What is the shortest verse in the Bible?

Martha sent for Mary, who, when she saw Jesus, fell at His feet weeping. When our Lord saw Mary weeping, and the Jews with her weeping, He groaned in His spirit and was troubled. Then we get a verse, one of the very best known and highly prized verses in the Bible. It is the shortest verse, consisting of only two words, “Jesus wept.” Yet it contains a wealth of meaning which will take all eternity to explore.

But let us turn from these cases of behaviour in bereavement, and see how our blessed Lord on His side acted in such circumstances. We refer to the sickness to death of Lazarus. Read the narrative in John 11. It is remarkable for it tells us that the Lord is the Chief Actor throughout, as He ever is. We read. “Jesus heard (v. 4). “Jesus loved” (v. 5). “Jesus answered” (v. 9). “Jesus spake” (v. 13). “Jesus came” (v. 17). “JESUS WEPT” (v. 35).

This last sentence, the shortest verse in the Bible, but pregnant with such wondrous meaning, a verse that has been of the greatest comfort to unnumbered of God’s sorrowing people, we would emphasise. We read that Jesus loved, and if He loved He sympathised, not mere lip sympathy, but with divine feelings, that showed themselves through tears. The Lord is just the same today in the glory. True, there are no tears shed in heaven, but the sympathising heart is just the same.

See, then, when He had found His way to the grave, and had witnessed the dire effects of death on the bleeding hearts around, we read … and, let the words of this, the shortest and, perhaps, the most profoundly significant, verse in our Bible, sink deeply into our memories: “JESUS WEPT!”

See, then, when He had found His way to the grave, and had witnessed the dire effects of death on the bleeding hearts around, we read … and, let the words of this, the shortest and perhaps, the most profoundly significant, verse in our Bible, sink deeply into our memories: "Jesus wept!"

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.

Verse 35 — "Jesus wept."

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."

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.

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.

How beautiful is this! Had they allowed themselves to suspect the Master? The groans and the tears were the answer. His tender question of the broken-hearted sister, Where have ye laid him? shows how gently the Lord lightened the burden of the sorrowing heart by causing her to see that His heart was just where hers was — at the tomb of Lazarus. To the widow of Nain the Lord said, Weep not. To Jairus He said, Thy daughter is not dead but sleepeth. In each case His purpose was to wipe away the tears. But in Bethany the Lord weeps with His saints. The grandest display of the power of the Lord to quicken the dead was accompanied by the greatest witness to His profound sympathy with the bereaved.