Jesus wept

Jesus wept.

John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible.

Jesus wept.

The context is that Jesus arrived after His friend Lazarus had died. He was moved by the tears of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and the others gathered at the tomb. Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus.

But still He cried.

The tears were of love and sympathy. Martha and Mary, and all the friends and relatives of Lazarus were suffering because of their sense of loss.

Perhaps He was also thinking also of Lazarus. We don't know how he died. Did he suffer? Was he afraid? Did he feel abandoned?

Was Jesus feeling all that His friends experienced? The tears are those of a man who loved his friends, who grieved for them, who shared in their pain. Jesus was fully human.

I wonder too if he was also thinking ahead to his own death. He accepted what he was going to do, even though he knew how much he would suffer. I think of what I feel when I approach a difficult or painful task, even though I know it has to be done or will turn out all right. How much more He must have felt.

And I also think of Jesus suffering with us still. He feels our pain. He sympathises with our grief. He shares in our feelings of fear and loss. He understands.

He weeps even now, for He is beyond time, and those tears He shed at Lazarus' tomb are happening now.

Jesus weeps.