Why Did Jesus Weep?

READ: JOHN 11:1-44

When I was little, I would talk with God, praying, “God, if you’re really up there, please show me a sign!”

I think my prayer is one that, at one point or another, we all pray. We want to know if God is there. But we also want to know, “Is He here? Does He care about my thoughts and situations?”

In John 11, Jesus’s close friends, Mary and Martha, sent a message asking Jesus to come to their house: their brother, Lazarus, was dying. They sought Jesus’s help and comfort during this difficult time, but Jesus delayed coming.

When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus was dead, and the sisters asked Jesus why He didn’t prevent this. They wanted to know: “Don’t you care about us and what happens to us?”

Then Jesus went to Lazarus’s tomb and wept. Jesus knew He Himself was the Resurrection and the Life, and that, in a few minutes, He would raise Lazarus from the dead. So why did He weep?

The simple answer is Jesus grieves over the things we grieve. He grieves over sin and the hurt it causes—including death. He grieves over the fact that the people He made often reject Him. Jesus wants to rescue us from all that is broken, and He knows He’s the only one who can. When we are hurt by the sin and brokenness in the world, it’s as if Jesus goes to the “tombs” in our lives and weeps along with us.

Jesus is Immanuel, meaning “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). Be encouraged because God has become one of us. God became a human to end sin and the brokenness it causes (John 1:1-14). Once we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can know that God is here with us even now. He cares deeply about all the details of our lives. And He promises that we will one day dwell with Him in renewed creation, where we will forever be free from tears (Revelation 21:1-5). • Susan Grant

• What specific things in your life have you wondered if God really cares about?

• Jesus weeps over the things that have hurt you. He weeps over sin and all the brokenness it causes. Have you ever pictured Jesus weeping? How might this help us come to Him in our grief?

Jesus wept. John 11:35 (CSB)