21 Days of Prayer; a Devotion on JohnНамуна

John 11 | Jesus Wept

This is the shortest verse in the Bible, as we have it (the original Greek didn’t have punctuation); the shortest and perhaps the most profound. Two words, three syllables, that change the world. “Jesus Wept” as a phrase has become almost a swear word, an expletive, a blasphemy. Yet its beauty as poetry and power is unparalleled. On three occasions we read of Jesus weeping – he wept at the tomb of Lazarus, his dead friend, moments before he raised him. He wept over Jerusalem moments before he entered triumphantly to joyful crowds crying Hosanna, yet knowing within days they would turn against him, and cry “crucify him”. He wept, according to Hebrews, at Gethsemene, as he endured the agony knowing that before him lay a friend who would betray him, his disciples would abandon him, Peter deny him, a false trial, an unjust sentence and then the entering into the heart of darkness at the cross. Jesus wept, but promised to one day wipe away every tear. Because he cared, because he wept, because he protested, because he died, we would live and our weeping would end forever. He still weeps at all the undoing in the world that sin has wrought – and he wants us to weep with him, and like him, let our weeping turn to work.