John 11:35Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see that even up to this point He has given no indication of the resurrection, and that He goes as though not to raise the dead man, but to weep?

The All-knowing came to the tomb and allowed others to lead Him. To crown all this, He wept there. Why do You weep, if what You promised is true, and if You Yourself are about to raise him?

The Lord lamented man, thereby bearing witness to His love for mankind. Perhaps He also lamented the ingratitude of the Jews, because even after this miracle they would still persist in their unbelief.

What need was there to weep over one whom He was about to raise at once? Jesus wept in order to show us His compassion and His loving disposition toward our race.

The Evangelist is struck with wonder as he sees the tearless Nature weeping, though suffering belonged to the flesh and was not fitting to the Godhead. The Lord weeps because He sees man, created according to His own image, subjected to corruption.

He does this in order to take away our tears, for He died for this very reason: to free us also from death. He had only just wept, and immediately He restrained the tear.

He did this so that He might not seem harsh and inhuman, while also teaching us not to grow weak through excessive grief for the dead. The first is a sign of compassion. The second is a mark of effeminacy and weakness.

Why else did Christ weep, except to teach man to weep? Listen further: Christ wept. Let man weep over himself. For why did Christ weep, if not to teach man to lament over himself? Why did He Himself grieve and become troubled, if not to show that the faith of a man who rightly condemns himself should in some way grieve when accused of evil deeds, so that the habit of sinning may yield to the desire for repentance?

Jesus wept at the tomb in order to set a limit to the grief of those who love Christ. By weeping, He prescribed a law through His tears.

He wept. He did not sob, lament, groan, tear His garments, or pluck out His hair. He fixed the boundaries of grief, so that it should extend only to the first tears.

Why do you weep for a dead man who will rise? Why do you weep for one who awaits the sound of the trumpet? Why do you mourn as dead one who is only asleep? Why do you disturb the one at rest with your cries?

"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). When you hear of one who sleeps, do not sob over him as over the dead.

Moderate your tears by your love. Do not insult the Risen One by immoderate weeping. For this reason He now wept and allowed Himself to suffer, so that He might drive away your grief.

See the commentary on Jn 11:15 and Jn 11:37. He wept to show that Lazarus had died, and to give occasion for them to say, "Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man...?" (cf. Jn 11:37).

But His tears proved to be like rain, Lazarus like a grain of wheat, and the tomb like the earth. He sent forth His voice like thunder. Death was terrified by that voice.

Lazarus came forth like a grain of wheat, and the earth fell down before the Lord, its Life-giver.

By His tears over Lazarus, He confirmed His humanity. He wept and shed sweat. Yet sweat and tears belong to His human nature and do not diminish Him before the Father, because He too is the raiser of the dead, as is the Father.

He wept to confirm His humanity. He called the dead man to life in order to bind the unbelieving.

On the words, "And when He had said this, He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.'"

As man, Jesus Christ asks, weeps, and does everything else that would testify that He is man. As God, He raises a four-day dead man, already giving off the odor of a corpse, and in general does what would testify that He is God. Jesus Christ wishes people to be assured that He has both natures. Therefore He manifests Himself now as man, now as God.

What need was there to weep over one whom He was about to raise very soon? But Jesus wept to show us compassion and love for mankind toward our kin. Jesus wept so that weeping with those who weep, Rom 12:15, might be taught more by deed than by word. Jesus wept. He wept, and did not merely grieve. He utterly rejects lack of lament as something cruel and inhuman, but also drives away indulgent emotionalism as something base and unworthy of men. He wept, setting a measure for compassion.

So too our Lord, intending to raise Lazarus from Hades, wept, being merciful, and had compassion when He saw human nature being destroyed and grieved with those who had gathered.

Why did the Lord weep over Lazarus? Christ wept over Lazarus, O beauty of philosophy. As in other cases, He wept while setting rules and limits for us, so that we would not be driven out of ourselves by grief.

Those who saw Him indeed said, "See how He loved him" (Jn 11:36). You said, "It was unfitting for One who knew beforehand that Lazarus would rise to weep. We all weep for the dead because we do not expect them soon to rise."

Consider, then, whether this explanation may reach the precise meaning. Lazarus was a friend of the Savior. As His friend, he was undoubtedly righteous. Had he not been righteous, he would not have been loved by the most pure Righteousness.

Christ was troubled in spirit and grieved inwardly because at that moment He was about to raise only Lazarus, and not all the dead.

Who would think that in this case Christ shed tears from human weakness, when the heavenly Father weeps over the prodigal son not when he departs, but when he returns? (cf. Lk 15:20).

So also Christ wept over Lazarus not because He was losing him, but because He was receiving him again. Moreover, Christ does not weep when He sees those who are weeping, but when He questions them and sees not a trace of faith in their answers.

Let us all run with love to Bethany, to see Christ there weeping for His friend. For since He wished to ordain laws for all things, He does everything in nature as one who is twofold. He suffers as the Son of David. As the Son of God, He ransoms the whole world from all the evil of the serpent. He raises Lazarus, four days dead, pitying in His compassion the tears of Mary and Martha.

He wept as man, not grieving for Lazarus, but for the Jews. For He had come to raise the former, and so it would have been useless to weep for one who was about to rise. But it was truly fitting to weep for the Jews, since He foresaw that even after the miracle was performed they would remain in their unbelief. "Jesus wept." He showed us an example, pattern, and measure of how we ought to weep for the dead. He wept when He saw the corruption of our nature and the disfigured form that death gives to man.

"He groaned in spirit and was troubled." The Greek word translated "groaned" includes the sense of indignation, anger, and revulsion caused by an outrageous act. The word translated "was troubled" includes the idea of trembling and inward shock. Thus the whole expression would be rendered more precisely: He was indignant and shuddered.

What, then, so troubled the soul of the Lord at that moment? A little later, when the Jews present there expressed their hostile attitude toward Him quite plainly, He was troubled again (Jn 11:38, the same Greek word). This gives reason to suppose that here also the Lord was troubled by the same thing: the Jews and their conduct at that time.

Verses 31-38. "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He rebuked in spirit and was troubled." Ενεβριμησατο τω πνευματι και εταραξεν εαυτόν. The verb ενεβριμ. means either "He was indignant" or "He grieved."

If the first meaning is accepted, some thought that Jesus was displeased either with the unbelief of the Jews (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Leontius), or with the agitation of His own soul (Chrysostom, Apollinarius, Euthymius). But this is not justified by the context.

The ancient translations, Coptic and Arabic, read: "He was saddened in soul and troubled Himself." Clothed in human nature with all its properties except sin, Jesus saw Mary weeping and others weeping. He grieved in spirit and was troubled. Such is His love for poor humanity.

God wept, moved by the tears of mortals. Although He was about to free Lazarus from the bonds of death by His own authority, He fulfilled the duty of human compassion by His consoling tears.

God wept, not because He learned that a man lay dead before Him, but to moderate the lamentations of the sisters. God wept in order, by tears and compassion, to do what men do for men.

God wept because human nature had fallen so far that, deprived of eternity, it came to love the netherworld. God wept because the devil made mortal those who could have been immortal.