When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
As I had brought up several days ago we are seeing in this section a clear picture of both the divine and human natures of Christ in this account. It should be of no surprise that such instances should be seen in the gospel accounts. Many make (many times subconsciously) the mistake in confounding the natures of Christ in to one, that the divine nature of Christ overshadows the human nature. Christ is fully God and fully man united forever in one person and neither nature can be seen as dissolving into the other. Christ carried all the passions and emotions that we as humans do – yet without sin. So as we have a real sense of loss and grief at someone’s death, because He is sinless it seems to me that this sense of loss would be more acute in Jesus. It is true that the groaning of Christ may have been at the hypocrisy of the Jews in their “morning,” but I do not think that is the case. As we are reminded again Jesus “loved” Lazarus and while Jesus in His divinity knew what was about to take place, His humanness still had the grief of the loss of a love one. Consider for a moment the weight that this moment had on the humanness of Christ. Considering the death of a loved one, the grief of the sisters whom He loved and those who will witness the coming miracle and because of hardness of heart still not believes – it is no wonder “His spirit was troubled.” Jesus grief was real and observable as indicated by the comment of the Jews “see how He loved him.” The grief that Jesus shows is one of true grief and sorrow not mere anger at the hypocrisy of the Jews. This human side of Christ is important to us as we read of Christ as our high priest who can sympathizes with our humanness – temptations and all.
Bill
Heidelberg Catechism
Q. 15. What sort of a mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?
A. For one who is very man, and perfectly (a) righteous; (b) and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also very God. (c) (a) 1 Cor.15:21; Jer.33:16; Isa.53:9; 2 Cor.5:21. (b) Heb.7:16,26. (c) Isa.7:14; Isa.9:6; Rom.9:5; Jer.23:5,6; Jer.23:6; Luke 11:22.
Τω αγαπησαντι ημας και λουσαντι ημας απο των αμαρτιων ημων εν τω αιματι αυτου.
Rev. 1:5b
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