Significance has been attributed to this phrase for a number of reasons, including the following:
• Weeping demonstrates that the Christ was indeed true man, with real bodily functions (such as tears, sweat, blood, eating and drinking - note, for comparison, the emphasis laid on Jesus eating during the post-resurrection appearances). His emotions and reactions were real; the Christ was not an illusion or spirit. Pope Leo I referred to this passage when he discussed the two natures of Jesus:
"In his humanity Jesus wept for Lazarus; in his divinity, he raised him from the dead."
• The sorrow felt by Jesus presages the suffering of his own crucifixion.
• The sorrow, sympathy, and compassion Jesus felt for all mankind.
• Jesus's weeping demonstrates that Lazarus had genuinely died. The raising of Lazarus was therefore not a fraud or a case of misdiagnosis.
• Most people interpret his weeping to mean that Jesus was sorrowful for the fact that Lazarus had died (which was the interpretation of the bystanders in verse 36). However, an alternate explanation considers this to be unreasonable, given his full knowledge that he was about to resurrect Lazarus.
This view instead argues that every single person whom Jesus talked to in John chapter 11 (his disciples, Martha, Mary, and the Jews) was blinded by their misconceptions of Jesus and by their failure to recognize that, as he declared in verse 26, he himself was "the resurrection and the life".
Thus, "he groaned in the spirit and was troubled" (New King James, verse 33). This view holds that he wept because even those who were closest to him were still blinded by their concepts to the fact that he really was "the resurrection and the life"—beyond mere doctrine (verses 25-27)—in spite of all his plain words to them.
A striking point in this view is that the only person in the chapter who had no misconceptions was the dead man Lazarus, who promptly obeyed and received life when commanded to come forth.
Finally, this view holds that the bystanders in verses 36-37, just like most readers today, were blinded by their own misconceptions and so did not understand that Jesus was actually weeping for them, not for Lazarus.
In Christ,
Janet Irene Thomas
Playwright/Screen Writer/Director
Published Author/Gospel Lyricist &Producer
FOUNDER/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts
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