John 11:35

John 11:35

I. We hardly know a statement of greater comfort than that of our text, and the account of Christ's sorrowing over the impenitent Jerusalem. The Christian mourner would be scarcely able to dry his tears if he must believe that Christ had never shed tears, and he would not comparatively be comforted by the gracious words "Weep not," if he did not find in the narrative of the raising of Lazarus, such words as these, "Jesus wept." We can hardly fail to be conscious of the testimony of the tears of the Redeemer to the human tenderness with which He was fraught. A man, with all a man's sympathy, all a man's compassion, all a man's yearnings, stood revealed, so as to forbid for ever our doubts as to His fellow-feeling with us; for it was with bitter tears of sorrow that He wept as He beheld the city; so that, as He approached Jerusalem, just as when He stood at the grave of Lazarus, the record is not, Jesus was angry, Jesus was proud; but simply "Jesus wept."

II. I know nothing so appalling as the tears of Christ. They are not so much the gentle droppings of pity as evidence wrung from a disquieted spirit, that nothing more could be done for the unbelieving. He would save them if He could, but He cannot. The case has become hopeless, beyond even the power which had raised the dead, yea, built the universe. And therefore He weeps. He weeps to show that it is not want of love, but that He knew the Divine vengeance must be left to take its course.

III. We ought to learn from Christ's tears the worth of the soul. It was not, in all probability, so much over the temporal, as over the spiritual misery which was coming on Jerusalem, that Christ bitterly sorrowed. His tears tell the mightiness of the catastrophe, to express whose fearfulness the whole of nature might become vocal and yet not furnish a cry sufficiently deep and pathetic. And whilst on earth Christ wept twice; in each case it was over the loss of the soul. Let sinners be no longer indifferent towards themselves. Throw not away as of no worth those souls which He feels to be so precious that He must weep for them, even when He cannot save them.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 1740.

I. Jesus wept in sympathy with others. (1) It is not sinful to weep under bereavement; (2) The Christian mourner may always count upon the sympathy of Jesus. (3) When our friends are mourning we should, like Jesus, weep with them.

II. Turn your attention to the tears of pity dropped by Jesus over the Holy City. (1) Note the responsibility of privilege. (2) Mark the pity of the Redeemer for the lost.

III. At Gethsemane the Redeemer's tears were those of suffering. (1) Christians should expect suffering. (2) Let us learn in suffering the benefit of prayer.

W. M. Taylor, Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 364. (See also Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 92.)

References: John 11:35. D. Swing, American Pulpit of the Day,p. 271; H. Melvill, Voices of the Year,vol. i., p. 119; T. Birkett Dover, A Lent Manual,p. 104; W. Skinner, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 217; J. B. Heard, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 67; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 87; W. Smith, Preacher's Lantern,vol. i., p. 434.John 11:35; John 11:36. L. Mann, Life Problems,p. 1; F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and Other Sermons,p. 108.