Why "Jesus Wept" is So Comforting (John 11:32-37)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. When Milk is Spilled

Consider this helpful explanation I found on the website usdairy.com:

We’ve all been there. Something disappointing happens, and the next thing you know someone’s saying “Don't cry over spilled milk.” While it can be a nice sentiment, why exactly do we say it, and what does it mean? No matter how you say the proverb, “don’t cry over spilled milk” or “it’s no use crying over spilled milk,” the phrase means that there’s no point to being upset over something that has already happened and cannot be changed.

I might add, I did appreciate that at the end of their write-up, they (the National Dairy Council) include this note: “However, at U.S. Dairy, there’s no shame in literally crying over spilled milk.” Of course there isn't. But think about this: if you had a product at home (something with a name like the 'SpillMaster 3000'), a device that could not only perfectly suction up spilled milk, but also filter it and purify it and reinsert it into a new glass, would you still cry over that kind of accident?

This morning we are looking together at John 11, a chapter (as many of you know) from Our Bible Reading Plan this past week. Let's look together at verses 32-37.

II. The Passage: “He Was Deeply Moved” (11:32-37)

In the opening verses of this chapter, Jesus learned that his friend, Lazarus, the brother of the better-known Mary and Martha, was extremely ill; so ill that his sisters sent a message to Jesus about this very difficult (and probably frightening) turn of events. But when Jesus finally arrives in verse 17, Lazarus is four days dead (v. 39), and the sisters are understandably grieved. Let's pick up the account in verse 32 when Mary comes out of her house to meet Jesus. We read...

Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” [now, without knowing it, this is exactly what her sister told Jesus in verse 21...John continues] [33] When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. [34] And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” [35] Jesus wept. [36] So 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 also have kept this man from dying?” [let's pick up the beginning of verse 38 as well] Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.

Let me say right up front that the clear focus of this chapter is both the self-disclosure of Jesus in verse 25 as “the resurrection and the life,” and the miracle described in verses 38-44, a miracle that powerfully validates that stunning claim of Christ. What was that miracle? It was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus claimed to be “the resurrection and the life,” then proved it.

But this morning, I'd love to focus on the shortest verse in this chapter. In fact, it's the shortest verse in all of Scripture: verse 35. As 19^th century English preacher Charles Spurgeon declared, “There is infinitely more in these two words than any sermonizer, or student of the Word, will ever be able to bring out of them, even though he should apply the microscope of the most attentive consideration.”

Now this tiny verse may be surprising to some because they've never pictured Jesus crying before. Of coure, this isn't the only place that mentions the tears of Jesus. Luke 19:41 depicts Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem because of the people's hardness of heart, and the eventual and disastrous consequences of that hardness. Similarly, Heb. 5:7 tells us that “in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears...”. We might add that this reality shouldn't be surprising to anyone who remembers how the prophet Isaiah described the coming Messiah: as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (53:3).

But here in John 11, we (like the original readers) are forced to grapple with, not the reality of His tears, but the question of why. Why did Jesus weep? I think we can say that Jesus was not weeping for the same reason everyone else was. How do we know this? Because Jesus makes it crystal clear, from the opening verses of the chapter, that Lazarus will live. Christ did not approach his friend's tomb with uncertainty about whether or not he could raise Lazarus. As he told his disciples in v. 4: “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” But it did lead to death, right? Jesus understood this, as vs. 14 and 15 make clear... “Then Jesus told [his disciples] plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.” Whoa. And He communicated this same certainty to Martha in v. 23, “Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'”

So Jesus is not crying here over spilled milk, just like you wouldn't be if you had a 'SpillMaster 3000'. Right? What does that mean? It means that while the sisters mourn over the painful sting of this death, Jesus knows that, within minutes, this death will be undone. Yes, he feels for a man (a friend) who endured death, but I don't think that fully explains his tears. So why then?

Though the reason is never explicitly stated, I believe there are clues in the context that might help us. Look back at verse 33... “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” And as we saw in verse 38, that word translated “deeply troubled” is used again of Jesus. Now, there's a strong case to be made that this word really means something like he 'groaned intensely' or... with anger. Anger? Yes, angry. But remember, it also tells us in v. 33 that he was “greatly troubled”. And as we saw in verse 35, he wept as well. So how might we explain these strong emotions, this strong emotional response from Jesus?

Well, given these clues in the text, and in light of the overall message of this Gospel, I think the best way to understand those two words in v. 35 is to recognize that Jesus is not responding to the death of Lazarus as an isolated event, but as representative of everything he came to conquer. What has he heard from these sisters? What has he seen there at their brother's tomb? He's seen and heard the devastating effects of sin and death. He hears the wailing. He sees the grief and brokenness. He recognizes the suffering, the loss, the confusion, the anger, even the despair and unbelief. He takes all of this in, and it stirs his emotions deeply. Divine compassion. Godly grief. Righteous anger. Again, this ugly reality is what He's come to rectify.

In the previous chapter, Jesus spoke about the toxic agenda of sin, whether that agenda is carried out by human beings or demonic forces. But he also speaks there about his mission. He said in 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Martha, Mary, and their friends were suffering under this ugly reality, and Lazarus had already tasted death. As John Calvin wrote centuries ago, “I have no doubt that Christ [here] contemplated something higher, namely, the general misery of the whole human race; for he knew well what had been enjoined on him by the Father, and why he was sent into the world, namely, to free us from all evils... therefore we need not wonder that he again groans; for the violent tyranny of death, which he had to conquer, is placed before his eyes.”

III. His Sympathy, His Victory

Brothers, sisters, friends, as those who also suffer under this ugly reality, as those who also grapple daily with the devastating effects of sin, as those who grieve, as those who often feel angry and confused, as those saddled with loss and tempted by despair, I hope you can see just how massively comforting this tiny verse really is. “Jesus wept.” Think about the connection between that verse and this verse from the book of Hebrews. This is Hebrews 2:17...

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

This is how the commentator Matthew Henry made the connection. In light of the amazing miracle Christ was about to perform, he wrote that, “Christ gave this proof of his humanity, in both senses of the word; that, as a man, he could weep, and, as a merciful man, he would weep, [he did this] before he gave this proof of his divinity.”

Over 150 years later, Charles Spurgeon would preach on the practical significance of this...

“If in my grief I fled to Jesus, and there was about him a secret inability to sympathize, an incapacity to admit me to his heart; pure as crystal though that barrier might be, I should dash myself against it, and die in despair. A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears. That were a grief I could not bear, if he could not have fellowship with me, and could not understand my woe.”

But he does, brothers and sisters. He does, friends. Jesus understands. As we see here, He weeps with those who weep. In your loss, in your despair, in your confusion and anger and brokenness, Jesus Christ is stirred more deeply than we could ever imagine. If our emotions are tainted by sin, if they are colored by doubt, if they are often fixated on self, just take a moment to think about the purity of his tears in light of the immensity of his heart. He weeps with you not just over your present pain, but in light of all pain, and the hideous source of that pain.

But even better than the reality of his sympathy is the reality of his victory. Jesus didn't simply weep. He wasn't simply stirred. He did more than groan. When he saw the carnage of sin and death all round him, he stepped up and proved himself to be “the resurrection and the life”. And as we know from the end of this Gospel, His raising up of Lazarus was also a powerful preview of his own resurrection. Are you thankful this morning that Christ weeps with those who weep? I hope so. But I hope you are even more thankful that Christ was put death for those shackled by death. He bore the sins of those enslaved to sin. He secured life for those in need of life. His sympathy went far beyond tears. He cried at the tomb of Lazarus, but he cried out on the cross as he endured the wrath of God for you and me. As we'll soon sing, “Hallelujah, what a Savior!”

I know that many of you feel it's difficult to memorize Scripture. But I know that every single one of us can remember this verse. John 11:35... “Jesus wept.” Yes, it's brief. But my prayer this morning is that we have seen (at least to some degree) that there are massive, massive truths packed into this tiny verse. Relevant truths. Comforting truths. Let me leave you with this: the counterintuitive call of Christ's example here is that in our grief we would actually be grieved more deeply; that the scope behind our sorrow would expand to the ultimate why of our suffering: a world ,and hearts, riddled with sin. God wants to stir our emotions in light of that ugly reality, so that we too would be led to the resurrection power of God; so that we would look to Christ, “the resurrection and the life”. Brothers, sisters, memorize that verse. Then use it. Let it point you to Christ's sympathy and victory. Weep because he wept. Weep with those who weep.