Sermon Tone Analysis
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The tears of Jesus
I. CAUSES OF CHRIST’S SORROW.
1.
The possession of a soul.
When we speak of the Deity joined to humanity we do not mean to a body, but to manhood, body and soul.
With a body only Jesus might have wept for hunger, but not for sorrow.
That is the property not of Deity or body, but of soul.
The humanity of Christ was perfect.
2. The spectacle of human sorrow.
(1) Death of a friend (John 11:36).
Mysterious!
Jesus knew that He could raise him.
This is partly intelligible.
Conceptions strongly presented produce effects like reality, e.g., we wake dreaming, our eyes suffused with tears—know it is a dream, yet tears flow on.
Conception of a parent’s death.
Solemn impression produced by the mock funeral of Charles V.
The sadness of Jesus for His friend is repeated in us all.
Somehow we twine our hearts round those we love as if forever.
Death and they are not thought of in connection.
He die!
(2) Sorrow of His two friends.
Their characters were diverse: two links bound them together: love to Lazarus, attachment to the Redeemer.
Now one link was gone.
His loss was not an isolated fact.
The family was broken up; the sun of the system gone; the keystone of the arch removed, and the stones lose their cohesion.
For the two minds held together only at points of contact.
They could not understand one another’s different modes of feeling: Martha complains of Mary.
Lazarus gave them a common tie.
That removed the points of repulsion would daily become more sharp.
Over the breaking up of a family Jesus wept.
And this is what makes death sad.
II.
CHARACTER OF CHRIST’S SORROW:
Spirit in which Jesus saw this death.
1. Calmly.
“Lazarus sleepeth” in the world of repose where all is placid.
Struggling men have tried to forget this restless world, and slumber like a babe, tired at heart.
Lazarus to his Divine friend’s imagination lies calm.
The long day’s work is done, the hands are folded.
Friends are gathered to praise, enemies to slander, but make no impression on his ear.
Conscious he is, but not of earthly noise.
But “he sleeps well.”
2. Sadly.
Hence, observe
(1) Permitted sorrow.
Great nature is wiser than we.
We recommend weeping, or prate about submission, or say all must die: Nature, God, says, “Let nature rule to weep or not.”
(2) That grief is no distrust of God—no selfishness.
Sorrow is but love without its object.
3. Hopefully—“I go,” etc.
(Joh 11:11).
“Thy brother” (Joh 11:23).
4. In reserve.
On the first announcement Jesus speaks not a word.
When He met the mourners He offered no commonplace consolation.
He is less anxious to exhibit feeling than to soothe.
But nature had her way at last.
Yet even then by act more than word the Jews inferred His love, There is the reserve of nature and the reserve of grace.
We have our own English reserve.
We respect grief when it does not make an exhibition.
An Englishman is ashamed of his good feelings as much as of his bad.
All this is neither good nor bad: it is nature.
But let it be sanctified and pass into Christian delicacy.
Application.
In this there is consolation: but consolation is not the privilege of all sorrow.
Christ is at Lazarus’s grave, because Christ had been at the sisters’ home, sanctifying their joys, and their very meals.
They had anchored on the rock in sunshine, and in the storm the ship held to her moorings.
He who has lived with Christ will find Christ near in death, and will find himself that it is not so difficult to die.
(F.
W. Robertson, M. A.)
The import of Jesus’ tears
The weeping was preceded by groans.
After the groans come tears—a gentle rain after the violent storm.
Jesus in this, as in all things, stands alone.
1. Different from Himself at other times.
2. Very unlike the Jews who came to comfort the two sisters, and
3. unlike the sisters themselves.
Jesus’ tears imply
I. THE RELATION BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE MIND (Lam 3:51).
Tears are natural.
The relation existing between matter and mind is inexplicable.
Yet it exists.
From this fact we can reason to the relation existing between God and the material universe.
II.
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE.
Here we have a proof of His humanity.
What more human than weeping?
Following this manifestation of humanity is the manifestation of divinity.
We should guard against the old errors concerning the constitution of Christ’s person; for they appear from age to age under new forms:
1. Arianism—denying His proper Divinity.
2. Appolinarianism—denying His proper humanity.
3. Nestorianism—dual personality.
4. Eutychianism—confounding the two natures in His person.
III.
THE RELATION BETWEEN CHRIST AS MEDIATOR AND HUMANITY, IN GENERAL, IN ITS MISERY, AND HIS PEOPLE, IN PARTICULAR, IN THEIR AFFLICTIONS.
1.
The question, why He wept? is here answered.
(1) He was sorrowful because of the misery caused by sin.
As Jerusalem was before His eyes when He wept over it, so here humanity in its sin and all its misery passed in review before His face.
(2) His weeping was a manifestation of His sympathy.
No comparison between His consoling, comforting tears and those of the Jews.
2. The intercessory work of Christ as our High Priest in heaven is here implied.
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