“Just play-acting?”

Meditation – Monday, November 1, 2021 by Rev. Michael Stonhouse

John 11: 32-44 (Forward, p. 3) CEV p. 1116

“’Jesus wept’: it is the shortest verse in the entire Bible, both Old and New, but what does it mean? What I am hinting at is this: what was going through Jesus’ mind at the time? He had deliberately--or so it seems-- refrained from ‘showing up’ at the scene until after Lazarus had died. And had already (in verses 23 and 25-26), He commented that Lazarus would live again. So, was it His intent all the way along to raise Lazarus from the dead, as He would indeed do a bit later? So, what does His weeping mean? What does it mean when He already knew what He was planning ‘to pull off’? Was it just ‘play acting’, this weeping of His?

I think not. Firstly, I think that Jesus fully enters into our agony, our loss, our emotions in general. He is impacted by what we experience, what we go through, and by our states of mind and our emotions. He does not just stand outside of us and observe, as from a distance. No, He draws near to us and takes all of it upon Himself. The weeping of Mary and the people with her were something that He entered into and made His own. Our sorrow, our loss, our experiences, become His own. To me, that is something of what the Incarnation is about, namely that Jesus became fully human, fully like us and fully entering into our lives and our emotions.

But not just that, as a loving and caring God, He was upset by the impact of sin and evil upon the lives of those He loved—and people in general. Yes, He was upset by the effects of sin, even knowing that in this one particular case, He would remedy it, at least in the short term.

God is not a distant God, a watchmaker God as the Deists suggested, that simply created the world, set it in motion, and then left it to its own devices. No, God cares deeply that His creation is so corrupted, so changed from its original intention, that death and degradation are now its natural and inevitable outcomes. He cares for the world and its people in general, and yes, He cares in each individual situation and person, and that is why His perfect will is that it will all be transformed and made new and perfect once more.

Indeed, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, He made His decisive assault upon these things. It is like a spiritual D Day. He has made the crucial bridgehead into enemy territory. The back of the enemy, death and sin and Satan, are broken, and only the ‘mopping up operations’ now remain. We, you and I, are part of those operations, before that final victory is won.

And so, we are to remain faithful, brave, courageous, and constant in our tasks, faithful to whatever tasks we have been assigned. The final struggle will be difficult. There will be further Lazarus’ that hit the dust, further pain and death and nastiness, but it will all be worth it.

And in it all, our Commander in Chief, our Lord Jesus, is with us in it, caring about what we are going through and feeling our pain, and helping us as only He can. It is not ‘play acting’ on His part. He truly does care about what we are experiencing. And so, we trust and carry on. Amen.

Forward notes: “Jesus began to weep” (verse 35).

“In both the Revised Standard and King James versions of the Bible, this verse is translated, ‘Jesus wept.’ The New Revised Standard Version translates this verse as ‘Jesus began to weep.’ I am old enough to remember hearing all three translations read during the burial and Lenten liturgies. Whole sermons were preached on this one short verse—and for kids, it is the easiest to remember. Other translations such as the Peshitta version are more poetic with the words in English translated as, ‘And the tears of Jesus came.’ The biblical Greek offers: ‘Jesus, he shed tears.’

“Among my earliest recollections in the church are the many funerals I attended and the mourning and grieving that punctuated them. People cried openly and freely. Nowadays, this openness has become closed. The weeping is private. Perhaps this has to do with societal norms telling us to ‘Get over it’ or ‘It’s a celebration of life.’ It is as though the mourning process is a sign of weakness. This brief verse, however, is a reminder to me that it’s okay to grieve, and to let the tears come.”

Moving Forward: “Do you need a good cry today? Embrace the tears, remembering that even Jesus wept.”