Weeping With Jesus

The shortest verse in the Bible might be the most important verse you can come across. John 11:35 ‘Jesus wept.’ (Depending on your Bible translation, this might be different. This is NIV) Can someone, anyone, explain to me what this means? Or what it signifies? Tell me what this verse implies.

The answer to the first question is simple: this verse means that if the Lord of the world could weep when He was sad, so can you. God made emotions, and being sad was one of them. They’re not wrong. They won’t hurt you. What you do with your sadness is what can hurt you.

The second is almost the same. Jesus came to Earth to save us from our sins. The only way Jesus could save us from our sins was because He was perfect, which ‘cancelled’ out our impurity (Think math. One negative plus one positive that is greater, takes away the negative. Jesus is greater than our negative thoughts and feelings.). Now, Jesus was perfect, which means He didn’t sin. So, crying is not a sin! I can’t say this enough. You don’t have to be ashamed of it. You don’t have to hide it. Listen: I know what you’re feeling. I try to hide my emotions, too. I keep them away because everyone around me is already hurting. It feels like my crying is only going to make it worse. Trust me, it’s not. Being truthful to what God is making you feel is not something to be ashamed of.

The last question is the most important. ‘What does this verse imply?’ Take the strong usage of the verb as an example*. Weeping does not mean ‘I’m sorta sad.’ Weeping does not mean a shrug of the shoulders—move on with your day. Weeping is breaking down, showing sadness and grief in ways you never thought possible. Weeping is when you open your sadness to the Lord and show Him the despair that you’ve kept bottled in you this entire time. Weeping is when your insides feel like they’re eating you, when you feel like there’s a burning fire inside of you that won’t go out.

Now, think of the Savior of the universe (Yes, the entire universe) weeping. Think of Him humbling Himself not only to become a human but to show Himself in what we see as such a weak place. Jesus was never weak, not even when He wept, and that wasn’t because He was the Savior (entirely). It was because He had to show us that if God can weep, so can we. Now, I don’t believe that whatever God does, humans can do. But I know that next time I cry, I’ll remember this verse. I’ll know that if God could help Jesus through His weeping, He can help me through mine.

Wow, that was a big post. I guess the entirety of what I was saying was that you don’t have to fear the next time you cry. You don’t have to hide from your weeping. You don’t have to feel like you’re alone when you cry, because you will always, always have someone there beside you. Beside you. In you. With you, even if you don’t know it. Trust in the Lord, trust that He has good things in store for you. Remember you’re not alone, never alone. When you weep, you weep with Jesus.

Now, I am no preacher. I haven't gone to school to learn about the Bible (specifically, of course I've gone to school, I'm in school). So I know what I've said in here might be totally wrong. It might make no sense or explain the Word in a way that's wrong. But I had to say something. My life, especially, is really junky, and sometimes it feels like the only light there is is the Lord and His word. That's why I wanted to say this, because even if what I said in this is entirely wrong in all the boxes and spaces, Jesus is still with you, and He understands your pain because He felt it once too.

*I realized that I use the word ‘crying’ a lot in my paragraph above, and I know that kind of contradicts what’s happening here. So, what I mean is, whenever I say ‘crying’, what I mean is the intense, angry sadness that comes with weeping

All photos were taken from the Wix photo gallery, both of which I own no copyright over(other than that this is a Wix website. XD).

God bless you all, see you all next time.

-Claudia