When I was a kid there were a couple of occasions when my Sunday School class held a contest to see who could memorize the most verses of scripture. Invariably, each time this contest was held the first verse out of everyone’s mouth was John 11:35
Then Jesus wept.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
:
“Jesus wept.”
This is the shortest verse in the English Bible.
The power of John 11:35
Then Jesus wept.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
is often overlooked because it is so small. When we look at it in light of the larger story, we see something truly wonderful about Jesus. The incident of Jesus weeping comes in the middle of the story of how He raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was a good friend of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus had fallen seriously ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus so Jesus would come and heal their brother. It is mentioned three times in John 11:1-46
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair.* Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Lord, your dear friend is very sick." But when Jesus heard about it he said, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this." So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." But his disciples objected. "Rabbi," they said, "only a few days ago the people* in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?" Jesus replied, "There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light." Then he said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up." The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there, for now you will really believe. Come, let's go see him." Thomas, nicknamed the Twin,* said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go, too—and die with Jesus." When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles* down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again." "Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day." Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life.* Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?" "Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God." Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, "The Teacher is here and wants to see you." So Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus's grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him,* and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see." Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?" Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible." Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?" So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me." Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!" Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
that Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Even though none of these three were numbered among Jesus’s 12 disciples, the scripture speaks plainly of His love and affection for them.
Yet, when Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick, He deliberately delays. Jesus doesn’t run to Lazarus’s side and heal him. Instead, Jesus spends two more days where He is and during that time Lazarus dies. Why? Why did Jesus wait and let His friend whom He loved die? Jesus let Lazarus die because He had a plan. The whole of the matter, from beginning to end, was no mystery to Jesus. The plan from the outset was to raise Lazarus from the dead.
It took another four days for Jesus to get to Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha and where their dead brother, Lazarus, had already been buried. Jesus even missed the funeral. Talk about being late. When Martha finds out Jesus is in town, she rushes out to see Him. In their conversation, we get one of the great verses of hope and promise. Jesus said in John 11:25-26
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life.* Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)
,
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Martha then goes and gets Mary along with all the others who had been mourning with them.
Now comes the interesting moment. When Jesus sees Mary and Martha and all the people mourning with them, He is moved deeply and weeps as well. Jesus wept. But why? He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew the story was going to have beyond a happy ending. He knew that He was about to do something truly awesome. Yet – Jesus wept. He didn’t try to shush everyone. He didn’t scold them for not having faith. He didn’t try to tell them that everything was going to be ok. He didn’t turn the processional to the tomb into a victory parade. He walked with them and He wept with them.
Jesus wept because He understood and felt their pain and sorrow. God is the God of eternity, but He is also the God of the moment. He doesn’t belittle or dismiss how we feel simply because He knows how He will work everything out. Instead, He walks with us and feels with us in the times of our deepest hurt. Mary, Martha, and the crowd might have thought Jesus was late, but how can the One who can undo anything, including death, be late?
I don’t know what you are going through, but Jesus does. I don’t know how it will work out, but Jesus does. I don’t know how you feel, but Jesus does. Whatever it is, He has a plan. He is walking with you and He feels what you feel. Jesus weeps with you. He isn’t late, and in the end you will see whatever it is that has “died” in your life, raised again. Then, Jesus will rejoice with you.
John P. King is an ordained Assemblies of God minister and worked as a prayer team coach at CBN's National Prayer Center in Virginia Beach. He has a Bachelor's in Bible from Valley Forge Christian College and an M.A. in Practical Theology from Regent University. John authored the devotional book, Don't Smoke the Newspaper and Other Lessons Learned by a Pastor. He and his wife, Genevieve, have two grown children.