3 Times Jesus Cried, And What They Teach Us
Jesus was God, but also human. He experienced all the same struggles and temptations we all do as partakers of the human experience (Hebrews 4:15). As a human, Jesus encountered all the same emotions we do. We see several examples in Scripture of Jesus displaying human emotion:
He displayed empathy for his mother, Mary, as He hung on the cross, and even amidst His suffering, He still took time and effort to make sure she would be taken care of by someone after He was gone (John 19:25–27).
On many occasions, we see Jesus showing compassion for the lost and struggling people around Him. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36, ESV).
Jesus also became angry when He noticed the injustices being done by the hands of the people in religious authority (Matthew 23:33).
We also see Jesus being happy and being able to rejoice when the lowly and poor understood the things of God (Luke 10:21).
But today, we’re going to focus on the sadness of Jesus. In fact, the Bible records at least three instances of Jesus crying. Today, we will look at those three references, and see what exactly it was that made Jesus sad.
1. Jesus wept over people who reject God’s peace.
“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”” (Luke 19:41–44, ESV)
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the “city of the great King” (Matthew 5:35), because there was so much potential there that was lost when they failed to recognize the true Messiah. Jerusalem had been the headquarters of God’s chosen people, the Israelites, for many hundreds of years, and if anyone should have accepted the coming Messiah, it should have been the people of Jerusalem. Sadly, that was not to be, as the religious leaders who were headquartered in Jerusalem patently rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They failed to recognize Jesus for who He was, and they suffered the consequences as a result.
Jesus is saddened by people who have every opportunity to know Him and accept Him as the Messiah who can forgive their sins and give them peace, but yet who reject Him and the blessings that come as a result of knowing Him.
2. Jesus wept over the suffering of people He loved.
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.” (John 11:33–35, ESV)
Jesus cried when he approached the tomb of Lazarus, his friend. The thing is, Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He wasn’t crying because he was sad to loose his friend. We get a clue as to WHY Jesus was crying in verse 33: “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
Jesus wept not because of HIS loss, but because of the suffering of OTHERS. What makes Jesus sad? When He sees the people He loves struggling with the difficulties of life.
Jesus loves you (John 15:9). When you suffer and struggle in this life, that makes Jesus sad. He wants to give you peace and hope and help you through the struggles of this life, if only you can accept Him as King and Messiah as Jerusalem failed to do.
3. Jesus wept as He considered being separated from His Father.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7, ESV).
Before Jesus was killed on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, He was incredibly sorrowful as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-38). Also, on the cross, Jesus “cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46).
Jesus wept and cried out at the thought of being separated from His Father. He had spent all eternity leading up to this point, and all His earthly life, being in total unity with the Godhead, and now, as He faced taking on the sins of the world, He couldn’t stand the thought of being forsaken by His Father.
Are we just as concerned and anxious at the thought of being separated from a relationship with God? Does being separated from our Father in heaven cause us to weep as it did Jesus?
Three takeaways from what made Jesus weep:
First, we must understand that when we reject Jesus and His life-giving peace, we sadden Him. He desires us to accept Him as our savior and submit to His authority and saving power.
Second, we should remember that when we are suffering and struggling in life, Jesus knows, and Jesus is saddened and concerned with our difficulties. This should cause us to want to know Jesus and love Him in return because of how much He cares for us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Third, just as Jesus wept over thinking of His separation from the Father, we too should be distressed if we know we do not have a relationship with God through Jesus. If you are not in a relationship with Jesus in order to be forgiven of your sins, and you have not repented and been baptized for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38), then that should cause you to be saddened.
Remember, Jesus is saddened when you reject Him and His salvation, and He is saddened by your suffering in this life. Therefore, this should cause us to want to seek out a relationship with God through Him.