Weeping With Jesus

In John.11 we read of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. In brief, the chapter summarizes what we may term the mourning and comforting of the family in Bethany. Lazarus got sick and died, vs. 11 – 14. His sisters, Martha and Mary, who had earlier sought Christ’s intervention mourn for their lost brother with the sympathy of their neighbours and nearby friends. The arrival of Christ at the scene brought comfort to the family when Lazarus was raised from the dead vs. 43,44.

We read in v.33, that when Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and wept v.31. Why did Jesus weep? Because we are told that Lazarus was his friend v.11 and that He loved him vs.3, 5 & 36. Or was he moved by the sorrow of the family and the Jews, v. 33 and felt pity for them? That does not say why Jesus wept because we are told that he knew what would come to pass when he got the message from Martha v. 4.

The Man Lazarus

The people were right to say that Christ wept because he loved Lazarus v. 36. But we ask the question, Who was Lazarus? John 11 is the only record that elaborates about Lazarus and yet we are told that Jesus loved him, and that they were friends. The fact that Lazarus’s sisters sent for Christ when he was sick with the words, ‘he whom thou lovest is sick’, give us the idea that Lazarus might have spent some time with Jesus and it may be that the message was sent at his request.

But who really was Lazarus? We look at his family to see if we may have a clue. V. 2 says, Lazarus’s sister Mary was the one who anointed Jesus’ head with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. When we look at Mathew 26:6 we are told that Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper (see Mk. 14:3) and Luke 7:36 informs us that he was a Pharisee. It was in this Simon’s house that Mary anointed the head of Jesus. We come to understand from John 12:1 that this incident took place six days after Lazarus was raised from the dead and Lazarus was present in that house, sitting with Jesus at the same Table – with Simon the leper of course. Then came in Mary and did her anointing.

We may infer that Simon the leper who was also a Pharisee was the head of this family in Bethany, who might have invited Jesus for a supper (Lk. 7: 36), probably as a gesture of gratitude for what he had done for his son Lazarus. Only he, as the father of Mary, could have easily discerned that the daughter (Mary) was a sinner (Lk. 7: 39). And again we may infer that Judas Iscariot was Lazarus’s brother, being the son of Simon (John. 6:71 &12: 4) rebuking his sister’s act for using their treasured oil on Jesus that could have fetched money to the family. But our main concern in browsing this family profile of Lazarus is to know why Jesus loved him and called him his friend.

Friends of Jesus

We now have to first consider who are the friends of Jesus. James 2: 23 says, Abraham became God’s friend because he believed in God. Jesus says in John 15: 14 that ‘ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you’, and we can only do His commands if we first believe in Him. When we do the things of Christ - things pertaining to the kingdom of God, - we become the friends of Christ.
Lazarus, though he might have come from a family with sinners was doing the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Christ knew Lazarus was to assist in his work through his death and resurrection that ‘the people may believe that thou hast sent me’. Christ might have thought of the impact of his own death and resurrection on the entire world, how many would believe and be saved. He knew Lazarus would die and sleeping in the grave those four days. Yes Jesus loved Lazarus.

It could also mean that they may not have necessarily met physically to be friends. We are the friends of Jesus today not because He has come physically to our houses, but because we have heard and believe in Him and keep his commands.

WHY WEEP?

What we have come to see is more than what the Jews saw, in that Jesus did not weep because Lazarus was dead. Looking at Luke 23: 28 after the people had consented to Jesus being crucified, Jesus told the weeping women, not to weep for him but for the things that would happen after his absence from this world. Remember what Martha said to Jesus in John 11: 21 ‘Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died’. Jesus saw how faithless they were with him in their midst - the unbelief, even amongst his disciples. He saw the frailty of mortal man in their weeping and he thought of what he had to do to bring them and us from mortality to immortality. He saw death, the wages of our greatest enemy, sin, and how the world loves sin more than righteousness . Then he wept.

Jesus wept for us, for our sinfulness and its effect on us. He is still weeping because we still sin. We need to forsake sin and make him glad, turn his tears to laughter as he sees the result of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, in all he has done for us in his death on the cross. We too need to weep with Jesus. Weep for those bad things that are happening in this world. Weep for our sins as Peter wept when he denied Jesus (Lk. 22.62).

Bro. Amban Rassendyll (Limbe, Cameroon)