Why did Jesus weep if He knew He would raise Lazarus?
Question 3074
This is one of those questions that touches the very heart of who Jesus is. In John 11:35, we read the shortest verse in the English Bible: “Jesus wept.” But why? He knew perfectly well that within minutes He would call Lazarus out of the tomb. He knew the ending of the story before it happened. So why the tears? The answer takes us deep into the nature of our Lord and His profound love for us.
The Setting
Lazarus had been dead for four days when Jesus arrived at Bethany (John 11:17). This detail matters because by Jewish reckoning, after three days the soul had definitively departed. There was no possibility of resuscitation. Decay had begun; Martha even warned Jesus, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). The situation was, by all human measures, hopeless.
Mary came to Jesus and fell at His feet, weeping, and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, “he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled” (John 11:33). He asked where they had laid Lazarus, and they took Him to the tomb. And then: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
The Greek Words Tell Us More
The Greek in this passage is very instructive. The word for Jesus weeping is ἐδάκρυσεν (edakrysen), which means to shed tears, to weep quietly. This is different from the word used for Mary and the Jews, κλαίω (klaio), which refers to wailing, loud lamentation, the kind of mourning common at funerals in that culture. Jesus wept, but not with the hopeless grief of those around Him.
The phrase “deeply moved in his spirit” translates ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι (enebrimesato to pneumati). This is a strong word. It can mean to be angry, to snort with indignation, to be deeply stirred. It is used of horses snorting. This was not a mild emotional response; something moved Jesus to His core. And then “greatly troubled,” ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν (etaraxen heauton), means to stir up, to agitate, to trouble oneself. Jesus was not just passively affected; He actively engaged with this emotion.
Why Did Jesus Weep?
Genuine Compassion
First, Jesus wept out of genuine compassion. He loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. John tells us plainly, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). He was not a detached deity observing human suffering from a distance. He entered into it. He felt it. The writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is touched by our griefs. He is moved by our sorrows.
This is the wonder of the incarnation. God became man. He did not merely appear to be human; He was and is truly human. He experienced hunger, thirst, weariness, and yes, grief. He knows what it is to lose someone you love. He has walked through that valley.
Anger at the Ravages of Sin and Death
Second, that word “deeply moved” suggests something more than just sadness. Many commentators believe Jesus was also angry, not at the mourners, but at death itself. Death is an intruder. It was not part of God’s original creation. It came as a consequence of sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Jesus stood at that tomb, He was confronting the great enemy that had brought such sorrow to humanity.
He was looking at what sin had done to His world. This was not how it was supposed to be. Lazarus should not be in a tomb. Mary and Martha should not be weeping. Death should not exist at all. And Jesus, standing there, knew better than anyone the cost of undoing this curse. He knew that to destroy death, He would have to die Himself.
The Weight of What Was to Come
Third, Jesus may well have been feeling the weight of His own approaching death. Just a few verses earlier, the disciples had warned Him about returning to Judea: “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” (John 11:8). Jesus knew that by raising Lazarus, He would set in motion the final events leading to the cross. Indeed, John tells us that it was after this miracle that the chief priests and Pharisees began plotting in earnest to kill Him (John 11:53).
Jesus wept perhaps because He saw the cost of redemption with perfect clarity. He saw the cross. He saw the separation from the Father. He saw the darkness. And He walked toward it anyway, out of love for us.
The Humanity and Deity of Christ
This passage beautifully displays both the humanity and deity of Jesus. His humanity weeps; His deity raises the dead. His humanity is moved with compassion; His deity commands, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43). He does not choose between being God and being man; He is both, fully and completely, in one Person.
The Jews who saw Him weeping said, “See how he loved him!” (John 11:36). They were right, more right than they knew. Jesus’ love for Lazarus was real. His grief was real. His tears were real. And yet in the next moments, He would demonstrate power over death itself, calling a corpse back to life with a word.
What This Means for Us
This passage is deeply comforting for those who grieve. It tells us that Jesus does not stand aloof from our pain. He enters into it. He weeps with us. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). That comfort comes from One who has Himself mourned, who knows what it is to stand at a grave and feel the weight of loss.
But the passage also gives us hope. The One who weeps is also the One who says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). The tears are real, but so is the resurrection. The grief is genuine, but so is the glory to come.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?'” John 11:25-26
