Jesus Wept - Pt 2

Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:32-35 ESV). We will continue to look at God’s compassion today. Underscored by Jesus weeping has to be His understanding of our condition. Jesus understood clearly that his death would be the end of the result of sin in the world. Condemnation and death would be defeated once and for all. The fear of judgment would be broken in the cross. Knowing this did not lessen the impact of the condition of the world. Sin continues and grieves God deeply. The act of sin in our lives grieves God and so do the wages of sin. Since the fall of Adam and Eve he had endured sin’s horrific destruction. Death had consumed almost every human being he had created. It had taken Lazarus, and it would take him again before it was all over. Tears of anger and longing were mixed with Jesus’ tears of grief. This happens throughout Jesus’ ministry. It is magnified in Gethsemane. Jesus, on the night of His arrest, went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, “And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death…” (Matthew 26:37-38). Interestingly, “Gethsemane” means olive press. Near the garden was an olive grove, and it was probably in this garden that the olive oil was pressed out of the olives. It is here that Jesus prays for God to let this cup pass from Him. He prays so fervently, and is in such deep anguish, that drops of blood came out of His skin. He was being pressed like an olive. Physicians tell us that this is entirely possible when a person is under extreme amounts of stress and pressure. It happens dramatically on the cross also. His fifth statement from the cross is “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, has had constant fellowship with God the Father for all eternity. What must hit have been like for Him now to have that relationship severed and broken? Whereas before, Jesus had always prayed to God as “My Father,” He now referred to Him as “My God” the way other humans did. Sin had now separated Jesus from God. Where for eternity past there had been warm fellowship and a loving relationship, there was now only broken fellowship, a sense of deep and agonizing loss, a hopeless despair, and the blackness of depravity. No one could understand the depth of our condition more than Jesus. It shouldn’t surprise us that he weeps in compassion for us. Turn to him. He will not refuse you!