John 11:35 Jesus Wept

WHY DID JESUS WEEP?



Jesus was a man like us, but a perfect man, God come in the flesh. Like us, he loved and served God, felt compassion for suffering people, and had physical and emotional needs. But unlike us, Jesus served God in absolute obedience, expressed his compassion through perfect works, and looked only to his Father to fill his needs.

Jesus loved mankind so much that he took upon himself our sorrows, our sin and our punishment in a supreme act of love, but he never allowed himself to be overcome with emotional sentiment. He didn't cry over suffering. When confronted with sick and infirm people--the lame, the blind, the paralyzed, the lepers-- Jesus didn't weep with them in empathy; he just healed them. Even sick and dying little children didn't move Jesus to tears. Weeping was no help to them, but healing was.
Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion on the crowds around him because "they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36.)

But instead of wringing his hands and crying for them, he offered to be their Shepherd. Even when his beloved cousin John was beheaded, Jesus never publicly mourned, as was the custom. Although John had spent his whole life preparing the way for him, Jesus didn't gather his disciples together and preach an emotional eulogy. Instead, he "withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place" (Matthew 14:13.)

And when he returned and saw another large crowd waiting for him, he went on with his work: "He had compassion on them and healed their sick" (Matthew 14:14.)

In the end, as he hung dying on the cross, Jesus saw his grieving mother in the little crowd of women nearby. In fulfillment of prophecy, Mary's own soul was being pierced with a sword as she watched her perfect son suffer a cruel, unjust death. But Jesus didn't weep for his mother. Instead, in the last moments of his life, Jesus made sure that Mary would be cared for; he gave her as a mother to the disciple he loved, and John tells us that "all was now completed" (John 19:28.)

Jesus' entire ministry was spent in speaking the Father's mind and doing His work. He knew why he'd been sent--to bring light and life to the world--and he knew that neither pity nor sentiment would overcome the darkness and death. Jesus overflowed with compassion, not sympathy, and he never dwelt on others' feelings. In fact, he often spoke what were judged to be harsh words:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34.)

"Another disciple said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.' But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead'" (Matthew 8:21-22.)

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29.)