Jesus wept

"Jesus wept" is the shortest verse in the Christian Bible (King James Version of the Bible) and is found in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11:35.

Cultural significance

In western English-speaking society, the phrase "Jesus wept" is a common expletive, curse or minced oath spoken when something goes wrong.

Jesus's tears have figured among the Alleged relics of Jesus Christ.

Context

The phrase occurs on the death of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus. Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus of their brother's condition. Jesus purposely arrived late in order to have his disciples learn a lesson concerning the power of God over death. Jesus, seeing her and the Jews weeping, was grieved by their lack of faith and wept in front of Lazarus' tomb. He then ordered the people to remove the stone covering his tomb, prayed aloud to God (for the benefit of the people), and ordered Lazarus to come out.

The resurrection of Lazarus came to the attention of the Jewish priests and because of the many subsequent conversions of the Jewish to Jesus' teachings, this was one of the aspects that led to their conspiracy to have Jesus killed.

Interpretation

Significance has been attributed to this phrase for a number of reasons, including the following:

• Weeping demonstrates that the Christ was indeed true man, with real bodily functions (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; the Christ was not an illusion or spirit (see Docetism). Pope Leo I 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 felt by Jesus presages the suffering of his own crucifixion.

• Jesus's weeping demonstrates that Lazarus had genuinely died. The raising of Lazarus was therefore not a fraud or a case of misdiagnosis.

External links

• John, Chapter 11 at bible.org