Jesus Wept Series

Or maybe… maybe you’ve been where Jesus is in this situation. You’ve got someone you love and care deeply about, and they are the one going through it. I don’t know about ya’ll but I’ve been in both of those positions. Where your heart breaks for that person, and you want to help them. You want to give them some kind of hope or assurance. But look at what happens here.

Look at verses 33 – 35 again (READ).

So Jesus looks at Mary, she’s seriously grieving, and He looks at Jews with her, they’re weeping (the word there literally means they were wailing and sobbing), and the text says that He was “deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled.” The Greek word that we translate as “deeply moved” is the word “embrimaomai” (pronounced: em-bri-mao-may), and it means to be angered, agitated, or perturbed in your spirit.

So what’s going on here? Some preachers have said that Jesus is upset with the spectacle of mourning being put on by the Jews, and there might be some truth to that, but I think it has more to do with something else. Remember; Jesus has already told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And 1 Corinthians 15:26 tells us that death is an enemy of Christ that will be put under subjection. So I think the anger and agitation we’re seeing in Jesus here has to do with the fact that Jesus is angered by what sin has done to His creation. I think He’s angered by death, and what it does to families. I think He’s angered by how sin destroys life, because He’s the resurrection and the life. Death is His enemy, and Sin is His enemy. And Jesus sees what’s going on. He sees the pain and anguish it’s caused His friends Mary and Martha. He sees the people who are also sad and trying to console the sisters… He also sees the people who are just there for the drama or the spectacle, or maybe they’re getting involved in this because they’re hoping to gain something out of it… you know, be named in the will or something. They want to profit off of the suffering of others.

But the point is – Jesus sees ALL of this, and it’s ALL the result of sin in this world. All the hurt, all the sadness, all the suffering. It’s all caused by sin… and the wages of sin is death. So even the death of Lazarus itself… it’s all because of sin being in this world, and corrupting God’s creation. And it makes Him angry! Because He is good! And Just! And righteous, and holy! And Jesus sees this enemy of God’s original design, and of God’s created order… He sees death, and it appears that it has a temporary victory. And He’s indignant towards this. He’s angry with this. But look again at the text and see what He does; let’s see… take a look at verses 34 and 35

(READ John 11:34-35).

Jesus sees all the trouble that this enemy -- “death” has caused His friends, and He takes their grief, and sadness, and sorrow upon Himself, and He cries… “Jesus wept.” Now that word “wept” is not the wailing and sobbing like the crowds were doings… that word is the Greek word “dakryo”… it means to cry deeply and softly. Jesus personally shares their grief.