This verse occurs in John's narrative of the death of Lazarus of Bethany, a follower of Jesus. Lazarus's sisters—Mary and Martha—sent word to Jesus of their brother's illness and impending death, but Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus died. Jesus, after talking to the grieving sisters and seeing Lazarus's friends weeping, was deeply troubled and moved. After asking where Lazarus had been laid and being invited to come see him, Jesus wept. He then went to the tomb and told the people to remove the stone covering it, prayed aloud to his Father, and ordered Lazarus to come out, resurrected.[3]
Significance has been attributed to Jesus's deep emotional response to his friends' weeping, and his own tears, including the following:
Weeping demonstrates that Christ was a true man, with real bodily functions[5] (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; Christ was not an illusion or spirit (see the heresy of Docetism). Pope Leo the Great 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, sympathy, and compassion Jesus felt for all mankind.
The rage he felt against the tyranny of death over mankind.[6]
Although the bystanders interpreted his weeping to mean that Jesus loved Lazarus (verse 36), Witness Lee considered the Jews' opinion to be unreasonable, given Jesus' intention to resurrect Lazarus. Lee argued instead that every person to whom Jesus talked in John 11 (his disciples, Martha, Mary, and the Jews) was blinded by their misconceptions. Thus he "groaned in his spirit" because even those who were closest to him failed to recognize that he was, as he declared in verse 26, "the resurrection and the life". Finally, at the graveside, he "wept in sympathy with their sorrow over Lazarus' death".[7]
The verse is also used in the The's song "Angels of Deception" from the 1986 album "Infected." Kanye West uses the verse to end Bound 2, the last song on his 2013 album Yeezus.[15]
After all these long-ass verses, I'm tired, you tired, Jesus wept
— Kanye West, Bound 2
See also
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
^In the NIV, Job 3:2 is the shortest biblical verse. Whereas the KJV reads "And Job spake, and said," the NIV simply has "He said".
^The shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is Luke 20:30 ("καὶ ὁ δεύτερος", "And the second") with twelve letters, according to the Westcott and Hort text. The shortest verse in the Pentateuch, Genesis 26:6, also has twelve letters in the original Hebrew. The shortest verse in the Hagiographa, 1 Chronicles 1:25, has nine letters in the original Hebrew.
^Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure. American Law Book Company. 1902. p. 711. But in this state there were two statues, one against profanity, the other against blasphemy, the former providing a punishment for persons over a certain age who should "profanely curse or swear by the name of God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost," and the latter providing a punishment for any person who should "wilfully, premeditatedly and despitefully, blaspheme or speak wilfully and profanely of Almighty God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, or the Scriptures of Truth,"
^Nordine, Michael (5 August 2017). "This List of Swear Words People Don't Like to Hear in Movies". IndieWire. Retrieved 19 January 2023. The numbers are even higher among Evangelical Christians, the group most likely to object to swearing; a full 90 percent say they'd be dissuaded from seeing a movie that uses "Jesus Christ" as a swear.
^Christopher, Joseph P.; Spence, Charles E.; Rowan, John (September 2000). The Raccolta. St Athanasius Press. pp. 328–329, 367. ISBN978-0-9706526-6-9.
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