> > > > Mark"I once heard a sermon on just the words: Jesus wept."N

Hmmm. I'm wondering if Charles Spurgeon may have missed the point when he wrote in his sermon on John 11:35, A Liquid Petition, that "No prayer will ever prevail with God more surely than a liquid petition, which, being distilled from the heart, trickles from the eye, and waters the cheek. Then God is won over when he hears the voice of your weeping. If you want to win in prayer, you must weep in prayer. Let your soul arouse itself to eager desire, and trouble itself to anguish, and then you will prevail."

Spurgeon seems to be indirectly referring to Jer 9:17-18 as a background for his comments, but somehow I don't think that the manipulative lamentation, as described in Jeremiah, are what Christ intended by his own tears. He already knew God listens to all prayers.


> > John 11:35 in same takes 8 letters an is transliterated "Vayebk Yeshua".
> >
> > In the Greek New Testament, John 11:35 takes 16 letters: "Edakrusen o* Iesous."
> >


Just to continue with Nyperold's previous thought, I appreciate his volunteering that the Greek origin of 11:35 is "édákrusen ò 'Iesoûs." It's certainly a famous phrase, and as MarkN notes, people have built entire sermons around it. Looking at the context of John 11 in Greek itself, I think one can derive somewhat more information from it than from standard English translation.

I'm not a Greek scholar by any means, but there are so many Greek root words and prefixes and suffixes in English/French etc. that it's a bizarre feeling to look at a language that I've never looked at before and think, Hey, I can ALMOST understand chunks of this.


GHB GREEK
John 11:32-36

32 / / / / / / è oün Mariàm òs ëlthen öpou ën 'Iesoûs ídoûsa aútòn ëpesen aútoû pròs toùs pódas, légousa aútõ, Kúrie, eí ës öde oúk än mou ápéthanen ò ádelfós.
33 / / / / / / 'Iesoûs oün òs eïden aútèn klaíousan kaì toùs sunelthóntas aútê 'Ioudaíous klaíontas, énebrimésato tõ pneúmati kaì étáraksen éautòn,
34 / / / / / / kaì eïpen, Poû tetheíkate aútón; légousin aútõ, Kúrie, ërkxou kaì ïde.
35 / / / / / / édákrusen ò 'Iesoûs.
36 / / / / / / ëlegon oün oì 'Ioudaîoi, ''Ide pôs éfílei aútón.
[GHB]

Christ's name 'Iesoûs as written is pronounced "Ee-AY-sou" in Greek.


[Interlinear Translation]
32 / / / / / / The therefore Mariam when she-came was~where the Iesous-- seeing him she-fell at~him to the feet, saying to-him, Lord, if you-were here not would my have-died the brother.
33 / / / / / / Iesous therefore when he-saw her wailing and the having-come-with her Iudaians wailing, was-deeply-agitated-indignant in-the spirit[breath] and was-troubled in-himself,
34 / / / / / / and said, Where have-you-laid him? They-say to-him, Lord, come and see.
35 / / / / / / Shed-tears the Iesous.
36 / / / / / / Were-saying therefore the Iudaians, Behold how fond-he-was-of him.


Here what I see is a subtle but crucial difference -- in the way that various forms of the action "to weep" have been translated in this passage. In verse 33, the words "klaíousan" and "klaíontas" carry the specific sense of crying loudly and exaggeratedly, i.e., of wailing. In fact they share the same root as the word "klaxon." Thus Mary, and the mourners following her around, were engaged in a traditional middle-eastern practice of the time, which required a large public display of grief over Lazarus' death. They had gone overboard by literally following God's words in Jeremiah 9:17-22. Jesus ('Iesoûs) became upset and troubled by this loud spectacle. In verse 34 he asks to visit Lazarus' tombsite directly. In 35, "édákrusen ò 'Iesoûs" means Jesus wept by shedding tears quietly, as opposed to shrieking and moaning and gnashing his teeth like the professional mourners.

Scripture does not really say why Christ was weeping, given he already knew what God was going to do next for Lazarus. (Refer to verse 11:15, where he uses the term 'Kxaíro,' or "I rejoice".) Some may suggest he took the moment to cry with sorrow over his peoples' obvious unbelief, and their habitual displays showing their lack of faith. I think he wept not only because he loved Lazarus who was dead, but because he loved Lazarus' family too -- they, who were still among the living. Somehow, because God is a God who concerns himself more with the living than the dead, Jesus wanted, at that moment, to genuinely share and ease Martha's and Mary's real sadness and grief. It is clear that Christ himself was concerned by all the open hypocrisy and pretention involved in Israel's attempts to "honour" what God desired for his people. But Jesus never forgot that, despite humanity's plodding and sometimes exasperatingly confused ways, we were -- and we are -- his children. If only we realized how much he loved us, in spite of our painful imperfections and misunderstanding.

Wolf "The mystery of 'Jesus wept'... Wonder how MarkN's pastor approaches the subject" spirit