What Made God Cry?

When you're grieving, it's easy to wonder whether God sees you at all. He does, and He feels it with you. At Lazarus' tomb, Jesus knew He was about to raise His friend from the dead. He still wept, because the people He loved were hurting. Your grief moves the heart of God, too.

Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus' tomb?

Jesus wept because the people He loved were weeping. It wasn't because Lazarus was gone; Jesus already knew what He was about to do.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He waited. He wasn't in a hurry to fix it, because He knew how this story would end. So when "Jesus wept," the crowd assumed it was out of love for Lazarus. That is true as far as it goes, but John points somewhere deeper.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

John 11:33

On Beyond Sunday, Pastor Sean Sloan drew out what that verse means. What moved the heart of God was the weeping of the people He loved. This funeral was about to become a celebration, and Jesus knew it. He still cared that they hurt. God is present in your pain, and He feels it and cares about it, even when He knows what's coming on the other side.

Where is God when you're grieving?

God is with you in it, not watching from far away. That is the meaning of Emmanuel, a name for Jesus that means "God with us."

In the ancient world, a personal God was a foreign idea. Kirk Matthews, ministry director for Calvary's ministry college, put it this way. A God who takes on flesh and suffers like we suffer, and beyond what we suffer, shows that He truly cares. He understands where you are. He suffered with us and as us.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin.

Hebrews 4:15

In grief, we often assume God is over there and ask, "Do You not see me?" Kirk offered a different question: "God, how much does this hurt You as well?" He may be feeling it more deeply than you are. And He sees what you can't.

Why does Scripture tell us to remember Jesus' death?

We remember His death because what God commands us to remember is likely what we're most prone to forget. Christians celebrate the resurrection once a year at Easter, but every time you take communion, you remember the Lord's death.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:26

That matters for grief. The faith you hold faces death honestly. It overcomes death, and God Himself went through death in order to overcome it.

Is it okay to sit with grief instead of moving past it?

Yes. Grief you scroll past doesn't heal; it only delays healing. Kirk works with college students and young adults, and he sees a new way of avoiding grief. With endless content on every phone, the pull is to scroll, watch, and act as if nothing happened.

The gospel calls you to accept what is hurting while moving toward what heals. As Pastor Marty said in his weekend message, faith still weeps. Faith goes through the pain and the process, with God present in it.

What do you do while you wait for things to be made right?

You keep trusting and keep acting, because waiting time is not wasting time. That line from the weekend message stayed with Pastor Sean and Kirk.

Christians live between the now and the not yet. The now and the not yet is the gap between what Jesus has already done and what He will finish when He returns. Your sin is forgiven, and you are still being freed from it. Jesus reigns, and His final kingdom is still coming. Waiting on God means believing He will do what He promised and acting with confidence in the meantime. In Scripture, faith and faithfulness go together: if you trust God, you act on that trust.

Kirk pointed to a Greek word, hesychia, often translated as silence or quietness. It describes being slow to speak and attentive to God before acting. Our culture rewards the fastest answer, and the early church valued the opposite. In grief, that might mean adding a new prayer to "God, remove this": "God, what are You doing through this?"

Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 30:5

How can the church help someone who is grieving?

The church helps by staying close and doing its part. After Jesus raised Lazarus, He told the people around him to take off the grave clothes and let him go. God did what only God can do, and then the community helped set Lazarus free.

That is still the pattern. God is at work, and He chooses to use people to remind each other that He cares. The church's job is to hold one another's hands in the now until the not yet. If you're grieving, let someone help unwrap the grave clothes. If someone near you is grieving, be that person for them.

Common questions

Why did Jesus weep if He knew He would raise Lazarus?

John 11:33 says Jesus was deeply moved when He saw Mary and the people with her weeping. He wept because the people He loved were hurting, even though He knew how the story would end.

Where is God when I am grieving?

God is with you. Jesus is called Emmanuel, God with us, and Hebrews 4:15 says He is able to empathize with our weaknesses. He is present in your pain and cares about it.

Is it wrong for a Christian to grieve?

No. Faith still weeps, and Jesus Himself wept at Lazarus' tomb. Christians walk through grief honestly, with hope in the resurrection.

What does "the now and the not yet" mean?

It describes life between Jesus' first coming and His return. Sin is already forgiven but not yet fully gone, and Jesus already reigns but His final kingdom has not yet come. Christians wait in that space with active hope.

Read the blog postJesus Wept: What John 11 Teaches About Grief and HopeAt Lazarus' tomb, Jesus wept with the people He loved. Pastor Marty Sloan explains why you can grieve and believe at the same time, and why grief is never the final word.Read the post