3/12/11- John 11:32-37 Jesus Wept

32 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.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

(Raising Lazarus- Rembrandt)

Thoughts: "Jesus wept" is the shortest yet one of the most profound verses in the Bible.  Christ wept, not because he had lost hope, but out of sympathy and out of his human friendship and love for Lazarus who went through this devastating sickness and death.  In this- Jesus shows us his humanity, but also his great divine compassion.  He sets an example for us to have weep with those who weep.  So we should have tender hearts toward the people weeping today in Egypt over the deaths of the Christian martyrs who died this week there; or Lybia whose country has divided into civil war; or Japan whose earthquake, tsunami, and now nuclear threat.  However, Jesus did not just weep, He did something about it.  So we should work to help, give, pray for those in need.

Prayer: You who wept, give me a tender heart to weep for those hurting today in Japan, Lybia, and others around me hurting.

John Calvin Abridged: Our passions can be sinful if they are without restraint.  God created us with affections, but in our sin they are often rebellious and out of control.  But Christ's weeping is enough to cast aside all the unbending sternness of Stoicism.