In verse 35 of today's Gospel we learn that Jesus wept. For this once let us say that Jesus cried. That Jesus "cried" might startle us and encourage us to look again at a very revealing happening in Jesus' life. Jesus cried because Lazarus was his friend and because Martha and Mary were very close to him and he felt sorry for them. To cry in such circumstances is natural and human.

The words, however, used to describe Jesus' reaction to the whole episode of Lazarus' death and burial suggest more. They are very strong. Jesus seems to have been very upset.

Some commentators believe that Jesus was disappointed, frustrated and even angry that so many of the bystanders, including even his disciples and his close friends Martha and Mary were, as yet, unable to accompany him on a crucial journey of faith.

They were still so wedded to the life of the body and to the life of the sensible world that they could not make their own the possibility of a life in some way independent of bodily and worldly realities. It would take his own resurrection, his own conquest of death to convince at least some of those who were at the tomb of the reality of a life beyond the life we can see and hear and touch .