This is part three of a five-week series on the raising of Lazarus. Catch up starting with part one here, and subscribe to get the next installment in your inbox!
"Jesus wept" is one of the most famous verses in the Bible – both because it makes an easy memory verse and because it shows us the full extent of our Savior's humanity.
Despite its simplicity, the verse does raise a question: why did Jesus weep? The answer emerges as we unravel the context. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already died. Lazarus's sisters, Martha and Mary, meet Jesus at the edge of the city. And it is at this point that we see Jesus' emotional state in greater depth:
Mary came to the place where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he was moved with indignation and deeply distressed. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. They replied, "Come and see." Jesus wept. The Jews said, "How dearly he must have loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the blind man's eyes, have done something to keep Lazarus from dying?" Jesus, again deeply moved, went to the tomb. (John 11:32–38a, REB)
The bolded phrase – "moved with indignation" – reappears at the end when it says Jesus was "again deeply moved." Martha, Mary, and the mourners have all confronted Jesus with what basically amounts to, "Couldn't you have done something?" And after these latter two confrontations, we read that Jesus is "moved with indignation."
If you're used to other translations, the phrasing in the Revised English Bible might be surprising. Perhaps you're used to Jesus just being "deeply moved" (as in the ESV and many other translations). But the ESV does have a footnote providing the alternate translation "Jesus was indignant." And the New Living Translation goes all the way to "a deep anger welled up within him."
What's going on here?
The Greek word being translated has the basic meaning of "snort" – originally applying to horses. But when applied to humans it usually means "rebuke." Matthew and Mark both speak of Jesus "warning" people not to speak about him (Matthew 9:30; Mark 1:43). Mark also speaks of the disciples "rebuking" the woman who anointed Jesus' feet (Mark 14:5). The only other New Testament occurrences are here in John 11.
But the mystery is what it means when Jesus directs this action not toward another person, but toward "his spirit" (or just "the spirit") in John 11:33, and toward "himself" in verse 38. (Many English translations, such as the REB quoted above, gloss over these direct objects. But translations aimed at students of Greek, such as the Lexham English Bible, are helpful here.) There are three interpretations that you find in translations and commentaries:
- audible noise (KJV: "groaned"),
- intense emotion ("deeply moved"), or
- indignation or anger.
The first option corresponds with the sense of the word when applied to horses. The third option corresponds with the usual sense of the word when applied to humans. The second option is common in English translations. But it doesn't correspond to any attested usage of the word outside of John. A standard lexicon of ancient Greek includes the second option, but only with reference to John.
Many commentators acknowledge that the third option (anger) is the strongest one. But they can't agree on what Jesus would be angry about. The usual suggestions are either (i) the unbelief of Mary and the Jewish mourners (who are all crying), or (ii) about the reign of death over this world. The second reading is much stronger than the first. There is no indication that Mary lacks faith, but Jesus' struggle against (and authority over) death is a major theme in John.
(For those following along from previous weeks, J. Ramsey Michaels suggests that Jesus is angry that the Jewish mourners interrupted his opportunity to comfort Mary. But I find this suggestion less plausible than many of his others.)
There's another option that I think is at least as plausible as any on offer. The basic meaning of the word is "rebuke." John uses it in an unusual way, yes, but there's no need to stray too far from this basic meaning. In this case, Jesus is both the one rebuking and the one being rebuked. Jesus "rebuked himself?" Maybe. More naturally, we might express this as him "feeling reproach in himself."
It's easy to see how he might feel reproached in this context. Martha, Mary, and the mourners repeat a common refrain:
Martha: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (11:21)
Mary: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (11:32)
Mourners: Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? (11:37)
In essence: "Couldn't you have done something?" That's a kind of reproach, isn't it?
The Septuagint translation of the Old Testament book of Daniel uses this same word in Daniel 11:30. The original Hebrew describes a king becoming discouraged or disheartened by an invading army. But the Greek translation says that the invading army "rebukes" him. This is the flip side of rebuke: the object of rebuke (in John 11, Jesus himself) becomes discouraged.
Jack VanDrunen
Yes, Jesus knows what he's about to do. He knows that he has authority over death. He knows that he is about to exercise that authority by raising Lazarus. And yet, he is still confronted with this massive amount of grief, on display in all of these people crying. And he is confronted with the repeated refrain: "Couldn't you have done something?"
How would you feel if, in the face of tragedy, everybody came to you crying, repeating over and over again, "Couldn't you have done something?" Even if you knew that you were about to make things right, wouldn't this still be discouraging?
Jesus is truly God, but he is also a human being like us. He feels the same kinds of emotions that we feel. And here, confronted with the reality of his people's suffering, Jesus is discouraged – just as you or I would be. Even just moments before his great victory, Jesus loses heart over the vicious reality of death.
This is part three of a five-week series on the raising of Lazarus. If you haven't already, you can catch up starting with part one. Subscribe with your email, or follow on Bluesky or the Fediverse to receive the next installment!
Jack VanDrunen
Jack VanDrunen