Jesus wept – why did Jesus weep?

Response

Two passages in the Gospels and one in the Epistles “In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his reverence;”, (Hebrews 5:7) teach that Jesus wept. In the Gospels, our Lord wept as He witnessed human suffering, demonstrating His compassionate human nature, His empathy for people, and the eternal life He offers to believers. Through His tears, Jesus revealed all these aspects.

John 11:1–45 narrates the death and resurrection of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, and a close friend of Jesus. Jesus wept “Jesus wept.”, (John 11:35) when He saw the sorrow of Mary, Martha, and others mourning Lazarus’s passing. His tears were not for Lazarus’s death itself, as He knew Lazarus would be raised soon and dwell with Him in heaven forever. However, He couldn’t help but shed tears when faced with the grief of those around Him “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.”, (John 11:33). The original text suggests that Jesus shed “silent tears” or tears of empathy for His loved ones “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”, (Romans 12:15).

If Jesus had been present when Lazarus was dying, His compassion would have led Him to heal His friend (John 11:14-15). However, preventing a death would have interfered with the divine plan.

It may be considered by some to be a chance circumstance or just a “minor” miracle, and this was not a time for any doubt. So Lazarus spent four days in death’s grave before Jesus publicly called him back to life. The Father wanted these witnesses to know that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus was sent by God, and that Jesus and the Father had the same will in everything (John 11:4,40-42). Only the one true God could have performed such an awesome and breathtaking miracle, and through this miracle the Father and the Son were glorified, and many believed “When Jesus heard that, he said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.'” , (John 11:4,45) “Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.”, (John 11:4,45).

In Luke 19:41–44, the Lord is taking His last trip to Jerusalem shortly before He was crucified at the insistence of His own people, the people He came to save. Earlier, the Lord had said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”, (Luke 13:34). As our Lord approached Jerusalem and thought of all those lost souls, “He saw the city and wept over it” “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,”, (Luke 19:41). Here, wept is the same word used to describe the weeping of Mary and the others in John 11:33, so we know that Jesus cried aloud in anguish over the future of the city. That future was less than 40 years distant; in AD 70, more than 1,000,000 residents of Jerusalem died in one of the most gruesome sieges in recorded history.

Our Lord wept differently in these two instances because the eternal outcomes were entirely different. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus had eternal life because they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but most in Jerusalem did not believe and therefore did not have life. The same is true today: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies’” «Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: », (John 11:25).