His Moment With Mary- Jesus feels our pain
Poor Mary. She is so caught up in her grief that she just sits there while all this stuff is going on around her. When Martha got up to go greet Jesus Mary apparently either didn't notice or didn't care. All she could see was the pain of Lazarus' death looming before her. She is living the reality of death and drinking in every ounce of it's sorrow.
Martha comes up to Mary and whispers into her ear. "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."
Mary gets up quickly and marches right to where Jesus is. She has a few thing that have been on her mind. She is barely able to hold herself together as she walks down the dirt road. Her eyes are puffy from crying and she is trying desperately to get a hold of her emotions. But when she sees Jesus she can no longer hold it in. She runs up to Him but immediately falls at His feet in anguish. She says the same words as Martha but apparently the inflection was a little different. Her cry seems to be slightly accusatory and more an expression of her disappointment with Jesus.
"Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Jesus looks down at Mary's brokenness and takes a sip of her sorrow. He then turns to the crowd and sees all their weeping as well. And as He takes in this moment and absorbs the pain of those he loves there is a swirling mixture of emotion in this text. It says in vs 33 "He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled." Believe it or not this actually means He got angry. The phrase moved in His spirit means to snort like a bull. The word "embrimaomai" in the Greek denotes a scolding disapproval for the phrase "deeply moved". Also, the word "greatly troubled" is "Tarasso" which means to be agitated. And then... He wept. From anger and frustration to sorrow and tears.
What was Jesus angry at? My submission is that He was angry at Death. Jesus , the author of life is about to face off with His greatest foe, death itself. Like a UFC fighter about to go into the ring with a mortal enemy Jesus is angry and broken hearted at the same time. He feels the exact same way Mary does. He feels the exact same way that you and I do about death.
Isn't it curious that Jesus has such emotions? Doesn't He already know what He is going to do? There is no reason for Him to weep except to bare Mary's pain. Though our God is in heaven and can see how it all is going to work out, He still understands our sorrow in the meantime.
Mary now looking up at Jesus can see the mixture of emotion on His face. And now she knows that He knows how she feels. As our Great High Priest, Jesus can be the mediator between God the Father and Man because He both sees the end from the beginning and can sympathize with how we feel.
The crowd can see it too and they think it is because He is missing Lazarus. But in the back of their minds the question that they have still lingers as well. "This guy opened the eyes of the blind just a few weeks ago, couldn't He have done something here?"
At this point Jesus gets angry again and lowers His head like a fighter about to step into the ring. With determination He makes His way to the tomb. But this tomb is not just any tomb. It is a cave in the mountain side, with a rock rolled over the entrance. Sound familiar?
Almost as a command Jesus says, "Take away the stone!" His tone seems terse here.
Martha protests. "It has been four days and His body probably is rotting and stinks."
Jesus reminds Martha of their conversation earlier and essentially says, "you said that you trusted me."
Martha apparently gives her approval. She signals to someone and the stone is moved. There is now a dramatic pause as Jesus looks up to heaven. He then begins talking to His Father out loud so everyone else can hear. "Father I thank You that You have heard me. I know You always hear me (implying even when I talk without speaking). But I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent me."
Then Jesus cried out with, what is phrased in the Greek, "Megas Phone" or loud voice. "Lazarus come out!"
I love how the bible phrases the next verse. vs 44 "Th man who had died came out,"
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