Another reflection from Makoto Fujimura’s book Art and Faith:
In the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, we find the story of Mary and Martha and Jesus and Lazarus. The name often used in the title of the story is Lazarus, though Lazarus does less in the story than any of the other three. When the chapter begins, Lazarus has been sick and things are not looking good. His sisters Mary and Martha have asked Jesus to come quickly to see, to help, even to heal. Jesus denies their request saying something about how Lazarus will be okay and about how God will be glorified. Soon after that, Lazarus dies.
Jesus, some distance away, feels compelled to go and see Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and he tells his disciples that he is concerned. When Jesus finally arrives, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.
Mary (who would later anoint Jesus for his own burial) stays in the house. Martha approaches Jesus and through her tears tells him that if he had been present earlier Lazarus would not have died. Jesus tells her that Lazarus will rise again. She replies that she knows that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day, and at that Jesus says that he himself is the resurrection. Martha calls Mary to come and see Jesus and when she does she says the same thing that Martha had said, “if only you had been here earlier”. There is some commotion in the house. People have been consoling Mary and Martha. When Jesus sees their grief and sees the others weeping he asks to be taken to the tomb. It is at this point that we get what is sometimes referred to as the shortest verse in the Bible:
“Jesus wept.”
For Makoto Fujimura this verse and the occasion it describes is central to understanding the Christian gospel. Fujimura asks evocative questions around this story, one of the most compelling being, what did Lazarus hear when Jesus called him to life, called him out of the tomb? The biggest question, though, is, why did Jesus weep? If Jesus knew that Lazarus would be raised to life, then why would he cry at the grief of his friends? Why not just appear as champion for all of those who had been weeping and grieving? In Fujimura’s words;
We must pause here and again recognize that Jesus’ tears were not necessary. The purpose of his delay was to show power in resurrecting Lazarus. So why did Jesus waste time with Mary weeping?
The wastefulness of Jesus’ tears leads to an understanding of God that moves beyond utility and function.
Jesus wept - and he continues to weep today. Tears of God are powerful. They may evaporate, or soak the ground, but they never disappear. We breathe today the tears of Jesus. Artists may be the first to recognize the invisible presence of divine tears. That’s why the church needs artists - people like Mary - in the world. When we weep and join God, our tears are commingled with God’s tears and multiplied like the fishes and the loaves that Jesus touched.
Jesus’ tears - are perhaps unnecessary for our exegesis of the scripture and preaching. But that, to me, is why the gratuitous, even unnecessary tears are the most important element of the gospel.
We hear a lot about the division in our world, and about the recent manifestations of confusion, argument, sorrow and despair. The shortest verse in Scripture, in Fujimura’s estimation, reminds us that Jesus is with us, even in, particularly in such sorrow and suffering.
I pray a prayer of blessing for you as you weep over the pain and sorrow of others, as your tears join the tears of the world. I pray a prayer of blessing for you as you come to know the presence of Jesus whose tears join your own, for your own sorrow and for the life of the world.