28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

John 11:28-37 (ESV)

Jesus calls

Jesus calls for Mary to come to Him. He wanted to personally communicate with Mary for He loved her dearly as well. He wanted the same opportunity to test her faith as he just had with Martha. 

Rather than rejecting the call in anger and self-pity, Mary responds to the call of her Master. Maybe it took the call of Jesus to rouse her from her mourning. Her statement to Jesus is exactly what Martha said – “If only you were here!” – demonstrating she too had faith in Jesus’ abilities, but maybe not the faith to believe He is Messiah.

Jesus wept?

Mary (with the crowds following) leads Jesus to the tomb. Jesus is overwhelmed with emotion as he sees the tomb with his dead friend inside and the family and Jews mourning. Anyone there would have cried. 

Jesus wept. Think about it for a minute. Jesus wept. I once recommended to a skeptical young man to memorize the Bible and to start with this shortest verse in the Bible. He read it, thought for a moment then exclaimed, “Jesus cried?!” He couldn’t believe it. How could Jesus, God, cry? You could almost feel his knowledge of Jesus grow in an instant!

Jesus was also possibly crying for joy. He knows that in a few short minutes their tears of sadness would turn to tears of joy, overwhelming joy, unspeakable joy.  Can you catch the powerful emotional scene? Can you understand the powerful spiritual scene!?

Couldn’t He have…

You gotta love this. John captures what all the mourners were thinking. They knew this was Jesus, the amazing miracle worker. They were wrestling with who He is. Surely He could have kept Lazarus from dying, couldn’t He? But they didn’t ask, “Can He do the miracle of miracles, raise the dead?” Their faith couldn’t even fathom that. Don’t be too quick to judge!

<- Reflection ->

• Do you hear Jesus calling you? You are desperate, sad, weighed down with your sin. You’re sinking and have no help. Jesus is calling. Contact us if you need help.
• How strong is your faith? Can you believe Jesus had this kind of miraculous power? I encourage you to ask God for the impossible. Often He’s just waiting for us to ask.