Jesus Cried?

John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”

We who live in Texas and maybe most of the south find that a man crying is unmanly and weak, but we could learn from our Lord and Saviour because here Jesus wept. Most people find it hard to believe that “the man of all men” ever wept, but He did. But lets not just look at it that Jesus Christ the Son of God cried and find it so strange, let us not ever forget while He is God; He is also the son of man. Therefore if we use Jesus as our example, then a man crying is not unmanly. So this brings me to the question I was asked this week, “Why did Jesus cry”? This is very simple to answer; Jesus wept because all of the others He loved were weeping over the death of Lazarus. Jesus did not weep (as I once thought) over the fact that Lazarus died because He is God and knew He could and was going to raise His dear friend from the grave. If we take this verse in context then the answer is found in verse 33 “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,” Jesus was troubled because those He loved so dear was weeping. It makes a lot of sense because these folks were unified with the Lord. This reminds us of the church here today and the unity we are to share. The Lord told us the church is to be like a body with many members and all of those members being many are to be like one body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ”. 1 Corinthians 12:12. So if one of the body members hurts then the rest of the body hurts with that member. Here we see a glorious example of this, Jesus hurt with the body because He was part of that body.

While Jesus did indeed weep because the others around Him were so hurt it was not the same type of crying. Notice in verse 35 the word wept is different that the word weeping in verse 33. The word wept in verse 35 comes from the Greek word “dakruō” which means - to shed tears - but according to A. H. Strong’s concordance this Greek word “dakruō” is to be compared to the Greek word “klaiō” which means - to sob, that is, wail aloud – however Strong’s goes on to tell us - whereas dakruō is rather to cry silently – Telling us while the Lord did weep because His beloved friends were so upset He did not cry aloud as the others did. The word weeping in verse 33 which refers to the others, and there is different altogether. This word comes from the Greek word “klaiō” which means - to sob, which is – to wail aloud – as we said before. So there was some loud crying over the death of Lazarus as they are when we loose a loved one. Mary you may remember did not think of what was about to happen and that was that Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead. In verse 32 it says “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” But Jesus called Lazarus from the grave “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” Verse 43. How wonderful indeed!

This little short verse is so packed with such a powerful message “Jesus wept”. We see both natures of Jesus here in this passage, (1.) Jesus showed His humanity in His weeping, we see here the love that He had and has for those He loves. Here Jesus silently cried along with His friends because He loved them so, and (2.) it shows His deity in that He was able to raise Lazarus from the dead. Men as we can see here in this passage it is ok to cry, it does not make us weak but rather strong. Let us be reminded of what Paul teaches us in Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” To weep and to rejoice with others makes us a good Christian and church member.