Jesus was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved (John 11: 33)

In the early stages of his life, Rembrandt (1606-69) produced grandiose paintings full of flamboyance. After a period of great anguish, including deaths in his immediate family, and imprisonment for debt, his style changed, showing great sensitivity to human suffering. Many of his numerous paintings on biblical themes, including “Christ Healing and Preaching” (c.1648) reflect this humanity and openness to human pain.

We cannot but be deeply moved and even disturbed in spirit when we see someone in pain and anguish – let alone when a tear is shed.  There is something that touches our hearts and reminds us of our frailty, our vulnerability and even our mortality.

Our gospel reading about the raising of Lazarus, recalls that when Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. As Jesus sees Mary and her comforters crying, the reality of what has happened hits him.

The Greek word which the Authorised Version and Revised Standard Version translate as “deeply moved” in spirit comes from the verb “embrimasthai”.  It is used three other times in the New Testament.  It means to feel something deeply and strongly. It has a certain sternness, almost anger in it.  E V Rieu translates it as “Jesus gave way to such a distress of spirit as made his body tremble”.

The theologian, Jane Williams, comments that “Even though Jesus knows that he is the resurrection and the life, the tears and the loss affect him. This is one of those extraordinary moments when we see into the heart of the paradoxical things Christianity says about God. Jesus is here to demonstrate God’s absolute power of life over death, and yet he reacts as we all do to a life cut short, to the desolation of losing someone we love and sharing the pain of others who mourn him too”.

The compassion Jesus showed in his ministry is nothing less than a revelation of the compassion God shows for each of us.  In him the very heart of God is open and available in human terms. His first followers did not see this immediately but in the light of his resurrection, his earthly life and death were understood to have an eternal significance. It was not only a human life lived for others, but a disclosure of the divine life he lived for the world.

Tom Wright, the former Bishop of Durham and biblical scholar, comments that “when we look at Jesus, not least when we look at Jesus in tears, we are seeing not just a flesh and blood human being but the Word made flesh (John 1:1-14). The Word, through whom the worlds were made, weeps at the grave of his friend. Only when we stop and ponder this will we fully understand this mystery. Only when we put away our high-and-dry pictures of who God is and replace them with pictures in which the Word who is God can cry with the world’s crying will we discover what the word “God” really means”.

As we continue our Lenten journey through into Passiontide and beyond, may we all be aware of that same love and compassion which Jesus had for his friend Lazarus and his beloved sisters, Mary and Martha.

Jesus, you know our needs even before we speak.

We bring them into your healing presence.

Make us sensitive to the needs of others so that we may bring

That same healing presence and power into their lives.