Jesus Wept
As many of you may already know, my wife Leah and I have recently suffered some severe loss. On November 30, 2023, we lost our son, Andrew James, at 16 weeks gestation. Then again on July 2, 2024, we lost our daughter, Quincy Kay, at 20 weeks gestation. There were many thoughts that followed both deaths, and one of the main ones that kept popping up was, “Does Jesus care?”
Does Jesus care when we are having difficult times? Does Jesus care when we have suffered great loss? Does Jesus care when I seem to be at the end of my rope?
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:3-4).
We are clearly told by the prophet Isaiah that the Messiah will be a man of sorrows; he will be acquainted with grief and will carry our sorrows. During his time on earth, Jesus was a human, just like any of the rest of us. He had to deal with the same troubles that we do. He had to experience pain, stress, loss, anger, hunger, sadness, rejection, and ultimately death. We are not told anything about Jesus’ life from the age of twelve to the beginning of his ministry at his baptism by John. There are theories that Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, died sometime during that time, as he is not mentioned during Jesus’ ministry. If that is the case, then Jesus had to deal with a great earthly loss. He had to deal with grief just like you and me.
We are told of two times in the Bible when Jesus had to deal with the death of someone he was close to and loved here on earth. The first is the death of his cousin and forerunner, John the Baptist. As we know, John was beheaded by Herod the Tetrarch. Picking up the story in Matthew 14:12-13,
Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities.
When Jesus heard of his cousin’s death, he receded alone to a deserted place for the purpose of mourning.
The better-known story of Jesus’ mourning and suffering loss is that of the death of his good friend Lazarus, found in John 11. We are told in verse 5 that, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Jesus arrived in Bethany four days after Lazarus died and met with his sisters. Let’s pick up the story in verse 32,
Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept (John 11:32-35).
Think about the last verse: “Jesus wept.” Jesus felt loss. Jesus felt grief. Jesus felt overwhelming sadness. He was truly a “Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Because of his life here on earth and the emotions and troubles that he had to go through, we are told in Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Does Jesus care? As song number 485 in Sacred Selections so emphatically replies to this question, “O, yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.” Jesus cares deeply about me and you. He has experienced life and all the pain and disappointment that comes with it, and because of this, He can sympathize with us. He knows how hard it is.
When we are facing difficult times — whether they be the death of a loved one, temptation, physical turmoil, or any other thing that makes us question whether Jesus cares — we can remember back to the scriptures and His life and know that He cares for us and about what we are going through. Because He cares for us, we need to reach out to him when we are in difficult times.
“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).