It was customary in ancient Israel to bury someone on the day of death. After death, the Talmud prescribed seven days of deep mourning and thirty days of light mourning. So [after Lazarus died] Jesus shows up right in the middle of their deepest sorrow and grieves with them. John 11:35 simply says, “Jesus wept.”
It’s one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but it speaks volumes. And I’m not sure the English translation does it justice. The force of the Greek verb tense suggests that Jesus bursts into tears. This was not a measured response. Jesus literally lost it. It reveals how much Jesus loved Lazarus. It also reveals a God who sheds tears! And He doesn’t just cry over us, He collects our tears in a bottle (see Psalm 56:8).
Your tears are precious to God. Whether they are tears of joy, tears of sorrow, or tears of pain -- not one teardrop is lost on God.
If you’ve endured the type of loss Mary and Martha experienced [in losing their brother], you know that sometimes you need a shoulder to cry on. I’m grateful for those friends who seem to show up when everybody else disappears. Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (see Proverbs 18:24), and His broad shoulders can bear any burden.
-- Mark Batterson in “The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible”
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