Jesus Weeps

John 11:32-37
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"


When Jesus sees us weeping, He is deeply moved in spirit and troubled. When He sees our trouble, He weeps with us. Big or small, monumental or trivial, He weeps with us.

I wonder how difficult it must have been for Martha and Mary to see Jesus, finally, and to see Him weep. I wonder what must have been going through their thoughts. Surely they understood that He had the power to heal Lazarus when he was sick, and yet, He chose to stay away. I wonder if they questioned the validity of His tears and sorrow, when they must have known that He could have fixed it . . . had He only come earlier.

And yet, the greater glory and the greater joy came in that He did stay away, and chose not to simply heal Lazarus, but to resurrect him completely. The great glory and joy came in His time, with His plan.

With great ease, I can shout from the roof-tops that I will trust in Jesus no matter what, as long as things are going my way. But the moment I’m in a situation that is contrary to what I desire, my voice gets a little weak.

When our prayers are seemingly left unanswered, and things aren’t turning out as we had planned, that’s when we test the mettle of our faith. It is in these moments that we see whether we truly believe that God knows best, no matter what. There are few situations more difficult than those that we know God can "fix," but chooses not to. We want to say, as many did that day at the tomb of Lazarus, "Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept _________________ from happening?"

Whatever we face – the loss of a job; a tragic illness; a debilitating handicap; the loss of a child, or not having one at all; whatever the misfortune, Jesus feels our pain, and He weeps with us. We must remember that. But more importantly, He intends to use the situation for His great glory. That is our joy. That is our hope. Our hope is in Jesus, and Him glorified. Otherwise, our vision can be blurred and we can lose sight of that which keeps us going – Love, our great and powerful Almighty God.