Jesus Wept

This is the shortest verse in the Bible. Yet it is also a bit of a mystery.

The verse appears in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
It is one of those gospel passages which demonstrate that Jesus simply cannot be dismissed as a merely good man or even a prophet, he is clearly much more than that!

Lazarus a friend of Jesus had previously died.

Jesus arrives at the tomb, commands that the stone at the entrance is removed (ignoring protests), prays a short prayer of thanks and then tells a man four days dead to 'come out'.

Lazarus duly appears complete with grave clothes.

This was a staggering miracle demonstrating his authority over death.

So why did Jesus weep just before raising Lazarus?

We need to consider his nature. He didn't begin his existence in his mother Mary's womb, rather:

As his disciple Peter had previously confessed:

The Bible also makes clear he was a man, a human being like you and I.

In his humanity he stands before the tomb weeping. The tragedy of death is not lost on him, he is not oblivious of the deep sense of loss of a bereaved person.

Death is a terrible enemy (the Bible even calls it such).4 1 Corinthians 15:26

You and I are powerless in the face of death. We know that our own time will come.

Unlike us Jesus has mastery over death. He declared to Martha:

He weeps along side us but then proceeds to raise the dead!

As Jesus asked Martha, perhaps he is also asking us: do you believe this?