Religion in Daily Life

 © By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

Rector, All Saints’ Church

Written 12 March 2002

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven,” said Henry Ward Beecher, the 19th century American pastor. Jesus of Nazareth cried when he came to the grave of his friend Lazarus. The record says, “Tears came to Jesus’ eyes” (John 11:35, LB). As we look through those tears, we can see into the heart of this person who has brought the God of heaven close to us through his human nature.

The tears of Jesus were tears of anger. In the record of Jesus’ visit to the grave of Lazarus, it says twice that Jesus was angry (John 11:33, 38). The late Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, believed that Jesus was angry at the havoc which disease had wrought on the marvel of a human body, the stricken body of his friend Lazarus. Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says, “He is angry at forces that oppose God.” Like Jesus and the Hebrew prophets before him, we need to feel indignation about those persons and those practices that injure human beings.

The tears of Jesus were tears of sadness. At least, that’s what I think as I imagine Jesus thinking about having to call Lazarus back into this old life, the life he had left to enter the unimaginable splendor of Paradise, the intermediate state. Right here one can see the difference between resuscitation and resurrection. Resuscitation means to revive from apparent death, a return to the old life, a life limited by physical laws, a life that will die again. In contrast to resuscitation, the resurrection of Jesus on Easter means that God had raised him to a new life. God had transformed his physical body so that it was no longer limited by physical laws, but could appear and disappear and enter locked rooms. God made him the pioneer of a new life that will never end. “For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again-death will no longer rule over him” (Romans 6:9).

The tears of Jesus were tears of compassion. Lord Byron said, “The dew of compassion is a tear.” Jesus suffered with his friends Mary and Martha, who grieved over their brother’s death. This word “compassion” sums up Jesus’ teaching about God and indicates the Way of life to which Jesus called people. “Be compassionate,” Jesus said, “just as your Father [God] is compassionate” (Luke 6:36, NJB). Jesus expressed his compassion through his works of healing and by sharing meals with people who were considered impure and outcast by his contemporaries.