John 11:35 "Jesus Wept"

First I want to say that If it were not for faithful men writing commentaries, and helps in Biblical Studies and especially on this verse, I would probably have a blank page. I am definitely indebted to these men and readily admit that what I teach here today came from the study of others hard work.

The Text that I have chosen today is John 11:35 Jesus Wept. When Brian told me that I had about 20 mins to teach a verse, I thought Jesus Wept, being that it is the shortest verse in the Bible, it would be a verse that would limit my time because of the brevity of the text. But after a very short amount of study into this verse and the narrative of the resurrection of Lazarus, I realized that actually I could do a series of several sermons from this text.

Warren Wiersbe says and I quote “Jesus wept is the shortest and yet deepest verse in Scripture.” When I read that I was like “UH OH!” Maybe I should have chose 1 Thess. 5:16 “Rejoice Always,” - surely it would be easier to make a feel good sermon out of it instead of one discussing the weeping of Jesus, but I decided to go with Jesus Wept after realizing that the reason Jesus wept was not for the reason I had always thought.

One must understand after taking in the complete narrative of Lazarus’ death and resurrection that Jesus wept out of frustration of a lack of faith of those who had been his followers through out his years of ministry and was not because He had compassion for Lazarus’ siblings or the other mourning Jews.

Occasion

As I have already pointed out and as you know, Jesus wept fits into the narrative of the account of the resurrection of Lazarus. We know from other stories in the Gospels as well as here in John 11 that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were important people to Jesus, vs 3 speaks of this love through a message sent by the sisters to Jesus saying “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” and vs 5 says “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” There is much to say here about the relationship and the personal dynamics at play in this chapter, but I am going to try to keep our focus on verse 35. I want to answer three questions about vs 35 1) Who is this Jesus who wept? Why did He weep? and What difference does if really make to put this in the 11th chapter of John’s Gospel.

1). Who was this Jesus?

He was a man, a human, who did have emotions and feelings as it were.

He had physical needs Jn. 4:7 speaks of Him needing a drink from the well

He had zeal Jn 2:17 speaks of his zeal for His house

He had emotional pain John 14:1–11 His distress for His apostles lack of understanding that He must leave

He had love for his mother Jn 19:26 instructions for care for His mother

Felt loss at His betrayal by Judas John 13:21 Even though He knew the prophecy

He also had purpose John 12:27 ““Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”

He was God

He was the Word Jn 1:1The Word, who was with God in the beginning and is God speaking of His eternal Glory.

He was the Life Jn 1:2-3 Creator of all things speaking of the excellence of His Diety

He was the Light Jn 1:5 He was and is the full orbed revelation of information or illumination of the Diety of God. Only in Him can we truly know God.

Because of these things He has the authority to save John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,”

Why? Why did this God man cry at the death of Lazarus?

We have already established the fact that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were all close enough in their relationship to say that they had love for each other. I don't know about you, but I can go to an almost strangers funeral and can cry at the tears being shed by loved ones of the deceased.

But did Jesus cry for this reason? Yes He was a man, with emotions, but He was also God, with the power to heal Lazarus no matter what his sickness was. Jesus had already made a statement at the very beginning of this chapter alluding to the temporary nature of Lazarus condition, which at this point was said to only be sick. vs 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” So Jesus says His sickness will not lead to death.

After this statement that may have seemed as if Jesus was saying “This is no big deal,” and then in vs. 5 the author points out Jesus love for Mary and her sister and Lazarus..… and then He waits before He goes to them...this either shows more about His manhood.… or something else was going on here.

Now There was then some concern on the disciples part concerning His return to an area so close to Jerusalem because of the threats on His life. He gives them a little rebuke and then He says that Lazarus has fallen asleep and no matter the threat of death, He intended to go wake him up, to which they replied in laymen s terms that if he is only asleep, he can be cured of his sickness, based on the past miracles Jesus had performed. To which Jesus replies in a poignant manner “Hey I am saying He is DEAD.” As a matter of fact by the time He had received the message of Lazarus’ illness, He was already dead and by the time Jesus arrived he had been dead for four days.

So now lets turn to this part of the narrative Vs 14-35 and I want you to pay attention to how many times the idea of belief is mentioned.

14 So Jesus then said to them plainly,

“Lazarus is dead, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”

16 Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

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

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away;

19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them about their brother.

20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.

21 Martha then 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 from 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 on the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,

26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world.”

Lets stop there for now. Here I see 7 statements concerning belief. Jesus brings it up to the disciples that belief is required. Martha states her own beliefs in Jesus’ ability to heal or even resurrect Lazarus on the last day, and she even gives a statement to belief in his Messiah-ship. So what does this have to do with why Jesus Wept?

Lets read on:

28 And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.

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

31 Then the Jews—who were with her in the house and consoling her—when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to cry there.

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

Vs 33 here is our key to why Jesus wept.

33 When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,

The use of the Greek here is a little or more than a little undesirable as Jesus was not about to shed a tear because of a stir of emotions He was having. A better reading of the Greek would be that He was indignant: irritation, grief or annoyance instead of deeply moved and instead of troubled it would be more like disturbed. So Jesus wasn’t grieved because of the tears from the sisters or for the, what could be paid mourners, but He was annoyed at their lack of belief in who He was.

Two other instances where it is said that Jesus was indignant would be when He ran off the money changer and when He gave the Pharisees 7 woes.

So the entire chapter is concerned with belief. You see Jesus had raised the dead before, he had healed many sick and had done many other miracles. But the people were focused on the works and not the person doing the works on their behalf.

Charles Hodges makes this point in his commentary on the Gospel of John Quote “It is unbelief of the person whose faith does not rest on who Jesus is and what he has revealed of the Father, but on displays of power. Such incomplete “faith” is so weak that is constantly demands new signs and miracles.”

So I find it to be clear that Jesus is one again disappointed in the lack of faith in His disciples.

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

35 Jesus wept.

Quickly here are a couple of other points about weeping.

1) John here uses a different form of weep in the Greek that is not used anywhere else in the NT....as if He were making a point that Jesus was not joining in...you know misery loves company… with the other mourners.

2) Other occasions found in the Gospels of Jesus weeping have to do with His mission

He groaned over Jerusalem’s failure to come to Him.

and where he wrestled with His death and the disciples weakness.

3) And Finally I want to answer the question of why it even matters that Jesus wept?

As we have seen a plain reading of the text without digging down to what was really going on, one would think that Jesus was weeping because Lazarus had died. But I think it is clear that Jesus is weeping because of the lack of faith, for the inability of His followers to believe that He is truly who He says He is. Have you ever tried to convince someone of a truth and they just didn’t get it? This was Jesus delima, but being the man-God that He was, after He had performed many miracles, and knowing that in order to deal with that “last” enemy-death, requires a reliance on the One who is The Work, The Life and The Light.

Jesus states here and in other places that it is all about Him, His Power over death, His Power over sin all to give the ultimate Glory to Him and Him alone.

Who or Why should we weep?

We should weep as we wrestle with God in the battle against our sin and flesh.

We should weep over the lost.

We should weep when our brothers and sisters weep sharing in their pain.

We should weep at the worlds unbelief in the one that holds the key to life and death.