Jesus wept

 

Resurrection of Lazarus, 12th century.  St. Katherine's Monastery, Sinai

 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you."  As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.  Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him.  Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."  

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."  Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.  And He said, "Where have you laid him?"  They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."  Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"  And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"  

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  Jesus said, "Take away the stone."  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there has been a stench, for he has been dead four days."  Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."  Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"  And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

 

- John 11:28–44 

 

In yesterday's reading, we were told that a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."  When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.  Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."  The disciples said to Him "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you, and are You going there again?"  Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?  If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.  But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."  These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."   Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well."  However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.  Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.  And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.  Nevertheless let us go to him."  Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."  So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.  Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.  And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.  Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.  Now Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."  Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?"  She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

 

  And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you."  As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.  Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him.  Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."   Once again, we note the differences in personalities distinctively set out for us in the Gospel between Mary and her sister Martha.  Martha has gone out to greet Jesus as He approaches their home in Bethany (see the reading above from yesterday); she is the sister more inclined to active service.  But Mary has sat in the proper tradition for mourning, inside the house, and awaits Christ's call, which Martha now relays to her, and to which she arose quickly and came to Him.   Note that the text indicates there are those from the ruling parties in Jerusalem ("the Jews," used as a political term in this Gospel to designate the religious leaders).  They have come to mourn with the sisters, indicating Lazarus and his sisters form a prominent family. 

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."  Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.  And He said, "Where have you laid him?"  They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."  Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"  And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"   Mary approaches Jesus with the identical words used by Martha in verse 21, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."   My study bible remarks that while Jesus engaged Martha with words, here He engages Mary with deeds -- the raising of her brother from the dead, which follows in subsequent verses.  But first John's Gospel emphasizes that Jesus wept, and groaned in spirit, to show that He had fully taken on human nature and was subject to grief as any person would be.  My study bible comments that weeping is the natural response to the tragedy of death.  

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  Jesus said, "Take away the stone."  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there has been a stench, for he has been dead four days."  Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"  Although Martha's faith had increased (see yesterday's reading, above), she still understood neither Christ's will nor His power.  The spices and oils used to anoint a dead body would only hold the stench of decomposition at bay for a short time, my study bible comments, and Lazarus has now been dead for four days.  In many icons of this seventh of seven miracles or signs in John's Gospel, bystanders are shown covering their noses (as we can see in the icon from St. Katherine's Monastery, above).  This illustrates both the reality of Lazarus' corrupted flesh and also the fact that many did not believe Christ could raise the dead.  

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."   My study bible notes that in order to show His divine will was one with the Father's and that His human will was freely subject in every way to the Father's, Christ prays aloud for the sake of the people.  Let us not forget those who have come from Jerusalem are also present to witness what happens.  

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"   My study bible comments that Christ calls Lazarus forth, not in the name of the Father, but rather by His own authority.  This shows the people that while Christ came from the Father, He fully possesses divine authority in Himself.  

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."  Many patristic commenters on this passage view Lazarus bound in his graveclothes as an indication that he will need them again.  In other words, Lazarus' resurrection continues an earthly life which will again end in death.  The Savior's graveclothes, by contrast, would remain in the tomb (John 20:5-7).  Unlike that of Lazarus, the Resurrection of Christ transfigures human nature; He will never die again.  My study bible adds that this sign not only prepared the disciples to believe in Christ's Resurrection, but in the words of the Orthodox hymn for the day, it also "confirmed the universal resurrection," proving that Christ has the power to fulfill the promise given to Ezekiel that all the dead will one day rise (Ezekiel 37:1-13).  

Christ's resurrection of Lazarus is a type of prefiguration of His own Resurrection, but it is a purely human one, so to speak.  While the Resurrection will confer eternal life, as my study bible points out, Lazarus' resurrection will mean he will live out a natural human life and once more die a natural human death.  But nevertheless, this life in the tomb is illustrative of our faith and its effects upon us while we still live an earthly life.  That Lazarus walks out of the tomb "bound hand and foot with graveclothes" symbolizes for us the type of binding by death, which is the last weapon of the evil one, as the Church Fathers might put it.  Death is the "last enemy" in this understanding, which Jesus, as Liberator or Savior (for the titles have the same connotation from the Old Testament Scriptures) will destroy for us with His Resurrection.  Lazarus is bound hand and foot, but it is Christ, our Liberator, who will defeat the enemy who has symbolically bound Lazarus, and who gives the command, "Loose him, and let him go."  In the story of Lazarus, nothing is sanitized.  Death is clearly looked at openly, even to the point of bearing with the stench of decomposition, and Lazarus walks out of the tomb bound in his graveclothes.  There is no flinching away from the reality of this world here, for with the light of Christ we go forward even into the darkness.  But it is that light that shines so that we may see life where we could not expect it with eyes shaded in the darkness of a purely materialistic perception.  In the modern world, we tend to have death and illness put away from us, unlike in the ancient world.  Those who have longterm illness may be housed in places that specialize in dealing with their conditions.  The same is true for conditions which affect the mind, or the conditions of the elderly.  There are, of course, important reasons for this.  But it was not always so, as care was focused in the home.   As a result of this separation, it seems to me, many have difficulty seeing the vital life that is still in a diseased body, or of a person who may be dying.  I experienced this in the care of my own mother, who for the last years of her life had Alzheimer's disease/dementia.  For her it took the form mainly of losing speech; that is, of finding the words to express herself, although she was mentally alert.  But I found, as she lost her highly articulate capacity for self-expression, that more of her persona shone through, and especially aspects of herself as a child.  I do not mean that she was childish, only that the personality of the child she had been shone through to me.  As daughter became mother, I found how much I delighted in and loved that child.  I could always make her laugh; and as we are mother and daughter, I could still understand, and often finish her sentences for her.  Communication is essential with this disease, ironically enough; it is social life that delays deeper onset, and fortunately we could still give her that.  But if I had eyes that could only see her deterioration from the person she had been, I would not have been able to see the beautiful life still inside of her, the person who delighted in beauty until the day she died, who could be moved by a sunset, or the words of Scripture, or by prayer, or a beautiful garden.  She could still delight in a delicious meal, and I marveled how she held herself elegantly.  She needed and fully appreciated care, the steamy healing of a warm shower on her back, the relaxation of a backrub.  She remained loving to her friends, enjoyed going out for a meal or coffee and a sweet, and retained her interest in people, even strangers and small children.  All of these aspects of beauty and life she retained through her illness, and quite fortunately her death was peaceful.   My faith gave me the vision of these good things of life present and vital in her, and, seemingly miraculously, I and others who were her friends and loved her watched her grow in her faith, and deepen her appreciation of Christ.   Those of her loved ones who did not share this faith were seemingly unable to cope with her changed condition, could not accept her as she was and still see what goodness and life was there, had no patience for her physical deterioration, and seemingly could not bear to be present for her last days, even telling me that for them she had passed long before.  The story of Lazarus being released from the tomb puts me in mind of the gift of my faith to see life, to know that Resurrection is present in each moment because of the values and sight that Christ has given to us.  The love of Lazarus and his sisters speaks so loudly in today's reading.  Jesus' tears as He wept testifies to that circle of love among these friends.  That love is inseparable from what we know as life, and it gives us eyes to see with, as Christ illumines our way to know that there is life in the tomb, for He has liberated us all from death.  We must remember that He is the One who shone the light in the darkness, even if the darkness did not comprehend (John 1:4-5), and we are to follow Him.  Jesus did not weep out of mere sadness, but out of love, an affirmation of life.  Let us not forget.