The Fellowship of Tears

“Jesus wept.” More wonderful words than these are nowhere to be found in Scripture.

The verb translated “wept” is unique in its employment here. It is not found elsewhere. Literally it is, “Jesus shed tears.” These were tears of sympathy with the bereaved–Heaven’s gem’s sparkling on the cheeks of Emmanuel, God with us, revealing to mankind the very heart of the Eternal.

The Lord stood by the tomb where a loved and only brother had been laid, and where two brokenhearted sisters mourned him. Could He not have prevented this sorrow? Yes. Could He have not come earlier and robbed death of its triumph? Yes.

But this sorrow was permitted for the glory of God. How true the words of the sisters: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died!” Death cannot abide His presence. Here, then, we find it clearly taught that God permits death and sorrow to come upon His loved ones that He may be glorified thereby. This is a fact worthy of deep pondering.

Had Lazarus not died these words would never have been written, “Jesus shed tears.” Had Lazarus not died these silent witnesses to the anguish that tore His heart in view of human loss and sorrow would never have flowed. Had Lazarus not died this special revelation of the heart of God would have never been granted to men to support them in the hour of anguish and sorrow. The death of Lazarus has enriched the race with a vision of God, the glory of which can only be discerned through tear-dimmed eyes.

These sisters had seen Him often. They had ministered to His wants. They had listened to His words. They loved to welcome Him to their home and to gaze upon His face. He brought the sunshine of Heaven with Him, and diffused its peace around. They rejoiced with Him, and He rejoiced with them.

He touched them in their joy; can He touch them also in their sorrow? They had seen that face radiant with holy joy; they must see it likewise clouded with anguish and behold the teardrops coursing down. Thus would He teach them, and us, how to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Rom. 12:15).

We reach a common bond in the brotherhood of tears. I weep with my brother at morn; he weeps with me ere night. May the tears of the Son of God at the tomb of Lazarus not appeal to our hearts in vain! He has placed a holy dignity upon tears.

The tears of the Lord at this time are all the more wonderful as we contemplate the fact that He knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead and restore him to these sisters and thrill their hearts with an unexpected joy. Not for them alone, therefore, were these tears shed. They were shed to assure our hearts that He sees and understands.

Of nothing are we better assured from Scripture than that the Lord is still able to enter into the sorrows of His people, as He did during the days of His flesh, to sympathize with them in bereavement, and to send them divine succor from on high. To this very end did He suffer when here below. It behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.

The words of the angels to the disciples after His ascension were: “This same Jesus” (Acts 1:11). He sits upon the throne of God, having been absent in person from our world for nearly two thousand years, but these words prove that He is still unchanged, that He abides the “same Jesus.”

True it is that He now is where tears can never flow. But the compassion that caused Him to shed tears in the days of His flesh remains unchanged, and by the Spirit He draws near to assure our hearts of His divine sympathy.

Uplook Magazine, October 1994
Written by L. W. G. Alexander
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