“Jesus wept.”

John 11:35

Jesus wept is the shortest sentence in the Bible. Those two words have more significance than anyone can possibly imagine. There are moments in our life when we weep. Maybe it was the loss of a loved one or the loss of a job. Maybe it was a really stressful and difficult situation we were going through at the time. Whatever we went through, or what we’re going through right now, we can be at peace knowing that Jesus has defeated death but also because Jesus wept. 

In order to better understand why this statement is so profound, we have to look deeper into the context behind it.

The fact that Jesus wept shows that he’s an emotional God. Through Jesus, we see that God has empathy for his beloved children. He actually cares about us and has feelings for us. Jesus wept for Lazarus which shows that he loved him. Through this, we see that Jesus, who was fully human and fully God, experienced every kind of hardship that we do.

Jesus wept because he was just as human as we are but without sin and experienced every emotion that we have. He knew the pain and suffering he was going to endure after performing this miracle during his death on the cross. He laid down his life for his friend, which is a message John brings up in his later letters. We cannot fully process what Jesus was going through in that moment when he wept. He knew the sacrifice was going to be made and he made it anyway.

That is the God we serve. We worship an almighty, powerful God who left his throne in heaven to be among us in the form of man. He willingly laid down his life for us to pay for the penalty of our sins. Then he rose from the grave three days later, a parallel to his miracle with Lazarus. That resurrection showed that Jesus had the victory. Even though he knew he was going to suffer, he also knew that he was going to prevail in the end. We can take comfort in this: Christ has won the victory and that same God will bring us through our pain. 

This week, think about a time when you wept. Pray about how God can intercede in your life and give you comfort through your difficult times.