​JESUS   WEPT

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The Death of Lazarus

John 11:1- "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 

2- It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 

3- Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

4- When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5- Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 

6- So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 

7- Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

8- The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”

9-Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 

10- But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 

11- These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”

12- Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” 

13- However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.

14- Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 

15- And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

16- Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

17- So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 

18- Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 

19- And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

20- Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 

21- Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 

22- But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

23- Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24- Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25- Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 

26- And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

27- She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

  Jesus and Death, the Last Enemy

28- And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” 

29- As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 

30- Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 

31- Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there”

32- Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33- Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 

34- And He said, “Where have you laid him?”  They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

35- Jesus wept. 

36- Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

37- And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

 Lazarus Raised from the Dead  

38- Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 

39- Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40- Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 

41- Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 

42- And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

43- Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”

44- And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

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Why Jesus Wept

Most modern romantic expositors and preachers interpret romantically Jesus weeping to mean that he was sorrowful for the fact that Lazarus had died, in line with the reaction of the bystanders in that scene.   But this is an unreasonable and an implausible explanation, given His full knowledge that He was about to resurrect Lazarus. 

John 11:4 "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it"

John 11:36   "Then said the Jews, See how he loved him!"

John 11:11   “These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” (Sleep being synonymous to death in Biblical terms).

To understand fully the teaching of this story we must take into account that Lazarus was dead already four days before his resurrection: 

John 11:39   “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

This is the key point of the whole story, for it is believed in the eastern religions and also rabbinical teaching that the souls of the departed hovers near the body for three days and then leaves without any possibility of returning. Jesus deliberately made sure that He would resurrect Lazarus after three days of his death to demonstrate to His disciples and to all that He truly was Lord of the living and of the dead. 

John 11:4-6   “When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was." 

According to a Jewish belief, the soul stays near the body for three days after a person's death: "For three days the soul hovers over the grave, contemplating a return to the body, but once it sees that the facial color has faded, it goes away, never to return" (Gen. Rab. 50:10).  That is, after 3 days from death the body is so decomposed that the face is not recognizable anymore. The point here is not whether or not this idea of 3 days is true or not, the point is that they believed so.

We also have Biblical parallel in both Jesus and Jonah: 

Mat 12:40  “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Jonah 1:17 “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” 

Jesus resurrected at the end of three full days. Lazarus had been in the grave for four days by the time Jesus resurrected him. This miracle is immense beyond comparison demonstrating Jesus’ total sovereignty over life and death, even after the soul had left for good, proving thus that He was indeed divine.  (but the essence of a human being is such that not all believed)

John 11:17   “So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.”

John 11:39  “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

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No doubt Mary and Martha had already begun the ritual thirty days of mourning and they are beside themselves with grief. Lazarus has been dead for four days. Why are we told this? According to their belief, the soul of the dead person leaves the presence of the body after three days. It was believed that it was possible to raise a person from the dead after two days, but after three days the soul had left without possibility of return, only the physical decomposed body remains. Lazarus is dead four days now, which means that the soul of Lazarus is gone for good and Jesus is too late. When Jesus sees Mary and the others weeping, we are told, He is "troubled in spirit." But according to the original Greek Jesus is not just in turmoil, he is extremely disappointed and saddened. "Where have you laid him?" Jesus asks. The people of the culture of death are eager to show him the tomb. They say to Jesus, "Come and See." When Jesus weeps, they shake their heads in disbelief. "Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Nobody believes in Jesus. Everybody believes in death. How does this make Jesus feel? Jesus has given His life to everyone; He comes with the gift of life; He offers every possibility for new life; and how is He received? He is rejected. "Hey Jesus! Come and see our ways of death..." Jesus breaks down and weeps, contrary to everything we have been taught about this great tale, Jesus does not weep because Lazarus has died. Earlier Jesus told us that He rejoices, He is glad, at the news of Lazarus’ death "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby". His hope is that they will come to believe in Him now, instead, Jesus finds everyone given over to the control of death. And he breaks down crying. 

Jesus weeps because everyone in the scene: the disciples, the religious folk, even his beloved friends, Martha and Mary-- every one of them and all of us, believe not in the God of life but in the culture of death.

Jesus weeps not because His friend has died, but because in them every drop of faith and hope has died and they have no belief in Him.

Every single person whom Jesus talked to in John chapter 11 (His disciples, Martha, Mary, and the Jews) was blinded by their misconceptions of Jesus and by their failure to recognize that, as He declared, that He was "the resurrection and the life".   Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25) referring to the resurrection at the end of time and not at the present.

Thus, "he groaned in the spirit and was troubled" (verse 33). Jesus wept because even those who were closest to him were still blinded by to the fact that he really was "the resurrection and the life" in spite of all his plain words to them.  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”  “ And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believe you this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." Obviously Martha did not believe that Jesus could resurrect her dead brother now dead by four days for she said: " I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 

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But not only Martha did not believe in His power but also the bystanders just like most Christians today, were blinded by their own misconceptions and so did not understand that Jesus was actually weeping for them, for their disbelief, not for Lazarus who was about to be resurrected.  Then said the Jews, “Behold how he loved him!”  And some of them said, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" 

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