Jesus Wept

 

5th Sunday of Lent

Scrutinies

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040625-YearA.cfm 

We just heard the second longest Gospel reading by numbers of words in the entire Sunday lectionary.  If you are keeping score, last week’s reading was 851 words.  Today’s is 843 words.  These readings are preparing us for our Passion readings next week which are almost three times as long.   Today, we heard 45 verses – the entire 11th chapter of the Gospel of John.  Out of the 45 verses, I would like to focus on one verse (11:35), which is the shortest verse in the Bible.  It is just two words: “Jesus wept.”  

Jesus cries two times in the Gospels.  Today, we see him cry over the death of his beloved friend Lazarus.  Next week, before entering Jerusalem in a procession of palms, Jesus cries for the fate of the city, which is doomed to be destroyed by the Romans in the next thirty-five years in a siege that will result in tens of thousands killed, enslaved or executed.  

These two times when Jesus is attacked by tears express two different types of grief: first, grief that is personal, for a loved one who has died.  And second, grief that is more expansive, that takes in an entire community.   

In our reading today, Jesus wept when he saw his beloved friend Mary of Bethany kneeling at his feet, torn apart by grief at the death of her brother.  Jesus was cut to his core by the intensity of her pain.  It wrenched his guts.  

Often, when Scripture says that Jesus feels compassion for someone, it uses a funny Greek word: splagchnizomai (σπλαγχνίζομαι—Splag-need-zo-mai), which means he was moved in his guts.  Jesus has a literally visceral reaction to the death of his beloved friend Lazarus and to the pain of Mary. Compassion means to literally feel the pain of another in your innards.   

And Jesus wept. 

In downtown Oklahoma City, across the street from where the Murrah Federal Building once stood, there is a Catholic church named St. Joseph Old Cathedral.  On April 19, 1995, almost 30 years ago now, the worst domestic terrorist attack in American history occurred across the street from the cathedral.  

The ensuing explosion caused massive casualties and ripped a massive hole in the earth. 

 Jesus wept.

Like many other buildings in the vicinity, the cathedral suffered extensive damage.  The rectory needed to be demolished.  Standing on the church’s grounds today is a nine-foot-tall statue of Jesus who stands with his back to the OKC memorial.  His face is in his hands as he cries over the deaths and the horror behind him.  The statue is titled, “Jesus wept.”  

When I lived in OKC in my 20s, I would frequently pass this statue.  I would pause to consider the tears of our savior, dropping like prayers for our world.  Jesus sheds tears for us now.  

Jesus’ tears and the wrenching in his gut, however, were transformed to anger.  Death did not come into the world because of God’s plan, but as a consequence of sin.  God did not will death.  Death is not God’s plan, not God’s purpose for any of us.  Death is a manifestation of our fallen world.  God did not will nor cause the death of Lazarus, the bombing in Oklahoma, or the death of our loved ones.  

Jesus wept, and then his feelings of grief and anger moved him to act.  First, he became a human being in order to show us that we are not alone in our sorrow.  He is suffering and walking with us.  Second, he offered himself—his very life for us.  

We see this same pattern of walking with us and then acting in the passage today.  After his tears have fallen, he commands the stone to be rolled away and for Lazarus to come out.  

In the season of Lent, we wrestle with these themes of death and darkness.  We are led to the cross.   Lent is a time to weep.  A time to identify with Christ in his pain and with the crucified people of our world today.  

This is the last week of Lent.  Next week, when we gather for Palm Sunday, we will begin Holy Week.  How can we take up our cross and follow our tearful Lord in these two weeks? How can we also channel the emotions of grief and compassion for the world?   Perhaps, we might attend the communal Reconciliation Service on Tuesday at 6:30PM?  Receiving the sacrament is a beautiful way to prepare yourself for Easter and if you have not received the sacrament in a long time it is highly encouraged.  

Perhaps you might participate in Stations of the Cross this week.  Or find your own way to prepare yourself.  It’s a little silly, but my family likes to listen to Jesus Christ Superstar regularly during this time of year.  Maybe you want to do this, watch the Chosen, or find spiritual readings like the Passion readings to meditate on.  Finally, I would strongly urge you to take the time to participate in all of the liturgies during Holy Week.  These are the most sacred days of the year—clear your calendar and make plans to fully walk on the road to the Empty Tomb.  

Jesus wept.  Today we remember that Jesus shed tears for his beloved friend.  

But we also remember that he said, “Blessed are you who weep, for you will laugh.”   For the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, for the Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”