|
|
|
Jesus Wept
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John 11:1-45
Our gospel reading today says “Jesus wept.” The image of a weeping Jesus is quite different from the popular portrayal of Jesus. Most paintings show a dignified, dispassionate Christ.
It is the shortest verse in the bible, but it says a lot. Some say it’s a sign of weakness; some say it shows disbelief and doubt. To me what I see is someone who is fully human, someone who shares all our human emotions. He wept…he was greatly disturbed. We see the same traits in Gethsemane and also in Hebrews. Other passages say that “Jesus was, with loud cries and tears, offering prayers and petitions to the one who could save him from death.’
It’s interesting to see John’s gospel portraying Jesus expressing these emotions. Out of all the gospels, John’s gospel begins by clearly connecting Jesus with God and the Divine…. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…..He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.”
In that very gospel, more than any other gospel, incarnation of Jesus, the word became flesh is equally strong. John uses images from ordinary life to tell the good news—light, bread, door, gate, breath. In last week’s story about the blind man, Jesus uses mud and saliva to heal him and this week, tears, weep, being disturbed…loud cry…raising the dead corpse with the smell of stench..
Jesus wept and Jesus got greatly disturbed, but in the next minute he went to the tomb with the community of people and with loud cry and command, “Lazarus come out of the tomb….” and the dead man woke up. After Jesus had called Lazarus forth from the tomb, he told the bystanders to free him from his burial bonds. It seems that even in moments of great power such as this there is a role for the community to play.
I think that is true. Jesus at times seems quite cool and distant. His agenda seems quite different from other people who are. When he heard about Lazarus’ death, Jesus lingered for two days where he was, rather than going straight there. His first response also was not weeping, but saying, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified though it.” Here Jesus seems to be distant from people’s immediate concerns, seeing things from God’s perspective. What I mean is, really trusting that God’s purpose is there in the midst of every human affair.
He loves human beings so much. That is why he died on the cross, isn’t it? But he also knows that God’s love, God’s purpose is even beyond human imagination…His final loyalty goes to God since he knows that God loves human being even unto death. Not vice versa. That is why he is able to be cool….able to make distance…
At the same time though, once he is surrounded by people, he is in the midst of people and their grief, he too began to weep. Again I do not know why he wept. Whether he wept because he was affected by others weeping—the sorrow and grief—or wept because love and attachments of people from people….”’or he wept because of the sins and death power surrounding this world…or he wept for his death which will be coming soon.
Jesus is a man of many signs, but this is a much higher profile miracle. When the authorities learn of this, it is provocative. What I mean is that raising Lazarus became the critical moment for the Jewish leaders to decide to kill Jesus. If they let him go on doing this, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both the holy place and the nations. For Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, it is easy to say that it is expedient for one man to die so that the whole nation should not perish. In raising Lazarus Jesus is moving towards to the cross.
I believe that Jesus was God and became God, because he was able to be human. Yes, this gospel is all about glorification of God and Son of God. The moment/hour of his death is the hour of glorification. But at the same time, the son of man was able to weep, asking God to take away the death from him, knowing that raising dead will make his death closer, but despite that he could not do nothing but being with the community and went to the tomb and cried out to the dead man to come out. Yet not by himself but with the community, saying that unbinding him, letting him go……and believing that everything happening to him and the community will lead to the glorification of God. May God bless the hearing of the word. Amen.
|
|
|
|
University United Methodist Church
608-256-2353
|
|
