John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. Because of that, many tend to blow right past the verse not taking time to understand the full emotion and intensity that was part of the occasion. Let’s pick up on the narrative from the ESV in John 11:1-7.
“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.7 Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’”
The disciples then reminded Jesus that the Jewish rabbis were wanting to stone Him (vs8), John 10:31-39 (ESV)
“The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
Jesus was not deterred because no one could take His life before the timing of the Father. The intensity around Jerusalem was increasing because of the hatred of the Jewish religious leaders toward Jesus. They were losing their authority over the people because the increasing support of the people recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.
This is what false spiritual authority always does; it always challenges and wants to dismiss true spiritual authority.
Can you imagine the intensity when Jesus arrived at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in the town of Bethany. All of them believed in Jesus, They had witnessed all the incredible miracles that Jesus had performed for three and a half years. Yet when it applied to them, Jesus closest friends, he had failed them. Some thanks for all they had done for Him. When Jesus arrived, it was Martha, the always busy one who came to Jesus first. Mary remained in the house. When she hears that the Lord had finally arrived, she hurries out to Him. We read of her response and Jesus’ reaction in John 11:32-37 (ESV)
“32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 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. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Why did Jesus weep? He knew what was going to happen. He was going raise Lazarus. He had told His disciples earlier that Lazarus was only asleep. The scripture states just before that Jesus was “deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled”. I believe Jesus wept because of the peoples’ unbelief and cynicism. They continued to live in in the natural when Jesus had been calling them higher for over three and a half years, Nothing is impossible with Him. All His followers had witnessed all Jesus could do. John says this in John 11:25 (ESV)
“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
Cynicism and unbelief are two of the greatest attitudes and blockages to God working in our lives. I believe they both come when the Lord doesn’t act according to our expectations. The disappointment creates a platform for these two to grow from. But know this, God always works according to His plan. We must put away these two attitudes and live a life of thanksgiving, praise and love. God’s ways are always better than our own (Isaiah 55). Don’t let unbelief and cynicism rob you of God’s best plan.
Jesus’ response was to raise Lazarus from the dead. This is perhaps the greatest miracle outside of His own resurrection. Yet after all that, the Jewish leaders planned more intently to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. I end this session with a warning from James 1:2-8 (ESV)
‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”