Jesus Wept for Those He Loved
Did you know Jesus cried? We shouldn’t be surprised by that. When you truly love people, you’ll end up shedding tears. Jesus shared in life with us – He was fully human in every way. Jesus never skimped on emotions, but was always fully-invested in the human condition. He was sad for people – and cried for them and with them. He was sad because of people, and cried over their actions or failures.
By entering into every aspect of our lives, and by sharing in our pain and our sorrow, Jesus was able to know us fully, and help us fully know Him. That’s the Jesus I know and love! I want to share with you something about the everyday life of Jesus for a very big reason: He wants you to be just like Him!
He shared the details of living a human life; to show us how WE can share in the details of each others’ lives; and because of that, we are best suited to invite the world to know and share HIM!
Jesus knew all about the human condition. He knew about pain and suffering – disappointment, grief, hatred, injustice. He experienced the death of loved ones – His father, Joseph, His friend Lazarus, His cousin or kinsman, John the Baptist. He saw harsh treatment by the Romans and by the Jews; He saw unfairness and struggle and confrontation and military might in action.
Jesus was in it all the way with us; He never cheated and brought in the angels to help Him; He never took shortcuts, or unhooked from being human or partitioned off the suffering.
The Prophet Isaiah tells us this about Jesus the Savior:
He was. . . a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. . . He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. . . and the LORD has laid on [Jesus] the iniquity [wickedness, crimes, and injustice] of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6 emphasis mine.)
It was our weaknesses He carried, and He was weighed down by our sorrows. Jesus not only lived with us in our humanity, but He went all the way and was hurt and tortured and killed for the sins and shortcomings in our lives. He was tormented and beaten that you and I might have peace; He was whipped - and you and I get healed! King James quoted Isaiah in this way: Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . . (Isaiah 53:4)
It wasn’t easy for Jesus to bear sorrow. It wasn’t easy for Him to carry the burden of our pain and suffering and sin. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He was arrested, tried and put to death, Jesus prayed “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)
He spoke of the power available to Him: “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53)
There’s an old hymn that is one of my favorites, called “Ten-Thousand Angels.” The chorus says it all. . .
He could have called ten-thousand angels
to destroy the world and set Him free.
He could have called ten-thousand angels
but He died alone, for you and me. (Ray Overholt)
Jesus could have escaped the horrors of His own death, but He didn’t – He wouldn’t:
“. . . how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54) Jesus could have isolated Himself from the horrors and sadness and pain of our lives – but He didn’t. He went through it with us. Why?
Short answer? To teach us how to live. Long answer? Well, let’s dig deeper. . .
1. Why do people connect with Jesus?
I want to go back to the Prophet Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 53.
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
To whom will the Lord reveal His saving power? To those who see Jesus as He truly is.
[Jesus] grew up before [the LORD] like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him,
nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
He was a man. Yes, He was fully God and fully human, but He was no super star; no war hero; no great general; no popular politician. Jesus was detested by many and put down by the religious establishment, and ultimately rejected by the masses. The world turned their backs on Him and looked the other way. . . and very few cared. . . except for this – this is what made Him attractive to the world: Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. . . (Isaiah 53:4a)
Jesus became fully human and fully engaged in the human condition – and that made Him attractive to the world. Some people got it right away. . . some don’t get it even today, but when they do, their lives are changed in dynamic ways.
Sharing in our sorrows is a primary way in which Jesus became attractive to humanity.
• Had He come completely in secret, no one would have known or cared.
• Had He never come, people would have no re-connection to God.
• Had He come as a conqueror and simply taken over, there would have been no reconciliation – just humanity forced by God to do what He wanted.
No – Jesus came quietly, but most certainly as God-made-flesh, fully human and fully God all at once – and lived with us and walked with us and endured everything we endure. . . including our sorrow, sadness, grief, and pain.
People connect with Jesus because He lived through it with us! He shared our grief – and that brings us to the second point. . .
2. Where will the world see Jesus now?
There’s only one place. . . in us! Jesus is revealed IN US – in you and in me. How? By how we love. How will we love? The way Jesus first loved us, and that includes carrying their sorrow and sharing their grief.
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When He heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where he was two more days.
Then He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
But some of them said, “Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.
(John 11:1-7, 17-38a)
If Jesus knew Lazarus would be raised, not only on the last day, but also this day by Jesus’ power – why would Jesus weep and be moved? Why was His response to be sad and grieved? There are at least two reasons – maybe more:
1. Jesus was sad for His friend. He had suffered, and died, and the whole concept of physical death was anathema to Jesus, the Author of Life. He had made us to live in perfect life with Him in the beginning, and suffering and death were not part of His perfect plan for humanity. We inherited suffering and death because of sin. Jesus was grieved that Lazarus had to suffer that horror – Jesus is sad that we all have to suffer that horror of a physical death.
2. Jesus was also sad for Mary and Martha. They were grieved at the loss of their brother. They saw him suffer and die, and they were deeply sorrowful. Jesus’ heart wad breaking for them. He had sympathy and empathy for the sisters, and He couldn’t help but be moved emotionally.
Folks – we can easily be “fair-weather friends” – there when things are fun and easy and filled with joy. The true test is whether we can be there when the going gets tough!
There are many times in a person’s life when they feel sad or grieved. Some of those times they feel let down or ignored by God. Jesus’ example here with Mary and Martha is a model for us to follow. He entered their grief. He shared their sadness. He carried their sorrow.
A Swedish Proverb says: “Joy shared is joy doubled; sorrow shared is sorrow halved.”
That’s not the same as “Misery loves company!” which means that when you’re feeling down and blue, you go looking for someone who is going to make you feel even more depressed, and who will join you in your misery – literally to “commiserate” and make the feelings more intense and keep you down.
“Sorrow shared is sorrow halved” means that when we enter into the grief of a person, just by showing and feeling sympathy and empathy, we can lessen their load, and relieve their pain and sorrow.
I’m reminded of a story of the “joy doubled – sorrow halved” principle:
A guy went to PromiseKeepers and learned about how important it is to be an encouragement to his wife – doubling joy and cutting sorrow in half.
When he got home, he decided to treat his wife like a princess. When he walked in the door, he embraced his wife and said, “Honey, you look wonderful!” For good measure he added, “Sweetheart, you know, I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
His wife burst into tears.
Bewildered, the man asked his wife, “Honey! What in the world is the matter?”
His wife wept openly. “Oh, I’ve never had such a horrible day! Our son got in trouble at school. The refrigerator quit and the washer ran over. One of the tires on my car is flat, and now you’ve come home drunk!”
Hey – sometimes you do your best, and your joy just doubles your spouse’s sorrow! Of course I’m poking fun – but in all seriousness one of the best ways we can be Jesus in the world is by being His hands and His feet and His eyes and His embrace. It’s much more than sharing sorrow in order to cut it in half. . . it’s about being Jesus to the world, and carrying their sorrow and joining them in the realities of their lives in order to express the love of Christ to them. We need to learn to share sadness and sorrow as readily as we share joy.
Paul told the Roman Church: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15)
We are Jesus’ Church – His body that He left in charge of caring for people and helping them find and live in the love of God, and there’s a reward we all get for being Jesus’ Church. . .
3. We reap a benefit when we’re “Jesus” to the world.
Let’s continue with Isaiah’s prophecy from God regarding the Messiah – picking back up with verse 11:
After the suffering of His soul,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great,
and He will divide the spoils with the strong,
because He poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For He bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:11-12)
This can be read simply as Jesus getting the rewards of Him taking on the sorrows and troubles and sins of the world. That would be true – He will be honored and praised for that. That’s why we gather for worship – because of what Jesus did for you and for me: He died in our place. He took on our sins and paid the penalty for us! We praise Him and worship Him and exalt Him above all others and all else in our lives.
But there’s more to that last bit of Isaiah 53. Where the words “great” and “strong” are used – they mean “many” and “numerous.” Jesus is the greatest – so He’s not going to share with others who are also “great.” He’s all-mighty, so He’s not going to share with other strong people. He was before everything – so there are no others before Him to be counted as great or strong.
What Isaiah is saying is the reward Jesus will receive will be shared with many – and it will be divvied up among the numerous of His contingent of soldiers – that’s you and me! To know it and understand it fully, we have to look at a statute put in place by David in 1 Samuel 30:24-25.
Turn there to find out how Jesus’ honor can be ours as well. David – who is not yet the king of Israel, but actually was fighting with the Philistines – was returning from a campaign and found the city of Ziklag burned and the wives and children of his army taken prisoner by the Amalekites. David went after the Amalekites, but his army was exhausted, so he left 200 of the most exhausted to guard the supplies, while David and 400 of the more fresh and ready warriors went to engage the Amalekite army.
If we start reading at verse 18, we see what happened after David’s men were victorious over the Amalekites:
David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, “This is David's plunder.”
Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Ravine. They came out to meet David and the people with him. As David and his men approached, he greeted them. But all the evil men and troublemakers among David’s followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go.”
David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the LORD has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us. Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this. (1 Samuel 30:18-25)
Now – God is not controlled by the laws and statutes of men. His law is absolute; He is not hemmed in by David’s law of the front-line soldiers sharing evenly with the rear-echelon. Yet, everything we read about Jesus and His Church says that this is the way God works. . . He’s given us the ministry, and shares everything with those of us He’s left here on Earth after He’s gone to be with the Father. Look at these passages of Scripture:
• He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)
• He told us to love one another in the way HE loved us. (John 13:34-35)
• He gave us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy – and that we’d be doing what Jesus did and greater still. (Luke 10:19, John 14:12)
• Jesus let us know He was going to prepare a place for us – and come back and take us to be where He is. (John 14:2-3)
• He told us He would reward us. (John 12:26, Matthew 25:21)
• We’re told that we are joint-heirs with Christ of the Kingdom. We inherit the Kingdom WITH Jesus! (Romans 8:17)
Jesus did all the hard work of dying in our place and paying all our penalties – that was powerful and could only be done by Jesus, I’m not making light of that! Yet, when we share in the ministry of loving and leading the world to Christ, we get to share some of the same rewards with our Savior! We’re joint-heirs with Him in the inheritance of Heaven!
I want to share with you my own paraphrase of this passage from Isaiah 53:11-12.
AFTER JESUS SUFFERED – HE WAS RESURRECTED AND FILLED WITH LIGHT AND LIFE. HIS PERFECT SACRIFICE WAS MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO BRING ABOUT THE SALVATION OF ALL WHO BELIEVE.
BY HIS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER AND HIS PERFECT RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM, JESUS’ FAULTLESS RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD ALLOWED FOR PAYMENT-IN-FULL FOR THE SINS AND SEPARATION OF ALL OF US – ACCOMPLISHED BY HIM PERSONALLY TAKING OUR SINS UPON HIMSELF.
BECAUSE OF THAT, GOD GAVE JESUS A PORTION OF THE BLESSING – ALONG WITH THE MANY WHO SHARE LIFE WITH CHRIST; GOD HAS DIVIDED THE “PLUNDER” OF BLESSINGS WITH THE NUMEROUS MEMBERS OF CHRIST’S CHURCH BECAUSE JESUS POURED OUT HIS LIFE AND DIED IN OUR PLACE, AND WAS LISTED ALONG WITH US AS A MEMBER OF “FALLEN HUMANITY.”
JESUS TOOK ON AND BORE THE SINS OF MANY, AND THEN INTERCEDED FOR THE SINFUL.
(WE JOIN HIM IN THAT MINISTRY OF RECONCILING LOST PEOPLE TO GOD.)
(ISAIAH 53:11-12 – MARTY’S PARAPHRASE)
In her book Either Way, I Win: God’s Hope for Difficult Times, Lois Walfrid Johnson writes about visiting Oklahoma City, a city that was changed forever by the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building which killed 168 people.
In the national memorial building on the Murrah Building site, 168 empty chairs are placed in the location where each person sat when he or she died.
Beyond that memorial and across another street is a statue constructed by St. Joseph's Catholic Church. The statue's powerful image represents a tall, white-robed Christ. He stands with his back to the busy street and the place where the federal building once stood. The representation of Christ faces a brick wall in which there are 168 empty spaces – one space for each person who died. With bowed head Jesus faces that symbol of loss, covers his face with one hand, and weeps.
In whatever suffering we know, in whatever "Why, God?" we ask, we cannot forget one important truth: Jesus Christ weeps with us.
An Hasidic Jewish legend tells of a great celebration in heaven after the Israelites are delivered from the Egyptians at the Red Sea and the Egyptian armies are drowned. The angels are cheering and dancing. Everyone in heaven is full of joy.
Then one of the angels asks the archangel Michael, “Where is God? Why isn’t God here celebrating?”
Michael answers, “God is not here because He is off by Himself weeping. You see, many thousands were drowned today.” In whatever sorrow we may experience, we must remember that Jesus weeps for us.
On the day that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem just a few days before His arrest and death, Jesus rode on a donkey through the cheering crowds, who threw their robes down and palm leaves down as they would to a conquering hero, chanting “Hosanna! Save us! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The Scripture records this event and says: As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:28-44)
Jesus began to cry for Jerusalem – the “City of Peace” – because of the irony of the city’s name and because of His intense grief over what would come in its near future because of the disbelief of her inhabitants. “I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late."
Jesus cried genuine tears for Jerusalem and her people – examples of all people everywhere who go about life thinking they’ve got it all together, but missing entirely God’s plan for their lives. Jesus wept for those He loved – the unlovable, the disobedient, the cruel, the caustic, the haughty and prideful.
If Jesus wept for Jerusalem – and He wept for those He loved – what does that tell you about who you should weep for and who you should weep with?
Jesus shared in life with us – He even shared in our tears. Jesus never skimped on emotions, but was always fully-invested in the human condition. Sorrow, sadness, and grief are not evidence of failure or weakness – they show you’re truly human and very much like Jesus. Jesus wept. It’s alright for you to weep, too.
You learn not only to weep as an expression of your own emotions, you must also learn to weep with those who weep – to share someone’s tears when they’re down, and to allow others to share your tears as well. It’s an important way to show love; it’s an important way to be Jesus to the people around us – as we carry their sorrows.
By entering into every aspect of our lives, and by sharing in our pain and our sorrow, Jesus was able to know us fully, and help us fully know Him. . . now we have the opportunity to help others around us find and know Jesus by how deeply we share life with them.
