What would you do if you came into town and found out that one of your loved ones had died while you were gone? And if you “wept”, would it not look like you were upset that they had died and there wasn’t anything left for you to do but mourn?
Jesus had been on a journey with His disciples. When they arrived in Bethany, He was informed that Lazarus, a good friend of His, had died. If Jesus were like anyone else, He would have been pretty upset, and may have even cried. However, Jesus was not “just like anyone else” nor did he cry over His friend’s death.
As He came into town, Lazarus’ sister Martha went out to meet Jesus. She told Him that He had missed an opportunity to heal her brother and that her brother was now dead.
However, Jesus replied to her that her brother would rise again. He told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Afterwards, Martha went to get her sister Mary, who greeted Jesus the same way, “If you had only come earlier, our brother wouldn’t have died.”
Then Mary began to weep. The others who had come with her also were weeping. Jesus was moved by all of this, and He too became filled with sadness and empathy, and started weeping the way they were. Right?
Absolutely wrong!!
Let’s back up a bit. Reading the eleventh chapter of John, we see that Jesus knew about Lazarus’ sickness a few days before he died. In fact, Lazarus’ sisters sent word to Jesus to let him know so that He would go immediately to heal Lazarus.
As far as we can tell, Jesus could have gone immediately to heal Lazarus, but instead deliberately chose not to! He decided to stall and stay where he was for two more days. He did this for a heavenly strategy that would bring an even greater glory to God and to His Son.
After those two days, Jesus knew that Lazarus had “died”. He also knew that the sickness would not ultimately end there – “in death”. Now, He determined, was the time to return to where Lazarus was to perform a great miracle to increase His disciples’ faith significantly. Jesus was excited about it!
On their way there, Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up!” After seeing that the disciples thought He meant a literal sleep, Jesus emphasized specifically, “Lazarus is dead!”
Jesus knew from the very beginning – from His stalling for time to give Lazarus a chance to die, to their journey to where the “dead” Lazarus was – exactly what was going on. He, in fact, controlled every detail of it!
In reading this passage one can see that Jesus was literally excited about Lazarus’ death. He knew Lazarus’ death would provide an awesome “stage” for God’s glory! He even stated (11:15), “for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”
There is no doubt that Jesus was totally aware of everything and He was really excited about what was about to take place!
So let’s review this.
First, Jesus was totally aware that Lazarus had been sick. Second, Jesus deliberately allowed Lazarus’ sickness to cause Lazarus’ death. Third, Jesus anticipated with excitement that the Father was going to have Him raise Lazarus from the dead!
Let’s picture the scene of His arrival again, but knowing now what the Word tells us beforehand. Jesus stalls so that death can occur. He determines that death has occurred, and with excitement He goes to where the dead man is to raise him from the dead.
As He enters the town, one of the grieving sisters, Martha, goes to greet him. Martha told Him that “if only He had been there sooner” her brother would not have died. He replied to her that her brother would rise again, and He means it literally and in “real time”.
The sister, however, passes His comment off. She relegates it to some theological generality that has nothing to do with the “here and now”, but rather applies to the last day (just as most would-be "Christians" have done today).
She goes to tell her sister that Jesus has come to town. She doesn’t, however (as far as we know), mention anything about His promising to raise the brother up. She just told her sister that Jesus was asking for her.
In the meantime, Jesus is excited about the Father’s heart and the Father’s power that has been given to Him. Jesus came with an excitement about what would soon take place, but NO ONE is taking Him or seriously! He has come with great news, and every body is still weeping and mourning – as if His coming meant nothing!
The scripture says Mary was weeping, and the Jews that she was with were weeping. Jesus was right there, but His presence meant nothing to them!
The scripture then states that He “wept”. But this was not a weeping of sorrow or bitter loss. He was not weeping as those around Him were weeping, as though with sadness over Lazarus’ death.
The word meant a silent, inner groaning. He was deeply troubled – the word also means “deeply moved” – not over Lazarus’ death. How crazy for Him to start crying about something that He had been so excited about!
No, Jesus was undoubtedly upset over the incredible disregard for His presence and His reassurance of hope!
For Jesus to have stood there CRYING, as though it were too late to do anything about Lazarus, was incongruous with what He had just stated to His disciples as “the plan”.
For Jesus to have stood there CRYING because Lazarus was not breathing at the moment would have been as foolish as a child’s crying over a tiny bit of spilt milk while holding in their hand a huge sponge!
The word for “wept” was not the same word used for many other instances of sorrow over death or loss. It was not the word used to describe the lament and mourning that Jesus did over Jerusalem, and which the others at Lazarus death were doing over his death. The word used in both those other instances was “klaio”, and it was an audible weeping over a loss for which it was too late or out of ones control.
The word used to describe Jesus’ response to the environment surrounding Lazarus’ death was “dakryo”, an inarticulate, even groaning response. Jesus was upset, clearly – not over the death, but over the unbelief He found!
Jesus was in no way upset about Lazarus’ death. He had already stated that He was “glad” that it occurred – even that He had deliberately allowed it to occur! He had already stated He was glad about what the final outcome would be and how it would bring glory to God.
No, Jesus was obviously upset that His news and His coming meant absolutely nothing to a group of faithless, clueless people.
The scripture goes on to say, in verse 38, that Jesus – once more “deeply moved” – came to the tomb, and said “Take away the stone”. Martha then argued with Jesus – over the odor of the tomb! Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
How could Jesus not have been “moved” with an anger at the lack of faith He encountered!
Jesus NEVER lost sight of His purpose in the whole circumstance. Never would He have “paused for a moment of silence”, or “stopped to smell the situation”. He was always mindful of His Father’s purpose and obviously Jesus was anxious to get on with it!
Unfortunately, the Jews misperceived His heart as they always misperceived Him. Should that not be a clue in itself?
Seeing Him from a vast spiritual distance, they thought that His sorrow was over His friend’s death since He loved Lazarus so much. The Jews, like the rest of the crowd, expected nothing from Him as well.
Jesus had the power over life and death, and still has it. And just as He was given this by His Father, so are we given the same! We should not be filled with grief and sorrow with all deaths. We should be aware as Jesus was of those opportunities deliberately and strategically set up by the Father - for us to raise those individuals from the dead!
As we know, the story thankfully did “go on” – not because of the people’s faith, but for the purpose of glorifying the Father through His Son Jesus. Lazarus did “come out”. Jesus did accomplish His mission in that situation, but undoubtedly with great sorrow over the lack of faith which He had to fight all the way to the end.
Jesus said He could do nothing on His own, but did what He did by the power given Him by His Father. He told us, His followers – additional “sons” of the Father – that we would be empowered to do the same things that He did and even greater things than He did.
Oh, that we would put ourselves in the hands of this Father and allow Him to conform us into the image of His Son. Let’s stop trying to conform His Son into our image of us!
Let’s identify Him in the midst of our own battles, and not cause Him to weep over our listlessness and ho-hum attitude concerning His power and compassion for us
Let’s not bring His spirit to groan over us by our arguing and human reasoning. Let’s not keep sullen, weeping faces in our situations when He has appeared on our scene and has promised to help us!
Let’s preach about Him, the conquering, delivering Savior that He truly is. Let’s stop thinking of Him as a man who cries over “spilt milk” with the power of God yet in His hand and about to be manifest!
