Jesus wept

I’ve cried a lot since I found out Thursday morning that Yo Han Lim, one of my tenth grade students, had passed away in a moto accident.  Sometimes I was crying for his family, sometimes for Logos students, sometimes for myself.  Sometimes I didn’t even know why I was crying. 

One thing’s for sure.  I wasn’t crying for Yo Han.  Everyone who knows Yo Han knows how much he loved Jesus and how dramatically God has changed his life in the past two years.  We know he’s having the time of his life in heaven.  He was just talking with another teacher, Tim Jones, this weekend about how much he was looking forward to heaven and what an amazing adventure it would be.  I’ve loved reading students’ posts about that.  "Have fun!  See you soon!"  One said when we get there and join Yo Han, he’ll talk faster than ever, so excited to tell us what we’ve been missing out on.  No, Yo Han doesn’t need any tears, because he’s happier now than he’s ever been. 

But I was crying nonetheless.  As I thought about why, I was so thankful to be reminded of a Bible passage I studied earlier this spring.  Some friends and I have been studying the book of John, including chapter 11, where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  A lot of people know one verse from that chapter, just because it’s the shortest verse in the whole English Bible: “Jesus wept.”  But I’d never really looked at that verse till we studied it.

First, let’s set the scene.  Jesus is good friends with three siblings - Mary, Martha, and Lazarus - but he’s in another town when Lazarus becomes deathly ill.  So Lazarus’s sisters send a message telling Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick,” but Jesus stays put for two days before he heads to their town.  When he arrives, Lazarus has already been buried for four days. 

Mary goes out to meet Jesus as he arrives, and she collapses in utter grief and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  What were you thinking?  You could have saved him!  Don’t you care?  Aren’t you powerful?

Jesus sees her weeping, surrounded by a crowd of weeping friends, and “he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.”  And…here it comes…Jesus wept.  He weeps right along with them.

What the heck?!  He knows, far better than any of them, that death is NOT the end of the story – that by leaving earth, Lazarus gets to arrive in his real home, the place where his heart is fully satisfied.  He even knows that in just a minute, He’s going to bring Lazarus back to life on earth.  (Did Lazarus even want to come back?  No one ever talks about that part.  My theology here is quite hazy, but I’m hoping Lazarus didn’t consciously arrive in heaven yet, because earth would be such a huge letdown after a taste of heaven.)  They’ll watch Lazarus walk right out of the tomb.  Mary’s tears will turn to laughter.  Their friends’ mourning will yield to shock and delight.  Just one more minute till the sorrow is over!  Jesus knows that.  He could even forego the crying bit and skip ahead to the “raising from the dead” part.  So why on earth is Jesus weeping?

It’s because He loves us.  Jesus wept because when He became human, loving people started to hurt him just as much as it hurts us.  He wept because it broke his heart to see Mary and Martha so overcome with grief.  He wept for all of us humans, for the burdens we carry because of sin and death.  The broken relationships.  The things left unsaid.  The fear and jealousy and selfishness and bitterness.  The sickness and warfare and heart-wrenching pain.  We were helpless against it all, and He felt its weight firsthand with his dear friends Martha and Mary.  He wept because it’s so hard for us, this “being human” stuff, and His heart goes out to us.  And He wanted us to know that He knows, He really KNOWS what it feels like to lose someone you love dearly. 

A couple verses later, Jesus is at the tomb, asking Martha for an act of faith.  “Take away the stone.” 

“It’s going to stink in there,” she protests. 

But He tells her, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” 

They take away the stone from the tomb’s entrance and Jesus prays, “Father, thank you that you always hear me.  Please let them know it and believe that you sent me.”  He calls, “Lazarus, come out!” and Lazarus does, very much alive and well.  But Jesus is thinking bigger than just his friend walking and talking again.  That’s good news indeed, but He wants to spread bigger and better news.  God is good!  God is powerful!  God is about to rescue you, the human race!  Wake up, people, and behold God's glory!

Lazarus’ story is a hint of Jesus’ power against death.  But Lazarus wasn’t immortal after that.  After however long, he had to die all over again.  The dying process probably wasn’t comfortable.  His sisters and friends probably missed him just as much the second time around.  His resurrection in John 11 was a temporary fix to a universal problem: Our bodies don’t last.  They’re like tents, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, that can’t hold our souls forever. 

The bigger and better news comes a few chapters later.  As Jesus is crucified, all those burdens we’ve carried from sin and death weigh heavy upon him.  The broken relationships.  The things left unsaid.  The fear and jealousy and selfishness and bitterness.  The sickness and warfare and heart-wrenching pain.  All the sources of his tears with Mary and Martha, he battles against their full force.  His last words were, “It is finished” – the battle was won. 

Two days later, we meet another Mary outside a different tomb – Jesus’ own.  She too is weeping... until she sees angels where Jesus’ body should be.  Just then, a gardener appears: Jesus in disguise.  This time, instead of joining in, He asks her, “Why are you crying?”  He knows well the ache in her heart, but it’s time to announce that those burdens have lost their ability to paralyze us.  They remain for us while we are on earth, and they may weigh on us for years and years, but they are only a shadow of their former selves. 

So now, we're living between Lazarus' first resurrection and our final one.  Relationships still break, but they can be mended, and our most important relationship is assured.  We've been given peace that can daily replace our fear, our jealousy, our selfishness, our bitterness.  Sickness and warfare still claim lives, but our goodbyes to those we love are only for a while, because in the span of eternity, the longest lifetime is soon over.  When we lament to God, Where are you?  Don't you care?  Aren't you powerful? we know the answers can be found at the cross.  And when we leave earth, God promises to wipe away every tear, because there's no room for death and mourning and crying and pain in our new, joy-filled lives with Him (Revelation 21).

Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
-1 Corinthians 15:55

Your tears are over, Yo Han.  Mine will be too when I see you soon.