John 11:35 is short and simple.
"Jesus wept."
Seems easy enough to understand, given the surrounding narrative, the death of Lazarus and his family (John 11:1-54). Or is it?
What does it mean in the Johannine story of Jesus that "Jesus wept"? Was it out of sadness? If so, for whom was Jesus sad? It is not as if Jesus, fully divine yet fully human, could not experience emotions! Of course he could! Did he weep then at the loss of his friend Lazarus, and for Mary and Martha? Was Jesus sharing the pain of the grieving here? Or was he pitying them? Or was it something else entirely?
Certainly elsewhere in the New Testament Saint Paul encourages us in Romans 12:15: "rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." Paul teaches us the need for empathy, that is, to be sensitive to the other and share his or her life, understanding the other's point of view and communicating that you do. Empathy has been described by the wise as the gift of love that is as if you could see through the eyes of the other, but without losing the "as if." Empathy should not be confused with sympathy, which is only pity or sorrow for the other.
And certainly Jsus is with us through our darkest hour, our most troubled times. Jesus, true God and true man, is with us in our pain and suffering.
Not to discount that profound truth, I think from what I have learned, there is much more here. How we look at something affects what we take from it. We have to remember that the sacred authors did not envision 21st century Westerners as their audience when they wrote the stories that would become the Bible. The Holy Spirit does have a Word for us through these many words and expressions and literary genres, but we are audience in a secondary sense. We are eavesdropping every time we read the Scriptures, listening in on an ancient faith dialogue between God and our fathers and mothers in faith, both Jew and Christian. We have to carefully investigate, as best we can, the original meaning of the text in its historical and literary context. We must carefully refrain from reading our own opinions into those verses which does violence to the text.
The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, n. 12:
“The interpreter must look for that meaning the sacred writers, in given situations and granted the circumstances of their time and culture, intended to express and did in fact express through the MEDIUM of a contemporary literary form. For the correct understanding of what the sacred author wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another.”
Good scholarly commentaries help. The following was helped by Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of John by Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.. Lets break this section of Scripture down:
According to scholar Raymond Brown, this account of the miracle of reanimating Lazarus serves the purposes of Johannine theology. Following Brown, Moloney sees this section thus:
a) Vv. 11:1-6—Intro. Place, time, characters, situation, and major themes of the narrative are introduced.
b) Vv. 11:7-16—Two decisions get made. Jesus decides he must go to Judea, and Thomas decides the disciples should accompany him.c) Vv. 11:17-27—Jesus encounters Martha. Jesus reveals himself as the resurrection and the life but is misunderstood by Martha.
d) Vv. 11:28-37—Jesus encounters Mary. After she initially surpasses her sister Martha’s confession of Jesus she falters and joins “the Jews” in their weeping and false understanding of Jesus.
e) Vv. 11:38-44—The miracle, the Seventh Sign in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus calls forth Lazarus, that doubting and unbelieving characters might believe that he is the Sent One of God.
f) VV. 11:45-54—The decision of “the Jews.” The leaders decide that Jesus must die. The full significance of this death is provided by the narrator as Jesus and his disciples leave the scene and go to Ephraim.
(Note on the use of "the Jews" -- this is a blunt term the Fourth Gospel uses repeatedly throughout its narrative in reference to the opponents of Jesus. It is placed in quotation marks because "the Jews" does not refer to the Jewish people as such but those characters who have fixed their minds incorrigibly about Jesus and the Johannine community at the end of the First Century -- it is not an endorsement for antisemitism.)
The Special Sister and the Sent One from God
To understand (d) we need to get into its surroundings. We now look closely at vv. 32-36—
…Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”…
According to Moloney Lazarus’ death should never be the center of Mary’s attention, or anyone’s. Up until now she was totally focused on Jesus, responding to the voice of the Good Shepherd (see 11:28-29; cf. Jn 3:8, 29; 5:25, 28; 10:3-4, 16-17, 27; cf. particularly 10:1-18; also please note 5:37). Whereas in her own encounter with Jesus Martha had taken the initiative on every turn (11:21-22, 24, 27), Mary—one of the Good Shepherd’s own sheep—was called forth by the word of Jesus.
Mary is the special sister, the Lord’s own, in the Johannine narrative. She approaches Jesus differently than Martha, and upon seeing him falls at his feet (11:32—idousa auton epesen autou pros tous podas). And though from this low position repeats PARTIALLY the confession of Martha (cf. 11:22) in 11:32b—“Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died—she OMITS Martha’s REASON FOR CONFIDENCE (“whatever you ask from God, God will grant to you”). In other words, unlike Martha, Mary does not box Jesus into being a “Miracle Worker.” Her confession of Jesus simply states unconditional trust in the power of the presence of Jesus. This means that Mary, not Martha, accepts Jesus’ revelation of himself as the resurrection and the life (cf. 11:25-26). In this story Mary has true faith (11:29, 32); Martha falls short of true faith (11:21-22, 24, 27).
But then, disaster! By weeping Mary switches her attention from Jesus to her dead brother. Mary succumbs to the weeping of “the Jews” (11:33). Jesus sees her weeping, and “the Jews” who are with her also weeping (11:33ab). Result: he is strangely moved. It is not compassion that moves Jesus to anger in spirit and TROUBLES him (11:33c). Nor is it lack of compassion. What is it? Frustration and angry disappointment (enebrimēsato) manifested in a deep, shuddering internal emotion (etaraxen) moves Jesus.
Jesus’ ministry draws to a close. He is frustrated. Mary had earlier displayed every sign of transcending the limited expectations of “the Jews” (11:31) and the failure of the disciples (11:12, 16) and Martha (11:21-22, 24, 27) to understand the significance of the death of Lazarus and Jesus’ self-revelation as the resurrection and the life (11:25-26). Mary has joined “the Jews” in their tears (11:33a)! Up until now the narrative reports that the only ones who have been crying are “the Jews” (11:19, 31). So this is HORRIFICALLY DISAPPOINTING FOR JESUS!—after initially authentic faith in Jesus, she turns away from Jesus to join “the Jews” in the tears of unfaith!
Deep Frustration!
Do you see why Jesus reacts this way? WILL NO ONE COME TO FAITH? By reversing her earlier unconditional acceptance of Jesus (11:28-32), she does something that occasions anger and severe disappointment in Jesus. Nonetheless he must still continue his mission. He must wake Lazarus from sleep (11:11) and glorify God, and through this event be glorified (11:4).
Jesus asks to be led to the tomb of Lazarus, “THEY” invite him to “come and see” (11:34). The context demands that it is Mary and “the Jews” (11:33) who issue this invitation. Mary now has total association with “the Jews” leads Jesus to tears (11:35). “The Jews”—like many reading this passage—completely misunderstand the tears as a demonstration of Jesus’ love for the dead Lazarus (11:36). But in Greek the weeping of Jesus (dakryō) is not the same as the weeping of Mary and “the Jews” (klaiō), and Jesus’ tears therefore cannot be associated with the surrounding mourning process.
Why then did Jesus weep?
He wept because of the DANGER that his unconditional gift of himself in love as the Good Shepherd (cf. 10:11, 14-15), the resurrection and the life who offers life here and hereafter to all who would believe in him (11:25-26), will never be understood or accepted. Jesus weeps his frustration!
What do you all think about this?
