John 11:35
| John 11:35 | |
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| SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS | |
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Commentary
This is the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus' friend Lazarus has just died. The Greek verb edakrusen (to weep) signifying the silent shedding of tears and occurs only once in the New Testament.
Context
The phrase occurs in John's narrative of the death of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus. Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus of their brother's illness. Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus' death. Jesus, after talking to the greiving sisters and seeing Lazarus' friends weeping, was deeply troubled. After being shown where Lazarus was laid, Jesus wept in front of Lazarus' tomb. He then ordered the people to remove the stone covering his tomb, prayed aloud to God (for the benefit of the people), and ordered Lazarus to come out.
Interpretation
Significance has been attributed to this phrase for a number of reasons.
Weeping demonstrates that the Christ was indeed true man, with real bodily functions (such as tears, sweat, blood, eating and drinking. 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."
Some 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). Jesus may have wept because he understood and knew the pain and suffering that death brings. An alternate explanation considers that Jesus wept in anger. This view instead argues that every single person whom Jesus talked to (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 was "the resurrection and the life". Thus, "he groaned in the spirit and was troubled" (John 11:33). 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".
Translations of John 11:35
Quotes
Links
Return to Christianity -> Bible -> New Testament -> Gospels -> Gospel of John -> John 11
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