“I am thirsty.” –John 19:28
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” (John 11:32–36 NLT)
Jesus didn’t need to let Lazarus die. There’s no way to know with any kind of certainty how far away from Bethany Jesus and His disciples were when they received news of Lazarus, but more than once Jesus had healed from a distance of many miles. He did not do so in this instance so that the glory of God might be revealed in Him. There could be no doubt that Lazarus was truly dead, so when Jesus brought him back to life, it could only be a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Because He is God, Jesus knew that He could, and would, raise Lazarus from the dead. Yet, because He is man, He still wept when He saw the others mourning. Even though He knew the outcome, an outcome that was close at hand, He wept over the present circumstances of His friends. Jesus not only understands our pain, He mourns and weeps with us, even when He sees the restoration and resurrection on the other side of the suffering. Join with Jesus today in mourning a loss in your own life—a death, the loss of a friendship, a missed opportunity, a broken world; allow Him to direct you past the mourning toward His plan for restoration.