The shortest verse in Scripture may be one of the deepest, most profound truths in the Bible. Two words, but worth two volumes of thought and meditation: "Jesus wept."
Scripture Focus: John 11:35; Hebrews 4:15
"Jesus wept."
Why weep? Why weep if in a few minutes everyone will be rejoicing at the resurrection of Lazarus?
Think with me. Jesus was God in the flesh and therefore He was the godliest man who ever lived. And yet He wept. He is the logos in John 1—the mind and the power and the intellect behind the universe. He is the most cerebral person in the universe. You think you're logical? This is the God that invented logic. And yet He wept.
There was not a moment in the Lord Jesus Christ's life where He did not trust in the Lord with all His heart. And yet He wept.
He doesn't tell the mourning mass, "Dry your tears. Pull yourselves together. Didn't I tell you that this was going to turn out for the glory of God?" He doesn't say, "Watch this." He wept.
The word in verse 35 is dakruo, which means to burst into tears. Silent sobbing, tears running down the cheek of the Creator of the universe.
What do these tears show us?
First, that He was a real man. It's not just that Jesus took on the shell of humanity. He entered into our humanity because He was truly human. There is nothing human in us that was not human in Him. It's not necessary or essential to have sin to be human. There was no sin in the garden.
He was born. He was swaddled. He was nursed. He grew in wisdom and favor with God. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was fatigued. He fell asleep at the head of the boat. He had real emotions. He was lonely in the wilderness. He had glands and tear ducts.
He could have attempted to suppress and repress His tears and say, "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it." But He did not. He could have bitten His lip and swallowed His sorrow, but He did not. He did not prevent one tear from running down His cheek.
This is interesting because in a culture of hyper-femininity, some have attempted to define masculinity as machismo, stoic, unemotional, unattached. But here we have the truest man who ever lived crying.
He really was one of us. He wasn't a robot. He was a man.
If you've ever felt like you had to suppress your emotions to be "strong," look at Jesus. The strongest man who ever lived wept openly. There's no shame in tears. There's no weakness in grief. Jesus modeled for us what true humanity looks like—full of emotion, fully engaged, fully present in the pain of the moment.
1. Have you bought into the lie that emotions—especially tears—are weakness? How does seeing Jesus weep change that perspective?
2. Do you allow yourself to fully feel your emotions, or do you suppress them in the name of "being strong"?
3. In what ways have you diminished the humanity of Jesus in your mind? How does recognizing His full humanity draw you closer to Him?
Stay dialed in