Jesus wept. – John 11:35
There is so much to contemplate in these two simple words. Why did Jesus weep? Some of the mourners who saw Jesus weep assumed Jesus was grieving Lazarus’ death. Others there criticized Jesus for weeping instead of coming to heal Lazarus while there was a chance. Mary grieved. Martha doubted. Jesus wept.
Jesus wept because Mary wept, and He wept because we weep. He wept because He can empathize with our suffering. He has known sorrow, rejection, contempt. He has been despised. He knows how it feels to bear the weight of these burdens. But He wept not because He knows how heavy the weight of these burdens are, but how heavy and painful they can be for us.
Christians can be an indignant and intolerant people. We become offended by the sins of the worldly. Buoyed by our pride and self righteousness we renounce their evil deeds. We want others to be so beguiled by our clean and pretty lives that they want to be like us. But no one lives a clean and pretty life. Our lives are ugly and messy, stained by sin and scarred by grief.
We do not live by the beauty of our righteous acts, but by the beauty of Christ’s blood. We are embraced by His prayers and His tears. Jesus has walked this bitter earth. He has known sadness and offers compassion. He has known suffering and offers strength. He has been ridiculed and offers mercy. He has been tempted and offers grace.
Jesus wept because He saw people weeping. He saw and felt the anguish of the grief of others. He knew that He was about to dispel that grief. He knew that Lazarus would arise. But in that second, none of that mattered. What mattered to Jesus was the tears of the mourners. He wept because He is a High Priest who understands. He has compassion for the weak, love for the disenfranchised and forgiveness for the irredeemable. The world cannot grow from our false appearances and paltry acts. But, it can grow from the tears that represent Christ’s compassion and can blossom from the blood that represent His grace, His mercy and His forgiveness.
Jesus weeps for the lost and He weeps for the found. He weeps for the burden we all share, the burden of living as a human on this brutal planet that is not our home. He has dwelled among men and has walked this fallen world. He knows our struggles, our sorrow, our pain. Jesus weeps for all of us.
Written by Janet Keefe
