Why Would Jesus Weep Right Before Raising Lazarus? (John 11)
This article is part of the Tough Passages series.
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17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
28When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32Now 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.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” –John 11:17–44
ESV Expository Commentary
Two New Testament scholars offer passage-by-passage commentary through the narratives of John and Acts, explaining difficult doctrines, shedding light on overlooked sections, and making applications to life and ministry today.
Death for the Glory of Christ
We are not told the names of the people at whose wedding Jesus turned water to wine in chapter 2. We are not told the name of the Samaritan woman or of the official and his son in chapter 4, nor of the man lame thirty-eight years in chapter 5, nor of the man born blind in chapter 9. But in chapter 11 we learn the names of Lazarus and his sisters.
For the first time in John’s Gospel, we read of Jesus’s loving people. Surprisingly, there is no mention of love in John 1:1–18. God loved the world (John 3:16). People loved darkness (John 3:19). The Father loves the Son (John 3:35; 5:20; 10:17). Those who have God as their Father love Jesus (John 8:42). Now in John 11:3, however, Lazarus is identified as a man Jesus loves, and in John 11:5 we are told, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (cf. v. John 11:36).
Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is ill (John 11:4) in a manner reminiscent of his response to the question concerning the man born blind in John 9:3. The similarity between these accounts suggests that all afflictions are “that the works of God might be displayed” (John 9:3)—indeed, that all deaths are “for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified” (John 11:4).
What Jesus does in this episode seems calculated to teach his followers to wait and hope, to trust him as he lets them linger on the tenterhooks of life. Consider the connection between John 11:5 and John 11:6: Jesus loved them, so when he heard, he waited; Jesus loved them, so he left them in the lurch. The sisters will each say that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died (John 11:21, 32), but Jesus has already explained himself in John 11:4. Jesus is not going to leave those he loves in a lasting lurch, but he will leave them there for a time in order to lengthen the lasting glory he means to lavish upon them.
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The Weeping Christ
Taking Martha at her word in John 11:28 would lead to the conclusion that John has not recorded every word that passed between Jesus and Martha, something to keep in mind as we read the Gospels. Whereas Martha left the crowd to go to Jesus in John 11:20, when Mary rises from the house at Martha’s words, others intend to go with her (John 11:29–31). Martha and Mary spoke virtually the same words to Jesus (John 11:21, 32), but whereas Martha went to Jesus and spoke to him, John notes that Mary “fell at his feet” (John 11:32). From what we see of these sisters here and elsewhere (cf. Luke 10:38–42), it appears that Martha was more expeditious and businesslike while Mary was more emotional and contemplative.
If the truths of John 11:33–36 were not recorded in Scripture, we could draw mistaken conclusions about Jesus. We could be tempted to think this whole scenario was a setup. We could coldly conclude that the events had been arranged for the glory of God (John 11:4), that Jesus waited for Lazarus to die to increase dramatic tension (John 11:6), that all of this was carefully stage-managed for Jesus to show off his power. There is a grain of truth in these statements, but insofar as they imply an unloving puppet-master using people, they are dead wrong.
Sometimes we are tempted to think that God does not care, that Jesus does not care. We could wrongly apply the knowledge of God’s sovereignty as follows: God has foreordained these events for our good, so we cannot let them bother us. We must stay above the flow, must be emotionally aloof, because everything is going to turn out for God’s glory. This way of thinking is a bad application of the knowledge of God to our own lives, and often we project our own coldness onto God himself, as if the fact that God has written the end of the story has made him emotionally uninterested in the plot or characters.
That is not at all how the Bible presents God. From the earliest pages we read that God is emotionally involved in the narrative of history and that he cares about his created beings (Gen. 6:6–7), and throughout the Bible we see the same thing. Here in John 11 we see that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (John 11:5). The fact that Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen does not keep him from reacting emotionally to the facts of death and pain. Jesus knows he is going to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:11, 23). That does not make him cold to the realities involved.
Sin is awful, and death is its terrible consequence. The woe and misery of death troubles Jesus (John 11:33). He is no heartless judge, withdrawn from the pain people feel, clucking that they got what they deserved. John tells us that Jesus was “deeply moved” and “greatly troubled” and that he wept (John 11:33, 35). No one knows better than Jesus what is going to happen in this episode. No one is better at mourning with those who mourn than Jesus. Jesus loves people, so he weeps with them, and over them.
No one is better at mourning with those who mourn than Jesus.
Lazarus, Come Forth
When Elijah and Elisha raised people from the dead (1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37), Scripture indicates that only a short interval of time had passed between death and resurrection. Lazarus, by contrast, “has been dead four days” (John 11:39).
John again describes Jesus as “deeply moved” (John 11:38) and then describes the tomb with a stone in front of it, a scene surely very familiar to John’s readers as they recalled the stone rolled in front of the tomb of Jesus (cf. Matt. 27:60). Both tombs will have their contents emptied.
Jesus gives the word for the stone to be removed (John 11:39), and again we see a misunderstanding. It appears from her reaction that Martha thinks Jesus wants only to weep over the body of Lazarus. When Jesus replies to Martha in John 11:40, we get another indication that he has said more to her than John recorded (cf. John 11:21–27). Jesus has asserted that the illness of Lazarus was for God’s glory (John 11:4), and now in John 11:40 he reminds Martha that he told her that if she believed, she would see the glory of God. When Jesus speaks of God’s glory, he means that death will be overcome, a beloved brother and friend will be restored to life, and Jesus will be seen as one who loves and is able to help.
The relationship between Jesus and his people is not a sham enacted to give Jesus opportunities to show off. Jesus loves his people and weeps with them and for them (John 11:5, 33, 35, 38). Nor is the relationship between Jesus and the Father a bogus pretense. Jesus prays to the Father in John 11:41–42, and his words do not reflect a mindless going-through-the-motions but rather afford a glimpse into a vital ongoing relationship. Jesus simply communicates aloud what is constantly passing between himself and the Father.
Jesus next commands Lazarus to “come out” (John 11:43), and in doing so the voice through which the worlds were made, by which babies are knitted together in their mothers’ wombs, by which all things hold together, by which everyone will be judged, cries out words that will roll back the deepest, darkest curse we know: by his word he made the world, and by his word he undoes death.
Lazarus comes out, and Jesus gives the command: “Unbind him, and let him go” (John 11:44).
Response
Recall what Jesus said about the man born blind and the death of Lazarus: Jesus will receive glory from our suffering. We must wait on him to heal us. In returning to Judea to help Lazarus, Jesus faced the murderous Jews of Jerusalem. What made him so bold? Jesus was confident in God’s plan for him. We must learn from Jesus and imitate his courageous daring, grounded on God’s sovereign plan.
John shows no interest in having Lazarus testify to his experience. Lazarus does not speak, nor does he write a bestselling book about his experiences while dead in the tomb. What is John interested in? The fact that Jesus overcame death. He is interested in the ability of Jesus to speak the word and give life. John is interested in exalting Jesus. Unless Jesus comes back before we die, we will all find out for ourselves what lies beyond the veil. In the meantime we should be interested in what John is interested in: Jesus.
Because of what John shows us of Jesus, the fearful finality of death for ourselves and those we love has been softened by the empathy of Jesus, and we face death in hope, due to our confident expectation of resurrection.
This article is written by James M. Hamilton and is adapted from the ESV Expository Commentary: John–Acts (Volume 9).
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