Jesus wept.

2 powerful words from the book of John.

Jesus wept.

Many have tried to explain why... perhaps it was that he was distressed at some perceived 'lack of faith'?  Nope - that's just stupid.  As if God acts in measure to how powerful our prayers are, or how much belief we have.

I think he just needed to cry.

We frown upon tears in our society.  Real men don't cry...

This past week I took a funeral for a man I had never met.  A man who led a remarkable life, and touched many.  And whilst I led the service and preached, I took a look at those gathered to mourn his loss.

The women dabbed at their eyes with hankerchiefs and tissues... but the men (and even the boys) were stoic!

Why do we teach - men especially - that tears are the sign of weakness, or unmanliness.

Tonight, sitting here downstairs in my basement, I had a good cry.  And not just a solitary tear down one cheek.  I cried.  I was watching some very short audio-less video's that included some brief glimpses of Sam.  And I cried.

And afterwards, I found renewed strength.

You see today is a hard day.  Today is the day Laura is exactly the same age as Sam was when he died.  After today, I no longer have an older child.  His age was cruelly snatched away.  Days like today don't just hurt, they burn.
They burn with the knowledge that there will never be a graduation, or a wedding, or grandchildren, or a college education.

Jesus wept too... at the death of a friend.  And my guess is that he needed to release that grief and anguish at the loss of Lazarus.  And perhaps (and I really am reading into the text here) when he had wiped away his tears, like me he felt strangely renewed.  Ready for the task.  He prayed to the Father, for as a man he could not raise his friend from the dead, and ordered the stone rolled away.
I would offer anything - and I mean anything - for the future memories that have been cast away on the wind to become permanent concrete markers.  But sadly now, they will never be. 

I bet Jesus would have given anything to have his friend Lazarus waiting at the house with his sisters - instead of rotting in a tomb.  This was a man he truly loved and shared a strong bond of friendship with - and at a guess would have given anything to see Lazarus again.

But wait - he did.

Give everything.

Yet he was still man enough to cry.

Tears are not enemies of the rational mind - they are drops of salty seasoning that remind us of what was, and somehow in that memory, give us sweet release.  And one day, tears will be no more.

But for now, tears are given to us by a God... who wept!