by Simon Cargan

Created on: May 03, 2008

My favorite verse in the Bible is probably that which, at first glance, is the simplest. Looking deeper, one can see how incredibly complex this tiny verse is. Anyone who has ever had children who were asked to memorize a bible verse of their choice has probably heard this one, the shortest verse in the Bible. This verse would not be nearly as magical if I had to explain the context behind it, but in short, it is in response to Mary and Martha's grieving at the death of Lazarus.

My favorite verse in the Bible is John 11:35, which reads, simply, "Jesus wept."

So much intrigues me about this simple verse in the Bible. First, God, through John, chose not to explain exactly why Jesus was weeping at this point in time. It could have been Jesus weeping in sorrow for having to resurrect Lazarus into a world where he would have to die again. It could have been Jesus' sympathy for the ones he loved in grief. It could have been in anger over the people who fell temporarily into unbelief in the face of death. It could have been sorrow for all those who grieve over the death of loved ones. It could have been His love for Lazarus as a person. We are not told, so we do not know. We can only speculate. What we do know is that Jesus wept.

The second intriguing thing to me is much less open-ended. Jesus, who is without a doubt in my mind the Man whom every man in the world should strive to emulate, is shown weeping. This shatters any modern macho notion about real men not shedding a tear. Whoever said that men aren't allowed to cry or that real men don't cry surely hasn't read the Gospel according to John. The most admirable Man in the history of the world wept. Any man should be proud to weep.

The third intriguing thing to me is that while other parts of the Bible show that Jesus of Nazareth was one hundred percent God, this (along with other passages) shows that at the same time, Jesus was one hundred percent Man. He felt the same emotions as we feel today. Because of this, He can understand everything we are going through, and can sympathize with our griefs, our sorrows, our urges, our angers, and anything else we face in our day to day lives.

Jesus weeping shows us so much about how He lived His life and how we ought to live ours that the verse portraying Jesus' incredibly sensitive action, John 11:35, shouldn't be written off as just the shortest verse or the easiest verse to memorize. Everyone should be honored to memorize such a verse. I'd congratulate any child who recited this verse to me. It is my favorite verse in the Bible.

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