In today’s Gospel reading from John we have heard an
incredible story, that of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. I cannot even begin to imagine what the
people felt when they saw a man who had been dead for four days rise from his
tomb. People must have been in
incredible awe, fear, astonishment and every other adjective you can use to
describe it. There are many points of
reflection we can take from the story, I wish to focus only on one short verse,
“And Jesus wept.”
I have had the privilege for the second time to teach
the men who are in formation for the diaconate on the theological subject of
Christology. Christology is simply, the
study of the person of Jesus Christ. The
class examines Jesus’ Divine and human nature and how that mystery is presented
to us in the Incarnation, the Word of God taking on human flesh. You can probably imagine the questions that
are brought up, some of which are, “when did Jesus know He was Divine?” “Were His two natures ever at odds with one
another, i.e. did he have to suppress his Divine nature to be fully
human?” Some of the mystery rests in the
fact that Jesus had to learn how to talk and walk, yet at the same time was
holding the entire universe in existence.
Wow, that’s a lot to try and figure out.
Nevertheless, we have made our feeble attempts. More importantly here, however, for our
purposes, I would like to focus on Jesus as human. Often, we just assume or even take the human
nature of Jesus for granted. When we
usually think of Jesus we automatically think of his Divine nature.
Today we see that human nature really come to the fore
as Scripture tells us, “Jesus wept.” Why
did he weep? Some say he simply wept
because his friend Lazarus had died.
Some say he wept for the crowds as he could still see that their faith
was not fully there yet, they were still clinging to the earthly, only the here
and now. How true is that of all of
us. When a family member passes, we are
devastated and rightly so, it hurts deeply when we experience death of the ones
we love. Eventually, however we must
come to realize that Jesus takes care of His own! That our loved one is happy and in the Lord’s
presence. How much do we cling to the
here and now, not only for our loved ones but even for ourselves? Do we long for heaven? Another way to understand it would be that
the crowds were doubting whether Jesus could do anything now and if He had been
here earlier He would or could have saved Lazarus.
Jesus shows His human nature by His tears, no matter
for what reason He shed them, it could have been for all the reasons I
mentioned. He shows His humanity by
crying. He is truly one of us as St.
Paul said, but without sin. Like you and
me, Jesus had to be nursed by his mother, learn carpentry from his father, he
shed tears and blood like all of us, he smiled, laughed and cried, He felt
pain, He grew tired, He grew physically weak, He grew in wisdom, and He died
just like we all do.
In the movie, “The Shack,” the character Mac, who met
the Trinity says to Jesus, I find it easiest to talk with you. Jesus replied, “because I am like you.” Jesus truly meant that, the only difference
is that He never sinned and that He also has a Divine nature, which also
reveals itself when He commands Lazarus to rise!
It is good to know that Jesus shared everything we
experience. Knowing that God would
become one of us and dwell with us gives us comfort. Yes, He is our Lord, yes, we pay Him great
reverence as the King of Kings, yes, we approach Him humbly, but we can also
approach Him as friend, one who weeps right along with us, one who laughs right
along with us, one who does everything right along with us. It is a gift beyond comprehension that God
would weep not just for Lazarus, but also for us!
