"Do you know the shortest verse in the Bible?"
Ever since I was in Sunday School, I tried to learn as much as I possibly could about the Bible and its stories. And so Bible trivia in Sunday School was my favorite activity. Until this question came up. What is the shortest verse in the Bible? How is anyone supposed to know that?
The answer is John 11:35, a short verse that packs a big punch. "Jesus wept" tells us more about Jesus than some books I have read. It tells us of the full humanity of Jesus. Jesus is not stoic- even though He knew that Lazarus was going to die, and even though Jesus knew Lazarus' resurrection was right around the corner, Jesus breaks down at the thought of His friend's death. But weeping doesn't only refer to Jesus' humanity, but also His divinity. We do not have a compassionless, stoic God. The God of the Old and New Testaments is full of compassion and emotion, even if that emotion is different from human emotion. God, the creator of emotion, experiences emotion as well.
"Jesus wept" also tells us the urgency of Jesus' mission. "Christus Victor" is a phrase used by Christians throughout the centuries to describe Jesus' mission as the defeat of death. Jesus weeps at more than the death of one person, Jesus weeps over the toll of the kingdom of death. Those tears motivate Jesus toward His own death and resurrection, when the tomb will be plundered and Jesus will rescue the captives from the power of death (Ephesians 4:7-11, 1 Peter 3:18-22).
My takeaway from all of this is that my mourning has divine companionship. When I weep, it is only an echo of the weeping of Christ. And so I know that my tears have an end date, when death itself is put in chains and will hold power over us no more. Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.
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