man, and to him who knows Him to be the mighty God, the only-begotten Son! Even the believer could not in this case fail to own His love; but how immensely that love is enhanced by His Divine dignity, and the consciousness that He was about to act in the power of Divine life above death!212a

Verses 32-35. "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept." People generally think that it was mere sympathy with the family. But it was much, much deeper than that, a touching expression of sorrow, deep sorrow on the part of Christ. "He troubled himself." (New Trans.) He saw the power of death resting on those human hearts. It was a very deep thing. The Lord was feeling for those people on whose hearts the power of death was resting. He knew He was just going to raise him from the dead. But He sees the state they are in there. They are not in the secret. "He troubled himself." He had the power to remove it all, but the weight and dark shadow of death was resting upon human souls, upon those He loved, and He felt it.

Before referring to verses 25 and 26, which are particularly before us in this paper, we would reverently look at the manifest holy sympathies and feelings of the Son of God in this death stricken world. Verse 33 — When He saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He "was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled." Such were His holy sensibilities that He felt acutely the awful blight that sin and death had brought into the world. The awful suffering of the creature as the consequence of sin and death caused Him to groan in the presence of it. Though holy, harmless, undefiled, - death having no claim upon Him — He felt in His spirit the dreadful dishonour to God, and the awful distance and desolation of men. As perfect Man, He not only felt for God, but being God in His own proper glory He felt for man as only God in the presence of human misery could.

The reason for the groan of the Son of God in John 11:33 was that He saw Mary "weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her." Their sorrow and tears were because of the loss of Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha, and while Jesus entered into their grief and sorrow, His groaning in the spirit and His being troubled were on account of the awful ravages that death had brought into the world, and this because of sin. God's Son knew as Mary and those who wept with her could not know the dreadful results for man of sin and death, and the deep, deep dishonour that sin had brought upon the holy Name of God before the universe He had created.

Only God the Father could properly enter into the feelings of the Son as He groaned and was troubled, but the Jews were able to observe the tears that told of the deep sympathy of Jesus for those He loved in their time of trouble and sorrow. Death had invaded the home of those He loved, and He was not indifferent to the wounded spirits and broken hearts, even though He knew that He was about to deliver the loved one from the clutch of death, to manifest His own power as Son of God for the glory of His God and Father, and for the joy of His own.

Reaching the spot where the Lord was outside the town, she fell at His feet, a heart-broken creature prostrate before the Son of God. "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," was all that fell from her lips. Both the sisters had faith in His power to heal. But death had come now, so the opportunity for healing was past. We can picture her at the feet of Christ. But now we are turned from her to Him. Mary was weeping; the Jews also who were with her were weeping; and the Lord "groaned in the spirit, and was troubled" (John 11:33). Deeply, how deeply, was He feeling the sorrow of His people, the fruit of the Fall. He groaned in the spirit. That groaning is not said to have been audible. We read not that the Jews noticed it. They made no remark on it. But we know it, and learn thereby how really, how deeply, He can feel for the sorrows of His sinful creatures.

At the Tomb. — Groaning in spirit, He said, "Where have ye laid him?" Was it just to go to the tomb to weep there? That was all that Mary and her companions could have done, the expression of deep but helpless sorrow. The Lord, however, was about to illustrate His words to Martha, "I am the resurrection." Yet He groaned in spirit, and wept, too, openly. All present could notice this last. He wept. Twice do we read of Christ weeping. He wept over Jerusalem, as He entered her as her King; weeping then as He foresaw the sorrows she was assuredly bringing on herself — sorrows, we have to say, not yet ended. He wept for her. He wept, too (35), in the company of those sorrowing sisters, weeping with those who wept, and thus accompanied them to the tomb. 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. And now approaching the tomb, He groaned in Himself again. His sympathy was real; it was deep. "Behold how He loved him," some said, as they saw His tears. "Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Was this a reproof? It looks like it. His reply was a groan (37, 38).

In John 11 there is an amazing spectacle, the Son of God incarnate, the Creator of the vast universe, groaning and weeping in the presence of death. The cause of the Lord’s first groan is given in the words, “When Jesus therefore saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” (verse 33). How deeply distressing it was for the Son of God to witness the sorrow and suffering that sin had brought into the world, and especially into the home of those He loved.

185 The sympathy of Jesus shows His love to a stranger, and Jesus yields it to them. We yield to it, or refuse it because it brings us under the power of others. But all was confusion while it was thus. All felt the ruin. Jesus felt with the ruin; and, while they thought they saw the evidence of love, they did not see how He entered into the cause of their sorrows. Their thoughts about His power did but give occasion, or however leave occasion, for the exercise of His spirit. Man's grief, I say, buries deeper. Jesus takes away the impediments. But this groan was the presenting the power of death to His Father, the bearing it in His spirit before God, the witness that He felt with it; and setting us an example of those groanings which cannot be uttered; a groan the Father heard; a groan accompanied with the thanksgiving of faith.

Again, Martha presented the utter hopelessness of the case. It could not be now. That is the point of faith when Jesus is present in power. But resurrection from death, yea, from corruption, being the power of quickening, it matters not what state of death the person [be] in. All circumstances in the power of God are unbelief; He is not therefore reckoned God in them. But here is the glory of God. Man failed under evil; he bound with others under the grief of it. But it stopped there. All men alike mark its power. The power of death is not shown only in the world in them that die, but in those that are left by it. It wastes, and makes the breach, but the waters of sorrow break in thereat, and waste and trouble all around.

As to the Lord’s body, it says “a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb.10:5). In relation to His spirit, it says “he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled” (John 11:33). Surely, this is not the Holy Spirit, but the Lord’s human spirit. His soul is referred to in John 12:27: “Now is my soul troubled”.

When Jesus groaned in spirit, no one would see that; but when He wept, all could see it. So that outward expression sprang from that inward feeling.