The Savior Who Weeps

Intro

Story Time

Welcome, we will be continuing the reading through the Gospel of John, but before we get started I wanted to let you know about a way that God has been showing His grace to you and I through Pastor James. I’ve been quite busy between working full-time, taking a seminary course online, a new dog, and a church internship which all together keeps me reading about 150 pages a week, so I had not prepared as well as I’d like for this message. Pastor James texted me on Wednesday to see how everything was going, and I had told him that it wasn’t as well as I’d like. He texted “Praying that the Spirit speaks to you.” In the middle of the self checkout lane of Home Depot, about a minute or two after he texted that, the Scripture I was studying seemed to fill my mind with things I had known but forgotten and new insights on the passage that I had never thought about before. I’m convinced it was the Spirit filling my mind with knowledge, so that I would be equipped for the message today. Praise God in His grace that He might bless me with knowledge to fulfill the Task at hand, and praise God for James that he would care about me and you as his flock. Even while he is away he is praying to God for us.

Background

A short background and recap on where we are at, John is the Gospel that was written to Jews and Gentiles so that they would know that Jesus is God. When people say to you “Jesus never claimed to be God,” and you want proof texts, the Gospel of John is a good place to start. While Jesus doesn’t explicitly say it, He says it clearly enough that He had two attempts to stone Him to this point. After the last one He went away across the Jordan to the place where John the Baptist had baptized people, so that those people who were there would believe what John had said about Jesus. At this point it was not time for Jesus to fall into the hands of the Pharisees yet. Now we are in chapter 11 of John’s Gospel, the resurrection of Lazarus. This story only happens in this Gospel and scholars speculate three reasons. I will list them based off of likely-hood from what I found.

The other gospels are based on Peter’s point of view, and Peter wasn’t there.

They did it to protect Lazarus’s identity so that he wouldn’t be killed.

The other gospels wanted to focus on other miracles Jesus had performed.

You’ll see what they mean in reason number 2 going into the next chapter of John.

Now if you would go over the reading with me as I go, I’m going to jump around but it will help you follow what I am saying.

Jesus’s Divinity and Compassion

We will break down the passage bit by bit starting from the first couple of passages, but I want you to focus on Jesus’s divinity and how that plays into His reasoning.

In the first 4 verses you can see that Jesus knows what is going to happen. We as the reader and the disciples would think based on the wording here that Jesus is going to just heal Lazarus, like He’s done many times before this point. Reading the passage with knowledge of what happens next, you see that Jesus knows Lazarus isn’t going to be permanently dead at this time.

You continue on and see in verse 5 and 6 that Jesus stayed longer in the place he was so that things would get worse. Some of your translations might have parentheses around verse 5, so that verse 6 is meant to reference verse 4 in how it would glorify God which is could be true. The ESV that I use does not have those which has the implication that because Jesus loves His friends Martha and Lazarus, He lets things get worse so that their faith would be stretched. This can be a hard idea to swallow, that God would allow things to get worse for our benefit. Nonbelievers and even some believers I would imagine would see this as cruel, but when you see the glory that they are granted after this, I would wonder if they were thankful that the Lord waited. Paul would explain this phenomenon as well in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Jesus continues through the passage showing that He has control that He knows that the Jews will not take Him at this time, though the disciples are sure worried. He then explains in verse 14 that Lazarus has died, and that for your sake it is a good thing that you may believe. This shows that He’s not just caring about the people who are mourning, but that He cares about His disciples’ faith. Jesus could’ve healed Him from where He was, as we have seen with the centurion’s servant in Luke 7, or even in John 4 when He healed an official’s son. It would be also a safe bet that He could’ve resurrected Lazarus from dead from where He was as well, but He didn’t.

We continue on in the reading and see that Martha meets Jesus when He comes, and she knows that if He had been there Lazarus wouldn’t have died, but look what she follows up with in verse 22. She says “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Faith that we hope to have in such trying moments. In the time where her brother died she knows that God is sovereign over her situation. How often we can forget such things in times of trial, but many a Christian will tell you in these times is when God will work wonders in your life. While her faith is admirable she doesn’t yet fully understand. While she knows He is the Son of Man who is to come, she does not have the faith that Abraham stated, if you read later on in the chapter she was surprised at the resurrection of Lazarus. Abraham knew that if He surrendered Isaac to God, He would resurrect Him from the dead if that so be His will.

Next is where in response to her words, Jesus claims His authority. “ I AM the resurrection and the life.” This is not the words of a mere prophet. A prophet, much like a preacher, speaks on behalf of God. They are only as authoritative as the one who backs them. My pastor at the church in Moorhead used the example of a wedding. When the minister pronounces the man and woman husband and wife, he does so by “the power vested in me.” This is not his own authority. My words up here at the pulpit are empty unless they are the words that God has spoken. I am to be His herald pronouncing His Word to those who will listen and obey. Jesus is speaking on His authority. In the last chapter in John 10:17-18 Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” He is saying that while the charge, the mission, is from the Father, it is by Jesus’ own authority that His life may be laid down and brought up. He is stating not only the eternal truth that we will live forever in Christ in the life to come, but our lives now are in God’s hands.

Now after Mary comes into the picture, you see something that is extraordinary when you take the time to see what it is saying. Jesus is moved in his spirit, which we have seen before, but after they show Him the tomb Jesus weeps. This is so profound and confusing for readers because we have read to this point that Jesus knows Lazarus won’t be dead long and we know from reading further that this is a very short time from when He is going to resurrect Lazarus. Jesus wept. This is the shortest verse in the bible. When the bible was originally written there were no verses and chapters, so they are not part of the inerrancy of the Scriptures. They were added later for referencing purposes. That being said, the people who created the verses knew how profound these words were and made this phrase it’s own verse. The one who is given all authority on heaven, and earth, the sea and all that is in them, weeps over a man who will be resurrected shorty. Why? Because Jesus weeps with those who weeps. He shows and embodies the compassion He commands us to have. Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He was truly man. He feels the pain of loss that we do. Even with His foresight He weeps alongside us. Even though He knows that this is ultimately for our good, He comforts us. God is not distant and unfeeling. He is not unsympathetic. He mourns with us in our losses.

Application

Emotions and Faith

Jesus is the perfect “God man.” The world tends to emphasis that He is a man, and will either downplay or deny that He is God. We as the Church tend to emphasis that Jesus is God, but forget that He is also a man. He feels the way we feel, He hurts the way we hurt. When we feel emotions that seem to not make sense in light of what we know, we have a high priest that not only knows, but can empathize with us. When we know God is sovereign, but don’t understand why He takes people away from us, when we don’t understand why we go through suffering, and why He seems like He doesn’t act the way we do, He is there mourning alongside you. He set the example. When Jesus asks you to do something through the Scriptures, it is not some distant unfeeling God who says “do as I say,” but an understanding Lord who says “let me show you, then follow my lead,” Our emotions will not always line up with the truth, even when we evangelize to nonbelievers in our life. We may be terrified and scared, but that doesn’t change the Truth. Jesus lived that out.

As you will see when you read about the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was distraught about what He has to go through. He sees the cup of wrath that is about to be poured out by God, and He is terrified of the wrath that will be poured on Him. His response is to bring the Lord into it. He prayed for hours seeking that God would “take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done.” He prayed that His afflictions would be fixed, if there was any other way to get out of this that the Father would spare Him, but as we know He went through with it anyway. You see the world tells us either your feelings are truth, or they don’t matter at all. Through the life of Christ we see that neither of these are fully true. God wants us to come to Him let out our burdens, sorrows, and grief, but ultimately we would do His will. That we would use our emotions for His glory, or that we would lift them up to Him and move forward with what is right. Our emotions doesn’t give us a free ticket to do what feels good for the sake of feeling good, but they are not something that the Lord wants us to ignore entirely. We must seek the kingdom and pray that our emotions not only don’t hinder us, but can exhort the Lord with them.

God has Greater Purposes for Our Suffering

God works not just in our times of plenty, but also, and sometimes more so, in our times of doubt, sorrow, and helplessness. When the people that Jesus loves were mourning and suffering, He mourned with them. In His divine knowledge, He was not unkind nor apathetic toward them, but He didn’t simply fix everything immediately like we are prone to try to do. He let them suffer for a season. Not out of evil intentions, but so that the kingdom of God could be fully displayed in awe and wonder. They suffered for a time, so that even now we reap the benefits. We may have seasons of suffering for this time in our lives. We live in a broken world that is opposed to it’s own Savior. We are promised that we will suffer as Christians for the faith we hold for we serve a Savior who both suffered and wept, here on earth. However, we do not serve a weeping and suffering Savior. We serve a Savior who did suffer, mourn, and hurt as we did. He was hated, persecuted, and even killed for the things He said, but that’s not the end of the story. He has risen with a new body and is sitting at the right hand of the Father. We look at our situation and we wonder like the Jews in verse 37. We look and ask if God is so powerful, then why do I suffer? Are you unaware of the calling you have taken? Take up your cross and follow me, He says. Die to yourself that you may have life, for I am the resurrection and I am the way to eternal life. He says my yoke is easy and my burden is light, because He gives us a helper and He will lift our burdens so that we do not put the weight of the world on our shoulders. We take up the burdens of Christ, but He ultimately lifts it with us and through us.

Conclusion

We have a Savior who weeps. We have a Savior who suffered and died, so that He may partake in fellowship with us on a deeper level. He died, because it was the only way we could be saved. He was a man as well as God. He cares for you and me, and He asks that you lift your burdens to Him. Don’t carry them yourselves, deny yourself and let Him handle it. Do not make yourself Gods, but give everything to the God who holds everything in His hands anyway. Show love to your neighbor and mourn with and for them. There is a time to mourn, Jesus shows that to us in this passage. Let us lift our burdens to Him. Let us go and spur each other in love and rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Now let us close in prayer.