{"id":1581,"date":"2012-05-16T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2022-04-08T05:57:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T21:57:17","slug":"56-from-bethany-to-calvary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1581","title":{"rendered":"56. From Bethany to Calvary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, \u201cWhere have you laid him?\u201d They said to him, \u201cLord, come and see.\u201d Jesus wept.<\/span><\/strong> [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">John 11:33-35<\/span>]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Jesus-Wept-by-Daniel-Donnel-contemporary..jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1583\" title=\"Jesus Wept, by Daniel Donnel, contemporary.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Jesus-Wept-by-Daniel-Donnel-contemporary.-227x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/The-Raising-of-Lazarus.Jean-Baptiste_Jouvenet.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1584\" title=\"The Raising of Lazarus.Jean-Baptiste_Jouvenet\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/The-Raising-of-Lazarus.Jean-Baptiste_Jouvenet-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"228\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Jesus-Wept-by-Daniel-Donnel-contemporary..jpg\">\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/The-Raising-of-Lazarus-by-Caravaggio-1608-09..jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1582\" title=\"The Raising of Lazarus, by Caravaggio, 1608-09.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/The-Raising-of-Lazarus-by-Caravaggio-1608-09.-220x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/cgfa.dotsrc.org\/j\/p-jouvenet4.htm\">[1] Jesus Wept, by Daniel Bonnell, contemporary. [2] The Raising of Lazarus<\/a>, Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet, 1706.[3]\u00a0The Raising of Lazarus, by Caravaggio, 1608-09.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cIs God capable of emotions?\u201d is not a question that can be answered lightly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On the one hand, if God is subject to emotions, he may change or be changed and that seems to mess up our image of an eternal, unchanging God. Does this God not come dangerously close to humans and risk being contaminated by his creatures and even be subject to emotional manipulation? At any rate, an affirmative answer to the opening question would appear to put a dent to the Greek vision of a primordial Unmoved Mover, at least in the department of reactions and feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On the other hand, what kind of a God do we have who is not capable of emotions, and is hopelessly distant and untouchable? Is such a God even capable of caring? A negative answer to the opening question would suggest a God who is away and above the vicissitudes of human history, wholly unconcerned about human affairs and unmoved by human suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What does the Bible say about God in terms of emotions?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The impression we have about the Evangelists is that St John seemed to have been able to get into the mind of Jesus more than the other apostles. The Gospel named after him is a rich text for the study of this topic. In particular, chapter 11 on the death and resurrection of Lazarus offers a good starting point for a first look at some implications. While the entire chapter provides the context, verses 33-35 take us to the heart of the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>In sum, while Jesus was in the Jordan, Mary and Martha sent words to him that their brother Lazarus was very ill. Jesus tarried and left for Bethany two days later. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Jesus saw that Mary and the Jews who accompanied her were crying. Jesus felt very upset. He was deeply troubled. He went to Lazarus\u2019 tomb, and he wept.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We need to be silent, to be able to begin to feel and to take in some of the deep implications of the Word in St John\u2019s Gospel:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Lord was upset.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He was troubled.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He wept.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Despite some exegetical difficulties relating to the particular Greek word used to describe Jesus\u2019 emotions, all agree that in this narrative, Jesus was deeply emotional. His weeping here reminds us of a later occasion where he will again weep. Standing on the Mount of Olives during his final approach to the Holy City, Jesus looks across the Kidron Valley at Jerusalem and he weeps. The Lord weeps for Jerusalem, the city of \u201csalem\u201d that knows no peace, for it refuses to welcome the Prince of Peace. Our Lord weeps over human sin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here in Bethany, apart from the straightforward portrayal of Jesus weeping, John\u2019s Gospel employs two Greek words to accentuate Jesus\u2019 inner emotions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>enebrimesato<\/em> \u2013 meaning he was deeply moved, which ties in with words following that mean &#8220;in his spirit&#8221;; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>etarasen<\/em> \u2013 meaning he was troubled.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">While differences of opinion emerge in the interpretation of the term <em>enebrimesato<\/em> \u2013 a term that has proven itself to be very difficult to translate &#8211; they nevertheless all point to a strong display of emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wikichristian.org\/index.php\/Koine_Greek%20\/%20Koine%20Greek\">Greek<\/a> word for &#8220;deeply moved&#8221; is a powerful but complex one. It speaks not only of a deep emotion, but of the physical expression of that emotion as well. From Greek grammatical tools, we learn that as it is properly used to describe horses snorting, it is here used in reference to persons \u201csnorting with suppressed rage or indignation\u201d. Thus, in this story, it is employed to describe Jesus who \u201clet out a groan of indignation from the innermost being.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Accepting the element of anger, this verse in German <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wikichristian.org\/index.php\/Bible%20\/%20Bible\">Bibles<\/a> commonly reads &#8220;Jesus became angry in spirit and troubled.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This \u201canger\u201d has been variously explained by commentators, including the suggestion that Jesus was angry and troubled over the ravages caused by the great enemy of the human race, namely, death. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled because the violent tyranny of death stood starring him in the face.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A deeply moved Jesus came to the tomb. On that, all agree. However, not every scholar agrees to take the line of anger. To begin with, even though Jesus wept, the word used to describe his weeping in verse 35 is different from the word used to describe the weeping of Mary and the Jews in verse 33 which indicated loud wailing and cries of lament. This word simply means \u201cto shed tears\u201d and has more the idea of quiet grief. The difference in word-choice, while pointing to immense grief on the part of both Mary and Jesus, suggests a controlled, inner grief experienced by Jesus. While Jesus let out a groan from his innermost being, therefore, it wasn\u2019t a display of emotion that was out of control.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Then, we find ourselves gravitating towards such interpretations as William Barclay has given. Barclay suggests that Jesus \u201cwas deeply moved in spirit so that an involuntary groan burst from him, and he trembled with deep emotion.\u201d Yet, he does not agree with any translation that implies anger in all these emotions. He even sees the RSV&#8217;s translation of \u201cJesus was deeply moved in spirit\u201d as being \u201ctoo colourless\u201d for that unusual Greek word<em> enebrimesato.<\/em> He proposes\u00a0a closer translation to indicate \u201csuch deep emotion seized Jesus than an involuntary groan was wrung from his heart.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The point immediately germane to our reflection here is that, instead of the Greek vision of God having <em>apatheia<\/em>, that is a total inability to feel any emotion at all, as his primary characteristic, John&#8217;s\u00a0gospel turns on the theme that \u201cin Jesus we see the mind of God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The raising of Lazarus episode then raises the question: \u201cWhat kind of God do we have?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dutch Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx describes Jesus as \u201cthe human face of God\u201d. \u201cTo have seen me is to have seen the Father,\u201d our Lord said to Philip [John 14:9]. And right here in Bethany, so deeply did Jesus enter into human sorrows that his heart was wrung with anguish. Through him, we have a glimpse of our God, the Father of Jesus Christ,\u00a0as a God who is not a distant, passionless and compassionless God of the Greeks. Rather, He is a God who draws near to his people through the incarnation of his Son whose heart feels pain and sorrow for the pain and sorrow of his people.\u00a0In Jesus of Bethany, then, we see a God who cares deeply.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Why then does John mention that Jesus wept? Why does the evangelist show us a weeping Jesus? Why does John record this fact about Jesus when he admits that there isn\u2019t room enough to record all the events of Jesus\u2019 life [John 21:25]?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">John alone has given us the familiar and yet mysterious language of the Word made flesh [John 1:14], that Word which in the beginning was with God, and was God [John 1:1-2]. He deems it necessary, despite space-limitation, to tell us that the Word who made the universe stands and weeps at the grave of a friend. John breaks the Word open just a crack, so to speak, that we might see a glimpse of the character and nature of God. At Bethany, this God stands at the grave of a man and weeps. He is an emotional God. That emotion is displayed not only in the privacy of one&#8217;s own room, but in public, with the community, in the company of those who suffer. And we know too why he wept only when he got to the tomb, the place they had asked him to &#8220;come and see&#8221; where his friend was buried, for the tomb is the place of human sorrow, where love and hope are buried against our wishes, where humanity mourns its dead and laments its excruciating loss. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus paints a powerful picture of deep solidarity with those who lament and mourn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is another difficulty in the text we need to resolve. Why did Jesus weep at all? After all, he is the resurrection and the life (11:25) and, on hearing of Lazarus\u2019 death he was glad that that he was not there, so that he could raise Lazarus up and the glory of God might be seen and people would believe. While, therefore, we might say that Jesus was in sympathy with Mary and Martha when he wept with them, that is inadequate an explanation since Jesus knew he was going to raise Lazarus up anyway. How then are we to understand Jesus\u2019 seemingly \u201cunnecessary\u201d weeping?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">To answer that, we need to turn then to two very important linkages John wants us to make:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First, we are to link this passage with Isaiah 53:4 \u2013 \u201cSurely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.\u201d In that familiar Biblical passage read on every Good Friday, we find the connection between Lazarus\u2019 illness and death and Jesus\u2019 own suffering and death where the glory of God would be made manifest. Like Lazarus\u2019 death, Jesus\u2019 own death would produce faith. There is a connection between Lazarus\u2019 death and Jesus\u2019 death that John wants us to see. So from the next chapter in John\u2019s gospel, John 12 onwards, Jesus\u2019 own death would be rapidly approaching. And there, Jesus is again troubled when he speaks of his own death. So the descriptions of weeping and troubled emotions point from Lazarus\u2019 death to Jesus\u2019 own death, from Bethany to Calvary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, we are to link John 11:34 to John 20:13. What we witness in Bethany is a subtle foreshadowing between Lazarus\u2019 death and Jesus\u2019 death. To see Lazarus\u2019 death, Mary answered \u201ccome and see\u201d \u2013 the very same invitation to the journey of discovery Jesus gave to the first enquirers of faith in 1:39. And that takes the readers right to the core of the gospel message: don\u2019t just take anybody\u2019s word for it, come and see for yourself. John shows us what he saw, that is, both the humanity of Jesus and the deity of Jesus. After discovering the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene had to invite the apostles Peter and John to see the truth for themselves [20:1-2]. Refusing to believe the testimony of the other apostles, even Thomas, the absentee-apostle at the first post-Resurrection at the Upper-Room, must see for himself to be convinced that the crucified Jesus has indeed risen to become the resurrected Lord and Christ (20:24-29). In showing us Jesus\u2019 humanity and divinity, John is telling us that Jesus did not merely cure sorrows but shared in them, and he shared grief with those weeping before Lazarus\u2019 tomb while looking ahead to his own time in the grave. This is the rich fabric John is painting for us as he tells us \u201cJesus wept.\u201d Paul wrote in First Corinthians that love does not rejoice in what is wrong. If God loves us beyond human love, then he grieves and shares our pain more powerfully than any human grief or sympathy. And so we are told quite simply, \u201cJesus wept\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And so the question \u201cIs God capable of emotions?\u201d is by no means a question for mere philosophical and theological entertainment. Over time, we ourselves have come to realize that we are truly blessed by the display of the Lord&#8217;s emotions in the Gospels. To know he was tired, hungry, and thirsty is reassuring, but then those are only bodily needs. To know that he grew angry, was frustrated, felt troubled and sorrowful, and even wept, somehow offers us a great deal of courage and comfort. Even if we do not always use those emotions righteously, it is good to know that Jesus had them. Bethany takes us to the very belly of Christ, and we treasure the power of the moment where Jesus was indignant with the power of death and grievously sorrowful over the death of a friend. We now know it\u2019s quite alright to behave the same way. We shall not have to feel guilty over the fact that at funerals we often feel so mad at the inevitability of death, or feel so heart-broken for those who have lost their loved ones so definitively. Jesus who loves us hates death as well. Our Savior has been here, He has felt pain, suffered grief, and experienced anger. In him, we have the eternal consolation that death is no longer the last word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh. May 2012. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at<strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com.<\/span><\/strong> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, \u201cWhere have you laid him?\u201d They said to him, \u201cLord, come and see.\u201d Jesus wept. [John 11:33-35] \u00a0\u00a0 [1] Jesus Wept, by Daniel Bonnell, contemporary. [2] The Raising <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1581\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, \u201cWhere have you laid him?\u201d They said to him, \u201cLord, come and see.\u201d Jesus wept. [John 11:33-35] \u00a0\u00a0 [1] Jesus Wept, by Daniel Bonnell, contemporary. [2] The Raising&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1581"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7061,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions\/7061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}