1 Canon Bonney.
ST. JOHN XI. 35 487
things which belonged to their peace. There would be no such thought in His mind as He drew near to the grave of His faithful servant. What drew those silent tears from Jesus was His sympathy with the mourning sisters. His tears were the answer of His human heart to the appeal of their sorrow.
^ More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.^
^ Jesus wept not merely from the deep thoughts of His understanding, but from spontaneous tenderness ; from the gentleness and mercy, the encompassing loving-kindness and exuberant fostering affection of the Son of God for His own work, the race of man. Their tears touched Him at once, as their miseries had brought Him down from heaven. His ear was open to them, and the sound of weeping went at once to His heart.^
3. Christ's sorrow. — Christ's sorrow was twofold.
(1) To begin with, may we not say that Jesus wept here for pity of the frailty of man, and the victory of death ? Of course He does not stand alone in this feeling ; all serious men share it with Him more or less, and the profoundest souls feel it deeply. The great literatures of the world are all shadowed by the sense of the shortness of man's life on earth, and the most moving poetry in particular vibrates to this deep undertone. And naturally so ; for the fact goes deep into human existence, and shapes and colours it all through. Even the most unthinking of us feels it in his own commonplace way.
(a) The tears of Jesus were then in part caused by the thought of all the humiliation and suffering which sin had brought into His once so happy world, as exemplified in the death of Lazarus, and the bereaved and desolate home. We know that sin did cause " The Holy One of God " deep pain, though we can never tell how deep ; and we may be quite sure that what He saw of its effects here did touch, and wring, His loving heart.
(&) He saw visibly displayed the victory of death. Here was the Creator of the world at a scene of death, seeing the issue of His gracious handiwork. Would He not revert in thought to the hour of creation, when He went forth from the bosom of the Father to bring all things into existence ? There had been a day
^ George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.
' J, H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, iii. 133.
488 THE TEARS OF JESUS
when He had looked upon the work of His love, and seen that it was " very good." Whence had the good been turned to evil, the fine gold become dim ? " An enemy hath done this."
Weep not for broad lands lost; Weep not for fair hopes crost; Weep not when limbs wax old; Weep not when friends grow cold; Weep not that Death must part Thine and the best-loved heart; Yet weep, weep all thou can — Weep, weep, because thou art A sin-defiled man.^
(2) But there was still another thought to call forth Christ's tears. This marvellous benefit to the forlorn sisters, how was it to be attained ? — At His own cost. Joseph knew he could bring joy to his brethren, and at no sacrifice of his own. Christ was bringing life to the dead by His own death. His disciples would have dissuaded Him from going into Judsea, lest the Jews should kill Him. Their apprehension was fulfilled. He went to raise Lazarus, and the fame of that miracle was the immediate cause of His seizure and crucifixion. He felt that Lazarus was wakening to life at His own sacrifice ; that He was descending into the grave which Lazarus left. He felt that Lazarus was to live and He to die ; the appearance of things was to be reversed ; the feast was to be kept in Martha's house, but the last passover of sorrow remained for Him.
Is it impossible to think that Christ may have felt the shadow of His own great Passion reflected in some small degree in the scene before Him? "Jesus wept"; but are the tears any less real that they are shed perhaps to some extent for His own sorrow ? He is rather by that very fact enabled to sympathize more truly with the griefs of others.
^ Pain is a mere word to the being that never felt pain. " Have you ever been laid up yourself, sir ? " a young man on his death-bed asked another young man who visited him by way of comfort, It revealed a longing for exact appreciation of the situation, and an instinct that true sympathy could come only from actual knowledge.^
1 Trench, Poems, 145. * H. Black, Com/oH, 108.
ST. JOHN XI. 35 489
11.
The Natuke of Christ's Tears.
1. Jesus wept calmly. — In Gethsemane, Christ's own anguish, endured indeed for us, wrung the bitter drops from His eyes. On Olivet, He wept for foes resolved and doomed to perish. Near the grave of Lazarus, He wept in sympathy with loved friends. In approaching the sepulchre. He felt a tender sympathy for the grief which had possessed the heart of His friend at the moment of separation, and that which the two sisters were at that very moment feeling. The word (hoLxphuv) to weep, does not (like xXaisiv) indicate sobs, but tears; it is the expression for a calm and gentle sorrow.