"Jesus wept." This act is usually overshadowed by Jesus's following action--raising Lazarus from the dead.
One of my ccd kids asked me if Jesus was perfect. When I answered yes the kids, kids who cannot remember from one week to the next what a lector is or what the three sacraments of initiation are, brought up several really good Biblical examples that they thought proved He wasn't. Examples from Bible stories we had not covered! Some, like when the child Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem instead of returning home with Mary and Joseph, were concerned with the nature of Jesus and his mission. Interestingly though, most of their examples had to do with Jesus showing emotion--he cried when Lazarus died, the got mad at the money changers in the temple, he got tired and slept through storms. These are things that are part of being human--being connected to and interacting with others invokes emotion which, in itself is not an imperfection.
Jesus wept. He felt sadness over the death of a friend, a fact which John felt was important enough record in the Gospel. This is in stark contrast to modern society which views tears, especially in men, as a sign of weakness. People with a stiff upper lip or stoic demeanor are extolled as paradigms of self control and composure. Yet Jesus, the perfect Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity, wept.
2 comments:
This is one of my favorite verses of the Bible, full stop. Because even though he knew what he was going to do --- what he could do --- he still wept. It's such a powerful marker of the reality of death, but also of the goodness of life and the created world --- that it's appropriate to "shed tears for passing things" and stay human, stay able to be touched by the natural. I think there's a very sick brand of Christianity that sort of phases out natural emotions, natural reactions in an excess of spirituality...but the one who was closest to all the strangeness, all the perfection of God, still felt the human tendernesses we feel. It's not so much that he wasn't perfect, but that he gives us a new definition of perfection.
Thanks for this post!
I agree, it is such a powerful look at the power and necessity of emotion and what perfection means. And your welcome.
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