By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him” – Jürgen Moltmann

The shortest verse in the entire bible is in the book of John. It occurs after Jesus shows up at the tomb of Lazarus.

He arrived in Bethany four days after Lazarus had already died.

There he found Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, along with a group of Jews who were there to comfort them.

The sisters believed that Jesus had come too late.

Mary even broke into tears saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

It is when Jesus sees her crying and the tears of all the Jews around them that we see something that rarely happened in Scripture.

“Jesus wept,” (John 11:35).

Even though this verse seems pretty straightforward I think that it carries pretty heavy theological implications.

You see, we believe that not only is Jesus God’s Son but that He is God Himself. We can learn more about who God is by looking at the person of Jesus in the Gospels.

When Christ saw all of those who were broken around him Scripture says, “he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled,” (John 11:33) and he cried. To me, this shows the kind of person that Jesus is and therefore shows who God is.

God is loving. He loves you enough to cry with you in your circumstances. He is saddened by what saddens you. He is hurt by that which hurts you.

God is compassionate and sympathetic. He doesn’t look upon our pain and suffering passively. He doesn’t ignore our tears and our struggles. He shows compassion and sympathy. He feels our pain and understands it. He is affected by our experiences alongside us.

I think we can take this one step farther and say the God suffers alongside us. To me, this implication doesn’t belittle the God we serve. It’s the opposite. I am much more willing to serve a God who suffers beside me when I am in pain. This is a God who cares and loves me enough to feel the pain of my experiences.

Let this short verse ring in your mind when you are going through the fire because we serve a God who goes through the fire right along with us and He feels every burn and every spark with us.

Jesus wept.

Parents: Talk to your children about the last time they were hurt. Explain to them how Jesus cries along with them and he feels their pain. He walks alongside them because he loves them so much.