Jesus Wept

Introduction

Well, do you know what day it is? If you don’t, you have a quick trip to Walgreens in your near future. Because today is Mother’s Day. And although we don’t have a Mother’s Day lesson, I did want to spend just a little bit of time in our introduction to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers out there and to express my appreciation for the tireless sacrificial work that you’re doing as a mother. If you still are blessed enough to have your mother with you, give her a phone call today. She’s feeling more isolated than usual, but reach out to her and express that happiness and that joy and that thanksgiving to your mother. And we’re thankful, particularly for the godly mothers that did the yeoman’s work of molding us spiritually and making us what we are today.

So happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers out there. This morning we want to focus in upon a particular teaching of Jesus. We recognize with the audiences that gathered around our Lord that he was a master teacher. The people marveled, even at times his enemies would marvel at the authority and the skill at which he taught those people.

At least three different ways. There’s the most obvious one, his verbal teaching. The gifted oratory that Jesus had. We have examples of that in the Sermon on the Mount, and we wonder at the teaching contained and encapsulated in those parables that Jesus taught. And so Jesus was a teacher when he taught. But Jesus taught other ways as well. I would argue that his miracles were a form of teaching. That we learn something about Jesus and about God from the miracles that he performed. We see and we learn his power over nature, his power over disease, and maybe most importantly, his power over death. And so those miracles teach us something. There’s a third means of teaching that we read in the scriptures, and those rare glimpses into Jesus’ everyday life, his everyday interactions with people.

We learn something. And again, those are rare. But those times in which we read in the gospels that Jesus is not preaching some sermon or teaching some parable, when he’s not performing a miracle, but when he’s just interacting with people.

1. The Fact That Jesus Could Weep

Of the life of Christ that we can learn from. On three occasions, the Bible tells us that our Lord wept. And we’re not just moved by the fact that Jesus wept, but we learn lessons from each of the three times that the Bible records that Jesus wept. Now, we’ll say from the outset that just because there’s three instances in the New Testament of Jesus weeping, that’s not to say that’s the only time that he wept. But we can learn from these three times that the scriptures tell us that our Lord wept. Let’s begin by just looking at the fact that Jesus could weep. I believe that tells us something. Before we look at the particular times in which Jesus wept, let’s just look broadly at the fact that Jesus did weep.

That tells us something. You know, emotions reveal the heart, don’t they? The fact that you can show emotions tells us something about the heart of someone. If someone refuses to cry when everybody else is crying, that might tell us something about the heart of that individual. If someone is easily moved to tears, that might tell us something about the heart of that individual. On the other side of that equation, your ability to laugh and what you laugh at tells us something about you, doesn’t it? And so I believe that Jesus’ capacity to shed tears tells us something about his heart. And as we look at the three accounts of Jesus weeping in the New Testament, I want you to consider that thought. That each one of these, and all of them in their entirety, tell us something about the heart of our Savior.

That he could weep and that he did weep. Look with me in the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, we understand, and one of the greatest lessons I want us to learn from the fact that Jesus wept is that Jesus is our sympathetic Lord. In Hebrews chapter 4, in a very familiar text in verse 15, it says, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. We do not have a high priest who cannot. Why is it phrased in the double negative there? Why doesn’t it just say we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses? It would say much the same thing, but maybe the emphasis on that double negative is to steer us away from the inclination that we might then tend to think that Jesus, being divine, would not sympathize.

That because he is God and possessed all the elevated attributes of God, because he was so powerful and so holy that we might be inclined to think that God cannot sympathize. But we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. And one of the reasons we know that, one of the most profound lessons that teach us that is in Jesus’ ability to weep with us. And so when the New Testament scriptures enjoin upon us that we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Another thing that it tells us is it tells us that as John began his gospel in speaking of that word, who was with God and was God from the very beginning, that that word became flesh and dwelt among us. That means much more than Jesus came here. That it means much more than he just came here with a rescue plan for man. The idea that he became flesh means that he partook of flesh and blood.

And maybe these occasions of Jesus sharing in our human emotions is telling us that our Lord can sympathize because he partook of flesh and blood. But it also tells us that he is God. Is Jesus’ ability to weep, and for that matter, our ability to weep, is that an inclination of his humanity. Jesus wept, we could argue. Jesus wept because he was human, and after all human beings weep. Those with a good, tender heart at least do. Or does Jesus’ ability to weep and therefore our ability to weep there because we were made in the image of God. And that God has the capacity for emotion. We normally think of emotion as being a human attribute, but maybe it’s a human attribute because we were made in the image of God.

Let’s look at a couple passages this morning. Go back in your old testament to the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah chapter 3. Zephaniah chapter 3. That may be a little hard to find. Find Malachi and take a left. And you’ll find Zephaniah, and the last chapter of Zephaniah, Zephaniah chapter 3. Zephaniah, like many of the prophets, is speaking of the destruction of God’s people, but also, like the prophets, the other prophets, he speaks of the restoration of God’s people. And notice what he says in the midst of the declaration of the prophecy that God’s people would not only be punished, but they would be restored. And notice what he says about our God. Zephaniah chapter 3. Look in verse 17. The Lord your God, when he restores you to the land, the Lord your God is in your midst.

The mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. Do you see what Zephaniah the prophet is saying? When God saves you, when God restores you, he’s not going to do that as just some cold calculating move because you’re a part of this grand scheme, and he’s using you as pawns on a chessboard to fulfill some mission that he has. No, Zephaniah says, when God puts you back in your treasured place, he’s going to rejoice over you. God’s going to be glad, and he says, now, how literal is this? I don’t know, but he says, He’s going to rejoice over you with singing. You see, emotion is not just a human attribute, it’s a divine attribute, and maybe it’s a human attribute because we’ve been made in his image.

In the book of Ephesians, go in the New Testament with me. In the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, the other end of the emotional spectrum, is in Ephesians chapter 4. We are urged, one of the reasons we are urged not to commit sin, especially as children of God, is because of the emotional effect it has upon God. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30 says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. You see, Jesus, while he partook of flesh and blood, his ability to weep with those who weep not only shows his human side, but I believe it gloriously demonstrates his divine side. That God can grieve.

2. Sympathetic Tears at the Grave of Lazarus

God can rejoice. And God feels emotion, much like you and I. But now let’s look at the three particular instances in which Jesus, the scriptures tell us that Jesus wept, and see if there’s further, maybe more specific lessons that we can learn from that. The first time, turn with me, if you will, in the book of John, chapter 11. The first time we read of Jesus, and again, doesn’t mean it’s the only times, but the first time we read of Jesus weeping is at the grave of Lazarus.

But let’s reacquaint ourselves with some of the facts. Jesus was not in Bethany, the home of Lazarus and Mary and Martha, but he receives word in the location that Lazarus is sick. But Jesus delays going to Bethany. And by the time Jesus does arrive in Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Lazarus is dead, and understandably his sisters, Mary and Martha and many others are grieving at this loss. But Jesus knows something they don’t know. He knows what they know that Lazarus succumbed to this sickness and is dead, but he knows that Lazarus will not remain that way. Oh, Mary and Martha knew, yes, I he’ll be resurrected in the last day. But no, Jesus knew even more than that. And in that famous of all verses in John chapter 11, and in verse 35, it simply records that at the grave of Lazarus, seeing the sorrow of his family and friends, it simply records Jesus wept.

The next verse says, the Jews exclaimed, see how he loved him. Now let’s think about this occasion of Jesus. Why did Jesus weep at the grave of Lazarus? You might say, well, because the Jews were right. He loved them, and his friend is now dead. Of course, he’s going to weep at the passing the death of his friend. But I think there’s more to it than that. Because if you think about it, what emotion would we expect on this occasion? Now don’t misunderstand me and take this in the wrong way, but we would almost could expect Jesus to have a wry smile on his face. Because again, he knows what they don’t know. And he knows that he’s about to perform this miracle, and Mary and Martha are going to rejoice that their brother is alive.

And all of the friends that had gathered are going to be so happy that Lazarus was dead, but now he’s alive. And we wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus just had a little smile on his face of saying, just wait. But he doesn’t.

And it’s what we saw in the general idea of the fact that Jesus could weep. I think we see specifically in this occasion that we see the sympathetic tears of Jesus. The Greek language in which the New Testament was written has at least two words for crying. One is what we call uncontrollable sobbing. That’s what Mary and Martha were doing at the grave of Lazarus. When it says that Jesus wept, it just simply means that he just shed some tears. Have you ever gone to the funeral of somebody that you didn’t know? Maybe somebody you’d never even met. You went because some friend or brother and sister in Christ or co-worker knows that person, and so you went to support them, but you didn’t know the deceased.

You probably have.

Because again, you didn’t know that person. You experienced no real loss in the passing of that individual. Then why did you cry at that funeral? You either cried at that funeral because it made you think of somebody that you have lost, but maybe more specifically you cried because your friend or your brother and sister in Christ were showing such great emotion at their personal laws, and you felt sympathy for them. I’d argue that that’s why Jesus wept. Not because he had lost Lazarus, because he knew that he hadn’t really lost Lazarus. But Jesus wept at the sorrow of the friends of Lazarus, and surely by his good friends Mary and Martha. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Hebrews, chapter 2. We look there in Hebrews 4 at the fact that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, but look more specifically in Hebrews chapter 2.

There’s a curious statement, a curious word really used in the book of Hebrews about Jesus. It will say of Jesus in the book of Hebrews that his coming and partaking of flesh and blood perfected him or made him perfect, depending on your translation. Now that’s curious, isn’t it? How could a divine being be made perfect? How do you make something perfect that’s already perfect? Well, let’s see if we can understand that in Hebrews chapter 2. Let’s begin in our reading in verse 8. It says of Jesus in Hebrews 2 and verse 8, you’ve put all things under subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

We begin with the premise of the deity of Jesus, the excellence of Jesus, that not only is he above us as human beings, but the Hebrew writer has argued that he is superior to angels. And so we see this high and powerful and holy being. But as we’ve already talked about, he became flesh and blood. Read on in Hebrews 2, verse 9. But we see Jesus, the same Jesus who God has put everything under his feet. That is the same Jesus who was given such an excellent and high position. We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. That means he partook of flesh and blood. That’s us. We’re lower than the angels. For suffering, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God might taste death for everyone.

This high being partake of flesh and blood and partook of death. Verse 10, for it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation, that’s Jesus, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Again, I asked the question, wasn’t God already perfect? Wasn’t Jesus already perfect? So how was he made perfect through suffering? Not perfect in the sense that anything necessarily lacked from his attributes of deity, but he was perfected in that now, having partaken of flesh and blood, he is perfectly qualified to be our high priest and perfectly qualified to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Let’s talk just a little bit about the whole idea of the concept of sympathy.

Sometimes we misuse that word a little bit. We may say of somebody, I sympathize with you. Well, sympathy really means I know what you go you’ve gone through because I have gone through it myself. Let’s use it’s Mother’s Day. Let’s use the example of the pain of childbirth. I might say to a mother, I can sympathize with what you went through, to which every mother would stand up and say, no, you can’t. What I meant was, I can experience some kind of emotion. I’m sorry you went through that. But I can’t really sympathize with that, can’t I? Because I’ve never experienced it. To truly sympathize, you have to have gone through it. And so we say, we saw that God experiences emotion. But for him to be perfectly qualified to be our high priest, for him to be perfectly qualified to sympathize with not only our temptations, but with our sorrows, our heartaches and our heart breaks, Jesus had to be made perfect through suffering.

3. Jesus Weeps Over the City of Jerusalem

And so here he stands, the grave of his friend, weeping. Not because he lost a friend, but because his other friends’ hearts are broken. And so that tells us something. That helps us to understand and it adds weight to the lines of the song that we just sang. Does Jesus care? When we read these stories, we can loudly sing the chorus. Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. Does he care when the nearest and best to me has left this world? Yes, he cares. Because Jesus wept. The second occasion in which we read about Jesus weeping is found in Luke chapter 19. Turn with me there. In Luke chapter 19, Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. Now this weeping is a little different. We said the weeping that he experienced at the grave of Lazarus was just a few tears that he shed in sympathy of Mary and Martha.

But here he’s going to weep like Mary and Martha wept. This is sobbing. When it says in Luke chapter 19, begin with me in verse 41. Now is he, speaking of our Lord, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they’re hidden from your eyes. For your days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side and level you. You and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation. Just prior to his death, prophesying of the destruction of this blessed city and of the temple, the house of God.

The text says Jesus wept. One thing that we see that all three occasions of the New Testament recording that Jesus wept have in common is sin. It was sin that took the life of Lazarus. It is sin, the collective sin of this nation, that causes Jesus to weep over the prospect of the destruction of this city. And so, knowing of the coming suffering, again, feeling sympathy for his people, but also knowing the sin that brought about this judgment. The text says that Jesus looked at this city and wept bitterly because of what was going to happen. That teaches us something about God, doesn’t it? It teaches us not just his capacity to weep, his capacity to grieve as a divine being, but it teaches us how God feels when he has to judge people.

It erases or it ought to erase forever from our mind this idea of a vindictive, hateful God who’s just waiting for us to trip up and stumble and fall so that he can gleefully laugh as he strikes us down with lightning bolts. Jesus sees this city whose deserves everything they’re going to get that have over and over again transgressed the law of God. And he sees the judgment and the horror coming upon them, and rather than gleefully laughing as he wrings his hands, Jesus looks and holds out his hands. Matthew says and says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I would have gathered you together. But you would not. And he weeps at the judgment that’s coming upon them. Well, lastly, we’ll go to the book of Hebrews this time, in Hebrews chapter 5.

4. Vehement Cries and Tears Over That Cup

We read in the gospel accounts of Jesus emotional agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The gospel writers tell us that he was sorrowful. The gospel writers tell us he was in agony. The gospel writers tell us that sweat fell from his body as drops of blood, and that he prayed to his father. But notice what the Hebrew writer reveals in Hebrews chapter 5, begin with me in verse 7. Speaking of our high priest, it says, who in the days of his flesh, Hebrews 5 7, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

But he offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears as he prayed to the one who could save him, or as Jesus would say, who could take away that cup. And Jesus weeps. He weeps at the grave of Lazarus. He weeps overlooking this city. And now in prayer to his Father about that cup that he had to bear. He wept bitterly. Now why did he weep here? Let’s think about what was that cup. Jesus said, if it be possible, Father, let this cup pass from me. We know the cup was something that he was given to drink. It was his role, his duty. It was the wrath of God that he had to taste. But what all was involved in that cup? I’ll offer a few options for you.

You may could add to this list. What did that cup experience? That Jesus asked, if it be possible, let it pass, but not my will, but thine be done. When we understand what all was in that cup, we’ll understand why Jesus wept on this occasion. That cup would involve the human suffering. Jesus would be scourged. Talk about sympathizing. I can’t sympathize with that. I don’t know what it feels like to be scourged. The closest comparison I have is Mrs. Powell in the sixth grade would use hickory switches to whip us. And that was nothing compared to the scourging that Jesus suffered on this occasion. He was nailed to the cross, a death, an excruciating death, in which you would literally drown in your own bodily fluids as you hang there in misery.

But he would also face the specter of death. Death carries with it an inherent fear, doesn’t it? Even when you know there’s life and resurrection on the other end, there’s still a fear of death. And here is a divine being that death is a part of the human experience, but it’s not a part of the divine experience. Never before has deity had to experience death. But he will now. And so there’s the suffering and the death, but there’s so much more, I believe, in that cup. This occasion will cause his apostles, whom he calls his sheep to be scattered when the shepherd is struck. This is going to have an effect upon those apostles. Judas will betray him with a kiss. Peter will deny him three times, and the rest of them will flee.

Because of what’s about to happen. I think that was a part of that cup. There’s the fulfillment of prophecy. Have you ever had what you felt like was an awesome, responsible task placed upon your shoulders? That you at least were largely responsible for this task, whether it succeeded or failed. And do you ever feel the weight of that? Responsibility? Maybe it kept you up at night, thinking that this is on my shoulders. I have to. Jesus carried the entire plan of salvation on his shoulders. Literally, hundreds of Old Testament prophecies depended upon him at this moment. And surely he felt the weight of that responsibility, that awesome responsibility.

That God was asking him to drink. And as we said, it’s not just the fulfillment of those prophecies, it’s the completion of God’s eternal plan. Before the foundation of the world, God concocted this wonderful plan of reconciliation. And it all came down to this. You want to talk about carrying a weight and responsibility. That’s what was in that cup. And we’ve already seen he’s wept over the city of Jerusalem. He had said in Matthew chapter 23, to that generation upon whom all this would come, fill up the measure of your father’s wrath, your father’s guilt. That this was going to be the proverbial straw that would break the relationship between God and Israel. That the destruction of that city and the taking of life and the ending of that relationship forevermore was going to be because Jesus was nailed to a cross.

That was part of that cup. And he also had to drink the cup of experiencing the wrath of God against sin. Him who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. And he would cry out on that cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I don’t believe God was fully forsaking Jesus, but he was allowing Jesus to suffer on that cross. By his stripes, we were healed. And so God did not rescue him from the garden, did not rescue him from the scourging, did not take him down from that cross until Jesus’ own words were fulfilled. It is finished. That was the cup Jesus had to drink. And no wonder he wept at the prospect of what sin had done. Of what sin had done to his friend Lazarus.

Conclusion

It’s what sin had done to an entire nation of people in its capital city. And what sin had brought him to this earth to do, to drink that cup so that we might have life. Do you see how Jesus taught us? Even in his tears, he teaches us about a sympathetic God who loves us and who would pay the ultimate price that we might be forgiven of our sins. Do you need to render obedience to that gospel? Jesus weeps still over the sin that’s in this world and the destruction that will come upon the individuals who refuse to turn their lives over to him. We’ve said before, and we repeat it today with sincerity, we know we’re separated from you. We know these are unprecedented times, but we also know that the gospel of Jesus Christ still contains the power.

And we know this that whatever circumstances, we’re ready to study the Word of God with you. We’re ready to assist you to render obedience to the gospel. If you need to study, reach out to us. If you need to obey the gospel, reach out to us. That we might study with you. We might pray with you, that we might help you, based upon your faith, repentance, and confession, to be baptized for the remission of your sins. And when that happens, Jesus himself said that when that happens, there is joy in heaven. Thank you.