Jesus Weeps

No end in sight.

A lot of us know the verse. It is the shortest verse in the Bible; John 11:35 - Jesus wept. Most of the popular versions of the Bible report it in the same words. We all know those preachers who read one verse from the Bible, shut the Bible and proceed to make a whole sermon from a verse without reading its context. Well, I was taught that that could go very, very wrong. No one likes to have their words taken out of context so you need to read all of John 11 so as to understand those two words, 'Jesus wept'.

Mary, Martha and Lazarus are friends of Jesus. Mary and Martha sent someone to tell Jesus that Lazarus was sick. He was Lazarus' friend but he did not rush there. He said in John 11:4, 'This sickness will not end in death'. You know the story and you know Lazarus did die. But Jesus said that the sickness will not end in death! Two days later Jesus set off for Bethany. The disciples warned him that he'd be near Jerusalem and that the Jews wanted to kill him. Indeed after his visit to Lazarus, and because of the miracle there, the Jewish leaders made a plan to kill Jesus. Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was asleep and he was going to wake him up. The disciples thought that he meant that Lazarus was having one big nap and would therefore get better so Jesus told them plainly that he was dead. Being a disciple of Jesus must have been very interesting and scary and filled with many moments of shock and much shaking of heads. Also many times of wonder and amazement but I think this was one of the shock/head shaking times. Do you agree?

As Jesus travelled to Bethany, Martha met him and told him that Lazarus had died and she said that if Jesus had been there earlier, He could have healed him and kept him from death. Jesus tells her that Lazarus will come back to life. She doesn't understand him and thinks that he is talking of a later resurrection. Mary too came and expressed the same sentiment that if Jesus had come earlier, Lazarus would have lived. How many times do I say the same thing? Jesus! Come NOW!

Jesus asked them to show him the grave. And the people and Mary were weeping. It is now that Jesus wept. The people around thought that it showed how much Jesus loved Lazarus which he did. Some people say he wept because of the pain that was in Mary and Martha and the other people weeping there. He was mourning with those who mourn.

From the time that Jesus was told that the one he loved, Lazarus, was sick, he kept talking of Lazarus' death not being the end. He said so to the disciples twice and he also told this to Martha. So Jesus was not weeping because Lazarus was dead! He knew that that was not the end! I think that Jesus wept because he felt their lack of faith. Well, they had faith. They believed that Jesus could have healed Lazarus. The crowds believed that Jesus had healed a blind man. Their belief did not extend to him raising a man, four days dead, from the grave. Even his disciples did not believe this. Jesus said in verse 15 "...but for your sake I am glad that I was not with him, so that you will believe..." When I read about Jesus weeping, I think that he wept because of the limit on our faith. Because of the way our minds limit God's power. We have faith but it is not big enough. 

I have always loved the words of the man who told Jesus in Mark 9:24 - 'I believe! Help my unbelief.' He had politely asked Jesus to help him if He could. Jesus challenged him and asked, If I can? All things are possible to him who believes. The man then acknowledged his faith and simultaneous lack of it. This man may not sound eloquent but I think he was VERY eloquent. He, like Mary, Martha and the disciples believed in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. But circumstances come when I believe and I don't. Circumstances that seem sooo big that they want to overcome our faith. I think Jesus wept for us in these circumstances. He was human so he felt our fear. He was God so he knew we need not fear. He wept with us in our humanness. He is able to see with us the limits that we think are there. He also sees that it shall NOT end in death. 

This story is like the story of Jairus daughter in Luke 8. Jairus asked Jesus to heal his daughter who was very sick. Jesus set off and it is in this journey that the woman touched the hem of his garment and was healed. That is another wonderful story. But after she was healed and Jesus was continuing to go to heal the girl, someone came and told Jairus that his daughter was dead. The messenger then went on in verse 49 to say, “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” I praise God because Jesus wants us to bother him! He immediately told Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Like Lazarus, Jesus said that the child was just sleeping. They laughed at him but he called the girl and she woke up! Bother Jesus! That situation is not dead! It just sleeps! (If I was a ‘charismatic’ preacher this is where I would be shouting and someone on the keyboard would be making, well, appropriate keyboard sounds.) There are things that you pray about till you just say ok, “I’m done with this one”. Well, God isn’t done! Arise and bother Him!

In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel is confronted with a valley of dry bones. The Bible calls them very dry. God asked Ezekiel to do very many odd things. Read the book and find out! But you put yourself in Ezekiel's shoes or sandals, well, footwear. How would you like the Spirit taking you a valley full of many dry bones? And God asks Ezekiel, "can these bones live?" Ezekiel's answer is interesting. He told God that only He, God, knows. He used those words in a very different manner from the expression, 'God knows' that we use all the time. But I digress. What would your answer have been?

God told Ezekiel to prophesy over the dry bones and he heard a rattling sound and the bones were moving! Picture that and the fear you would be in. Or fascination depending on what floats your boat. Well, the bones came together and flesh and sinews (I like that word) came on them. As our pastor pointed out, Ezekiel was now in a valley of dead people and God knew this. So he asked him to prophesy again and they came to life and were a mighty army. Not just a big group of people but, 'an exceedingly great army'. God doesn't do things small small! 

God explained to Ezekiel that He would bring the people of Israel to life like that. They were in exile but He would make them mighty again and bring them back to the land. Why would He do this? So that they may know that He is the Lord! The very same thing that Jesus told the disciples. So that they believe! 

God is limitless. If you think He can do this much, then He can do more! There is always another level with Him. Even Paul, who taught so many about God and whose teachings make up most of the New Testament, knew this. Paul said in Philippians 3:10 that he wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. The Amplified Bible says, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death…” That should be our quest too. To know Him more.

There are things that appear dead in our lives. That prayer that Jesus is delaying to answer. Why didn’t He answer it last year? Why didn’t He answer it yesterday? Why didn’t he answer it before it died and the bones became very dry? So that I may believe. It is not easy to accept this. It is not an easy truth. But it is a truth that we must embrace. We must fuel the fires of our faith. Ephesians 6:16 asks us to take up the shield of faith to quench the flaming darts of the evil one. The devil will try to discourage us and point out how long we have been praying and how the Lord has delayed the answer. We must remember that Jesus feels our pain in this and weeps with us. He also wants us to see the Father’s glory that we may know Him more.

Encourage one another. Encourage yourself if there is no one to encourage you. God takes long sometimes. Some of the heroes of the Bible had to wait for their promises for long! Abraham, Joseph, David, Hannah. They had to wait! In waiting Abraham decided to go his own way and try to solve the problem on his own. That resulted in Ishmael who constantly fights with Isaac, the son of promise. David was anointed king and he too had to wait before he became king. But he did not take shortcuts. He had the opportunity to kill Saul but he refused to do it. He refused to ‘touch God’s anointed’.

It is painful, but the waiting brings us closer to God and helps us go deeper in our knowledge of God. He loves doing the unexpected! Isaiah 43:19-21 says, Behold, I am doing a new thing;  now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Mary and Martha expected Jesus to heal Lazarus. That would’ve have been a great miracle. But they already knew Jesus, Healer of the Sick. They did not know Jesus, Raiser of the Dead! Abraham thought that his wife would get many children and he’d start seeing how he was going to be the father of many nations. He and Sarah saw the God who can give children to those in old age! Joseph thought he’d be important enough for his brothers and parents to bow to him. He did not know that a whole nation would be bowing to him.  However, as the scripture says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.”

Finally, James 1:2-4 says “My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, 3 for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. 4 Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”