A weeping God did not despise
Jesus Wept at the Tomb
The shortest verse in the Bible holds one of its deepest mysteries: Jesus wept. He stood at the grave of His friend Lazarus, knowing He was moments from raising him, and still He cried. God in the flesh grieved with the grieving.
“Jesus wept.”John 11:35
The tears
The heading is: The tears. Lazarus of Bethany had died, and his sisters Mary and Martha were in mourning. When Jesus came, Martha met Him with grief and faith mixed together, and then Mary came, weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her (John 11:33). Scripture tells us what this did to Jesus: when he saw her weeping, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled (John 11:33). He asked where they had laid him, and they said, Lord, come and see. And then, the shortest verse in all of Scripture: Jesus wept (John 11:35). The onlookers said, Behold how he loved him! (John 11:36). What makes this weeping so remarkable is that Jesus already knew He would raise Lazarus within the hour. He had said so plainly. His tears were not from hopelessness or ignorance of the outcome. He wept because death is a horror and grief is real, and standing among people He loved who were crushed by it, He did not hold Himself above their sorrow. He entered it. The Son of God stood at a grave and cried.
What God did with them
The heading is: What God did with them. Here the answer is immediate and glorious, though the tears came first. After weeping, Jesus went to the tomb, commanded the stone removed, and cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth (John 11:43-44). Jesus proved Himself Lord over the very thing that made everyone weep. Yet notice the order: He wept before He raised. He did not rush past the grief to the miracle, as if sorrow were an embarrassment to hurry through. He honored the tears, joined them, and only then acted. He had already told Martha, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live (John 11:25). This is what God did with the tears at that tomb: He entered them fully as a man, and then He answered them as God. And in doing so He gave a picture of what He will finally do with all death and all grief. The weeping was real; the power over the grave was real; and the tears were not despised on the way to the victory.
How it points to Christ
The heading is: How it points to Christ. This scene is the very center of the whole matter, for here Christ Himself weeps. The prophecy that He would be a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3) stands fulfilled at a graveside. He is not a distant God who watches our tears from a height; He is the God who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15) because He has stood where we stand and cried as we cry. Jesus wept tells us that grief is not unspiritual, that God does not despise our tears, and that even when help is on the way, our weeping matters to Him. And the same Lord who raised Lazarus, who Himself rose from the dead, is the guarantee that the day is coming when God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death (Revelation 21:4). The One who wept at the tomb will empty every tomb.
Questions people ask
Why did Jesus weep if He knew He would raise Lazarus?
His tears were not from hopelessness but from love and from grief at the horror of death itself. He entered the sorrow of Mary and Martha rather than standing above it. It shows that God shares our grief even when He is about to act.
What does the shortest verse in the Bible teach us?
That God in the flesh weeps. Jesus wept (John 11:35) tells us grief is not unspiritual and that our tears matter to God. He does not treat sorrow as weakness to be hurried past, but joins us in it.
How can Jesus weeping comfort someone grieving today?
Because it means you do not grieve before a distant or indifferent God. The One you pray to has stood at a grave and cried. He is touched with the feeling of your infirmities (Hebrews 4:15) and is Himself the resurrection and the life.