So a random fact-toid for you the next time you’re on Jeopardy or playing Trivia Pursuit. While the Gospel we just heard is somewhat lengthy one, within that reading was one of the shortest scripture verse recorded in the whole New Testament: John 11:35 “And Jesus Wept.” In some translations, they even drop the word “and” – which would then tie it as the shortest verse in the whole Bible. Those two words: Jesus Wept. (Interestingly, that would tie with 1 Thessolonians 5:16 which beautifully, providentially says “Rejoice evermore.”)
Jesus Wept
A couple of words that say so much.
Because think about it. What does it means when we say someone wept?
It’s more than just feeling sad.
It’s more than the act of crying.
Hi everyone here’s my homily for MARCH 29, 2020- FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT. During this time of public Masses being suspended, I invite you to pray with us as we pray for you on our FACEBOOK PAGE cick here (Sundays at 7 PM, Mon-Thurs at 5:30/Fridays at Noon which are followed by a Eucharistic Holy Hour. If you miss it live, the videos are all their archived so you can watch them later) Thanks so much for stopping by to read this and even ore for sharing it on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and everywhere else people share social media posts and your feedback and comments! For the audio version you can get them at SOUNDCLOUD click HERE or from ITUNES as a podcast HERE. Thanks again – I hope you and yours experience all of God’s blessings today and always! In Christ – Father Jim
Anyone of us whose experienced this act of weeping knows it. You weep when you feel deep, intense feelings. Raw emotions for someone or over something that has happened… It’s so jarring that you can feel it in the pit of your stomach. Your heart aches. You’re so overwhelmed by the feelings that you’re experiencing that you’re unembarrassed by the flood of tears.
On the one hand no one would wish this experience on another, knowing how hard and painful an experience it truly is. But on the other hand, weeping reveals something immensely important: when you’re experiencing that much pain, you know without a doubt that something has touched so deeply, right to the core of your being that your realize the depths of your heart. When someone has wept, it’s because something meant that much to them.
Which is why this shortest of scripture verses is somewhat puzzling.
Jesus wept.
Jesus?
That this was recorded tells us how striking it must’ve been for the witnesses. It’s not like Jesus forgot who He was – or that He didn’t know what he was able and capable of doing and would accomplish for his friend Lazarus. He knew he could and would raise him from the dead. He didn’t weep for himself.
So why did he weep? Some thoughts come to mind:
Jesus wept over the fear that His disciples still had after all this time they had spent with Him. After all they had seen that He could do, after all they had heard Him speak of a God who would not let anything, ANYTHING stop Him from attending to His children in need, fear still undermined that truth. Just look at this gospel – as soon as the disciples hear this news that Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, was seriously ill and needed Jesus their response to this news was but Jesus, the last time we were in Judea, people wanted to stone you…it’s not safe. – In other words they were trying to talk him out of going back! So Jesus wept over that fear that gripped and can still grip his followers.
Jesus wept over the distress Lazarus’ sisters had experienced in seeing their only brother die and be entombed.
Their pain, pained him.
Their hurt, hurt him and so he wept. That’s how much Jesus loved his friends. That’s how much He loves his friends. No – our tears don’t go unnoticed… no they evoke tears from Jesus.
Jesus wept because he knew that as much as his followers loved him and wanted to believe in Him, and did believe in Him to a certain extent… that it was to a certain extent. There was a limit, or a qualifier to their belief. They believed but they disbelieved as well.
Jesus wept because of that doubt. The doubt that was emboldened from seeing this dead man who was in a tomb. They were relying more on the harsh seemingly final evidence of a sealed tomb than with the healed heart of the Samaritan Woman, or the eyes of the Man born blind being completely restored that we’ve encountered in the liturgy the last two Sundays. They, and countless others had already testified to the greatness of what Jesus wants to do for humanity… that He brings healing, restoration, new life into the broken ness of a broken world. That Jesus has power over all things in Heaven and Earth… even death itself.
Jesus wept because he saw that after all He had done, all He would do, that His promise of eternal life and resurrection of the dead wasn’t enough to remove all of the pain of this life. His followers, despite all that was to come, despite his ultimate victory over death in His own resurrection would still experience the pains and sting of death.
Jesus wept because He realized that if the death of Lazarus could cause some of his closest followers such distress, He could only imagine what his passion and death on the cross would do to them. Yet He knew that He needed to endure that passion and death so that God would be able to do even more miraculous, life-changing things for humanity, most specifically saving them.
Jesus wept because in spite of all of that he would say, all that he would do, some would chose to remain entombed, some would chose to remain dead because they believed their sins were too big, too unforgivable. They would remain hidden in the darkness of those tombs rather than experience the healing, the radiance of His love, His light that wants to bring them out of that darkness and isolation.
Jesus wept over those who would refuse to hear His life-giving voice, calling them out of those tombs, rejecting the opportunity to experience newness of life in His radical gift of forgiveness.
Yes, Jesus wept because he Loved.
Jesus wept, because he Loves.
Jesus wept because he knows that for some people, the gift he offers of Himself so freely, so willingly, so selflessly – for some that wouldn’t be enough… Some would simply question, put their trust in other “gods.” They would reject the only God who doesn’t remain aloof, afar, distant – but came as one of us, one with us and who remains with us.. He is the God who is strong enough to become so vulnerable to us… that Jesus wept with us and for us, so much does He care for us.
That’s why Jesus wept.
And why, sometimes, He still does.
