just as I have loved you

From tomorrow:

The angel and Jesus ask Mary why she’s weeping because after Jesus’s death on the cross, death could be triumphed over. Jesus cried “It is finished” on the cross and when He sees Mary, Jesus says to her “Woman, why are you weeping?” As if to say, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you understand what I just did? Don’t you understand what happened on the cross? Death is not the end of the road anymore. Eternal life has been provided. Death is no longer so final. Don’t you understand? Why are you weeping?”

But in John 11:35, when Jesus is facing Lazarus’s tomb, He’s not thinking about the eternity that awaits those whose faith is in the Messiah. Instead, he’s thinking about the still terrible nature of physical death, and He thinks of Lazarus in that cold, cold tomb, He can see the terribleness and finality of death for Lazarus, and for everyone around Him. Jesus sees the emptiness of that tomb and thinks of the emptiness that awaits all mankind apart from God, He sees that and it breaks His heart, it breaks it, and He weeps.

But thankfully, the story doesn’t end at a weeping Savior before a tomb.