Good News to Cry About

Remember when the Four Seasons sang, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”? According to the adage, grown men are tough – they also don’t cry. It would seem crying is both unmanly – and un-girly, as well. Sorry, I can’t agree. Why else would God have given us tear ducts? They don’t disappear when babies grow into adolescents.

The right - and need - to cry isn't
restricted to infants.

Over the course of my lifetime I’ve found occasions for shedding tears: the passing of close friends and family members; overwhelming career and personal situations; crushing disappointments. I sometimes even cry at Hallmark movies, too, but that’s different. Happily-ever-after endings have always gotten to me; after so much reality in everyday life, I don’t need “reality TV,” too. A good ole tear-jerking fantasy once in a while can do wonders for the psyche.

Elements of society, however, seem determined to eliminate the causes for crying. Isn’t that why “participation trophies” were invented, so little Johnny or Jenny won’t feel badly because some other teams – or teammates – are more proficient at playing the game than they are?

Unfortunate as it may seem, life often serves up circumstances deserving a good cry. Things are going along perfectly well, then all of a sudden, they aren’t. Either we react by crying, or as a friend used to tell me, sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying. As Proverbs 14:13 points out, ”Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.”

When those times come, and no one escapes them, we can take heart because of two words from the Bible: “Jesus wept.” These two words, consisting of nine letters, comprise the entirety of John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible; at least in English translations. Despite their brevity, these two words – a proper noun and a verb – are packed with profound meaning.

What’s the big deal about Jesus crying? The context of the verse was Lazarus, brother of Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha, had died. Several days later, Jesus encountered the sisters, who both said, “if you had been there, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21,32). The next verse states that Jesus, observing everyone weeping over Lazarus’ death, “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” After asking to see where Lazarus’ body had been taken, He wept.

Theologians disagree on exactly what prompted Jesus to weep. Some say he was grieving the passing of Lazarus. Others say He was responding to the heartache his friends experienced. There are those who say it was because people – even close friends – failed to realize who He truly was. Still others conclude Jesus cried for an even deeper reason, knowing how the world’s brokenness, because of sin and man’s rebellion against God, had brought painful, tragic consequences.

Maybe we can ask one day: “Jesus, You remember that time when Lazarus died and You wept? What was that really about?” I suspect when we see Him face to face as the Scriptures promise, it will be a moot question. Nevertheless, those two words carry great significance for us, not only for the sweet by and by, but even more for the nasty now and now.

Many verses in the Bible offer encouragement and hope for difficult times, but reading that Jesus wept provides the assurance that when times of great pain and sorrow do come, the Lord can truly say, “I understand.”

An Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah described Him as “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). Another translation says He was “acquainted with grief.” Jesus did not come to the world in human form to slip through life without experiencing the depth and breadth of what it means to be truly human.

In practical terms, this means when we pray and present to Him the trials and travail we’re facing, He can relate to us from firsthand experience. As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” And I believe this includes our times of grief and despair.

So, when we read the simple words, “Jesus wept,” they deliver great news. He can assure us, “I have been there. I have done that. I can understand what you’re going through.”