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Jesus Wept (John 11:28-37)

 After Martha confessed Jesus to be the Son of God who has come into the world, she left, going back home to get her sister Mary. Jesus was still outside of town, and Mary met him there, in the same place where Martha came to meet him.

People had seen Mary get up quickly to go somewhere, so they followed her.

When Mary said a similar thing to what Martha had said, that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been there earlier, the emotion of it moved Jesus deeply. He asked to see the grave, and where they had laid Lazarus. Jesus has a human soul, just like you and me. We know that it's tough to keep our emotional control, when our loved ones are very sad. Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus, and he wept. This is another of those great mysteries. I think that--given what Jesus is about to do--it is a mystery worth contemplating. Death is so wrong, and the sorrow so deep, that the Son of God couldn't tolerate it for even a moment. We should be mindful of this, when we are tempted to tell people that their grief over the death of a loved one is too much for us, or has gone on "too long."

The whole episode restarts a conversation among the people about the true identity of Jesus. We have seen this often, and I think St. John wants us to see it. He also wants the literal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to know that they have a choice. It is not a betrayal of their forefathers to believe in Jesus; in fact, to believe is to truly honor those forefathers.

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