Jesus wept. Those two words are arguably the most powerful that we’ve used in a design thus far at God of idols clothing. They aren’t our words, they are the words of the KJV from John 11:35.
That’s actually the shortest verse in the entire Bible and still one of the most expressive. In this blog we’ll discuss that verse in the context of the scripture and then in the context of the design.
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Jesus wept.
Why does the Messiah become so emotional in John 11:35? I have heard this account explained a number of different ways over the years. Scripture doesn’t need to be interpreted, because it interprets itself, but I won’t discredit the unique revelation an individual may receive from a scripture. God is a mighty God and cable of communicating with his people in unimaginable ways.
To begin to understand what’s happening here we should examine the account. In John Chapter eleven, Jesus was in Jerusalem with his disciples. Jerusalem was about 15 furlongs away from a city called Bethany.
A furlong is equal to 660 feet, that’s about a quarter of a mile. Fifteen furlong is 1.875 miles.
Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem. That isn’t very far away, even traveling on foot. The three siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in Bethany. They were dear friends of Jesus.
Lazarus became severely ill and his sisters sent for Jesus to come and save their brother. They were believers and witnesses to the wonder working power of the Messiah.
When Jesus got the message he understood that Lazarus was going to die. He loved Lazarus but he still waited two days before committing to travel to Bethany. The previous time Jesus was in Bethany the Jews there tried to stone him.
The disciples were concerned that they may all be killed if they returned to Bethany, but that wasn’t the cause for Jesus’ delay in departing to help his friends.
It was generally accepted at that time that when a person died, after four days, the spirit was completely out of the body, and they were dead beyond any dispute or debate.
When Jesus arrived to the outskirts of Bethany Lazarus had been in his grave for four days. Lazarus was dead for certain. Lazarus must have been popular, because there was a group of Jews that came to comfort Mary and Martha at the news of Lazarus’ death.
They followed Mary thinking she was going to mourn at her brother’s grave, but she actually went to meet Jesus. They were all there when Martha confronted Jesus with her disappointment. She felt that if he had come sooner he could have saved her brother. Mary wept at his feet, and the other Jews cried as well.
It was a sad scene and it troubled Jesus, and yes Jesus wept, but not for the same reason as everyone else. Jesus didn’t cry for Lazarus. He knew what he came to do and Lazarus was going to be fine.
Jesus wept out of compassion for Mary, Martha, and the other believers who were not standing on their faith. These people followed Jesus and knew who he was and what he represented, but they still doubted him.
Jesus knew what the lack of faith means for the soul of a person. They still didn’t have total faith in him and that’s why he wept, because if they didn’t believe in him they wouldn’t see heaven.
Roll away the boulders in your life
Jesus had come to wake Lazarus from the dead. He waited so that Lazarus was in the grave for four days. He knew that at four days no one would dispute that Lazarus was truly dead. He was dead and stinking.
Lazarus’ grave wasn’t like our graves today. He wasn’t buried in a casket. He was in a sepulcher above ground inside of a cave with a boulder sealing the entrance.
Often, the mourners of the dead would place gold coins or valuable items in the sepulchers with the body as a sort of paying homage to the dead. Naturally, that led to the practice of grave robbing.
Anywhere that there are groups of poor people whose needs aren’t being regarded by the wealthy and powerful there will be crime. It is a natural progression of a society.
To defend the riches of the dead, the sepulchers were inside of caves and a boulder was rolled over the entrance to keep out the grave robbers.
The grave robbers were viewed as criminals for stealing from dead people. The practice of storing wealth in a tomb while there were starving people all around is more of a crime than robbing a grave in my opinion.
Nevertheless, we can imagine that these boulders were big and heavy. They were difficult to move, but they could be moved away and replaced. There were many graves inside of the caves.
Martha, Mary, and the Jews led Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus. They were all overcome with emotion. Jesus was a man, but a man on a mission.
Jesus had feelings, evinced by the fact that he wept, although he wept for reasons no one around him understood at the time. His emotions were inline with his mission.
He came to raise Lazarus from the dead to glorify himself so that people would believe in him for the glory of God, according to John 11:4.
People need to believe in Jesus because he is the way to salvation. The miracles were to increase people’s faith in him, bringing glory to God, in order to save their souls.
He had performed many miracles by this point and those people there either witnessed them or knew of them. They all expected him to show up and heal Lazarus’ sickness. They knew he was powerful.
This powerful man showed up late, in their perspectives, and then asked them to roll away the boulder from the mouth of the cave. That had to be disappointing to them. Their expectations of him were great, but the mission he was on was even greater.
Sure, Jesus could have rolled away the boulder. He could have turned it to dust if he wanted. He had control of the elements, but in John 11:39 he ordered them to move the boulder.
That boulder represented what kept them from getting what they wanted out of life at that moment. They didn’t know what amazing thing Jesus was going to do next for them, but they had to do that thing for themselves first in order to get to the miracle.
God has established covenants with man since the Garden of Eden. “You do this and I promise to do these things.” For Adam it was keep the garden and you will have dominion. That was for all mankind in Adam.
Sometimes we have boulders in our lives and we allow them to keep us from the blessings God has for us. We have all been given the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind according to II Timothy 1:7.
We have what we need to “take away the stone,” the power to move those boulders. We have to believe that if we do all we can do God will do what we can’t.
Jesus didn’t travel to Bethany to roll away a stone. They could do that for themselves. He went to do what no one else could, raise Lazarus from the dead for the glory of God to their salvations.
In John 11:43 Jesus said “Lazarus come forth” and he did, alive and well. After that, word spread and many more believed in Jesus, but also many powerful men plotted to kill him. He was no longer able to walk openly among the Jews.
Now we know the context of the scripture and why Jesus wept. Next we’ll discuss an account from the book of Acts and explain the context of “Jesus wept” in our design.
I hope that you are finding value in our blogs and God of idols clothing. Check out our YouTube Channel God of idols Scripture You Wear for some animated fun with our Narrator Lil BeeAre.
Also visit our store Godofidolsclotinhg.com where you can find the hoodiesl, t-shirts, and sweatshirts, with the designs I elaborate on in blogs like this one. Thanks for reading and may God bless you and your family.
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