“Lord, the one you love is sick.” Jesus loved Lazarus. Although Bethany was only one day’s journey away (18 miles) Jesus waited two days to begin the journey for He knew by divine revelation that Lazarus had died the day the messenger was sent by Mary and Martha. Since rabbinical custom held that a dead person’s spirit tries to reenter the body for three days after death (called the days of weeping), it was necessary to resurrect Lazarus on the fourth day to dispel any notion that he “hadn’t died”.
This demonstration of God’s resurrection power would glorify Jesus and thereby glorify God the Father, and confirm to His disciples that He was the Messiah. But it would not come without tears for neither Martha, Mary or the Jewish mourners believed that Jesus could bring Lazarus back to life, even though they had witnessed many other miracles. They “believed” that Jesus could have prevented the death of Lazarus but not that Jesus could bring back to life a dead body that “stinketh.”
When Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping, sobbing and wailing in grief He “groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” “Groaned” is from the Greek word embrimaomai, which means to be painfully moved, greatly grieved, to moan in anguish of heart. It was then the Holy Spirit recorded the smallest verse in the Bible: “Jesus Wept.” The tears our Savior shed were not for Lazarus for He knew Lazarus would soon live again. And they were not tears of sympathy for His friends Mary and Martha. No, something much deeper, much stronger troubled the Son of God in His Spirit, causing Him to continue to “groan” in grief. With His humanity covering His divinity Jesus shed tears reflecting His inner grief. The unbelief that surrounded Him, the inability of even His close friends to fathom who and what He was grieved our precious Savior to tears. I don’t know which is more amazing, a God who raises the dead or a God who weeps at our unbelief. Jesus is still, today, shedding tears of grief at our unbelief. He is still saying to the church, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God.” (Jn. 11: 1-44)
How Beautiful: Because He is our loving Savior
How Human: Because He was
How Sad: Because our unbelief grieves Him to tears
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