Tears of the Messiah: Understanding Why Jesus Wept

Why Did Jesus Weep? Understanding the Savior’s Tears

The Bible is filled with powerful words some of the most impactful are the shortest. Think about John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” Just two little words oh, the depth they hold! In many English Bibles, it’s the shortest verse 1 it captures a moment when the Son of God felt such deep human emotion. And let me tell you, this wasn’t the only time. Our Savior, Jesus, He wept on other occasions, and these moments, they’re like windows into His heart, showing us His incredible mission and what His feelings mean for us today. That verse, “Jesus wept,” in the story of Lazarus, it’s so brief, almost like the writer, John, wanted us to just pause and really think about how much meaning is packed in there, instead of just rushing by.² So, this article, it’s all about exploring those times Jesus cried, understanding the heart behind His tears, and finding the amazing comfort and hope they bring to our lives.

Where in the Bible Does It Say Jesus Wept, and What Were the Situations?

The Bible shows us Jesus expressing deep sorrow and weeping in a few different situations, and each one gives us a special glimpse into His amazing character and what was on His heart. If we want to understand why He wept, we’ve got to look closely at what was happening each time.

• At the Tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35): This is the one most folks remember. Jesus was in Bethany, and He wept right alongside Mary and Martha. They were heartbroken because their brother, Lazarus, who was a dear friend to Jesus, had passed away.¹ That verse is so short it marks such a powerful moment of shared human sadness.
• Over the City of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41): Picture this: Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, and it’s what we call the Triumphal Entry. It seemed like a big celebration as He looked over the city, He began to weep.⁴ His tears then weren’t for a personal loss for the city, for its spiritual condition, and for what He knew was coming.
• Prayers with Loud Cries and Tears (Hebrews 5:7): the book of Hebrews, it tells us about Jesus’s prayer life when He was here on earth. It says, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission”.⁶ It doesn’t pinpoint one specific time it shows us just how intense His prayers were, especially when He was in deep anguish. Many believe this includes His time in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The variety here – personal sadness with a prophetic sorrow for a whole nation, and that intense personal agony in prayer – it just shows the incredible range of Jesus’s human emotions.⁸ His tears weren’t just a one-time thing or for one kind of reason. And that’s so important because it helps us see His full humanity and His amazing ability to understand what we go through. These recorded moments, they’re probably just a hint of a much deeper emotional life, painting a picture of a Savior who wasn’t distant was right there with us, deeply connected to the human experience.

Why Did Jesus Weep When His Friend Lazarus Died (John 11:35)?

When Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus, it’s a story that just touches your heart and shows so much about His compassion and how He sees our suffering. You see, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, they were close to Jesus.² When Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, He actually waited a bit before going to Bethany.¹ By the time He got there, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. To his sisters, it felt like all hope was gone.¹

When Jesus arrived, He was met by Mary and Martha, and they were just overcome with sorrow. Both of them said something so similar: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”.² And when Jesus saw Mary crying, and the others who came with her also crying, the Bible says He was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11:33).¹ It was right there, in that atmosphere of grief, that “Jesus wept.” In that moment of profound sadness, the tears of Jesus illuminated the depth of His compassion for those He loved. It is through our brokenness that we often find God, revealing His presence in our pain and leading us toward hope. Even amid heartache, there can be moments of grace, where we learn to embrace the joy that follows sorrow, dancing without leaving room for despair.

His tears were a sign of His genuine heart for His grieving friends. He saw their pain, that raw hurt that death brings, and He shared in their sorrow.¹ One person put it this way: “Jesus wept because those He loved wept”.² This shows us that God doesn’t take our pain lightly, not even when He knows there’s a bigger plan in motion.²

And more than that, Jesus wept because of the pain and devastation that death itself brings into our world.² Death, in the Bible, is like an enemy, something that came from sin and spoiled God’s beautiful creation. Even though Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He still felt that present sting, that sorrow that death causes.¹

Here’s something really powerful to understand: Jesus wept even though He knew He was going to bring Lazarus back to life in just a few minutes. His tears weren’t because He was hopeless or because He lacked power. No, they came from a deep connection to human suffering and a powerful sorrow for the tragedy of death as we experience it.² As one writer pointed out, “Even when Jesus knew He was about to make right what was wrong, He still ‘felt’ the pain of the people He was there to serve”.¹ Knowing the end of the story didn’t make the present grief any less real or valid. This transforms His weeping into an act of pure empathy, a choice to step into our human experience of loss, not just a reaction to something He couldn’t change from His divine view. It’s a powerful picture showing that knowing the ultimate outcome doesn’t cancel out the reality of our present sorrow.

Was Jesus Just Sad for Mary and Martha, or Were There Deeper Reasons for His Tears at Lazarus’s Tomb?

While Jesus’s heart definitely went out to Mary and Martha, and that was a big reason for His tears, if we look a little closer at the words John used in his Gospel, it seems like there was something even deeper going on in His emotions. Before it says “Jesus wept,” the Gospel tells us He “groaned in the spirit and was troubled” (John 11:33) and then again He was “groaning in himself” (John 11:38). That Greek word for “groaned” or “deeply moved” is embrimaomai. This word means more than just being sad; it’s talking about a strong, gut-level reaction, almost like a snort of anger, or feeling really indignant, or a deep displeasure.⁹ This tells us that Jesus wasn’t just feeling sorrow also a kind of righteous anger.

So, what could have caused this deeper, more stirred-up emotion?

• Anger at Death and Sin: Jesus might have felt a holy anger at the “fearful and universal ravages of sin and death”.⁹ You see, death wasn’t part of God’s original, perfect plan; it was an intruder, an enemy. His strong emotional reaction could have been aimed right at this destructive force.
• Frustration with Unbelief: Some wise folks suggest that Jesus’s “deep anger” or being “troubled” came from the lack of full faith He saw, even in His close friends like Mary.⁹ Both Mary and Martha had said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”.² While that showed faith in His healing power, it might also have shown they didn’t fully grasp His authority over death itself. One source points out it’s likely He was deeply saddened “that they still didn’t realized He is the Resurrection and the Life despite Him telling them repeatedly”.⁹ Realizing that the very people He had taught so closely still struggled to get the fullness of His power and who He was – that could have stirred this deep reaction. One analysis directly connects the mourners’ limited understanding to Jesus’s strong emotional response described by embrimaomai, saying, “When faced with the pain of the sisters… And the realization that they thought that Jesus could have saved Lazarus if he were just sick but could do no more once he died, a deep anger and indignation arose within Jesus”.¹⁴
• Confronting the “Tyranny” of Grief: St. Cyril of Alexandria, one of the early Church Fathers, he saw it this way: Jesus felt human grief He also showed us how to conquer it, how to find a path beyond its overwhelming power.¹⁷

So, you see, Jesus’s emotional state there at Lazarus’s tomb, it was likely complex. It wasn’t just simple sadness. His tears seem to have been the outward sign of a mix of deep empathy for His sorrow over the destructive power of death, and a righteous anger against sin, death itself, and the unbelief that couldn’t quite grasp His true power as “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). If we just said He was sad, we’d be missing the power of the original words used.¹² That unbelief He saw, combined with the devastating reality of death, it seems to have stirred up a holy anger inside Him, which, mixed with His incredible compassion, led to His tears.

Why Did Jesus Weep Over the City of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41)?

The tears Jesus shed over Jerusalem, they show us a different side of His sorrow. This happened as He was coming into the city for Passover, during what we call the Triumphal Entry.⁴ Crowds were cheering Him like a king, laying down their cloaks and palm branches, shouting praises. It looked like a huge celebration, a moment of Messianic hope. But right in the middle of all that, “as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep” (Luke 19:41).⁵ The Greek word used for weeping here, klaio, often means a more intense kind of grief, like loud crying or sobbing, different from the quieter tears we imagine at Lazarus’s tomb.⁴

Jesus’s tears over Jerusalem, they weren’t for Himself or His own suffering that was coming. No, they were for the people of the city, for their spiritual blindness, and for the devastating things He knew would happen because of their choices. There were two main reasons for this deep, heartfelt cry:

• They Missed the True Path to Peace: The people of Jerusalem, and many Jews at that time, they were looking for a Messiah who would be a political or military leader, someone to free them from Roman rule.⁴ But Jesus, He came offering a different kind of peace – spiritual peace, eternal peace with God. It’s what the Hebrews called shalom—a total well-being, being right with God and with all creation.⁴ He wept because they didn’t recognize Him as the true Prince of Peace and were blind to “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42).⁴ As one person put it, “The Prince of Peace was standing right in front of them, and they missed it”.⁴ They were looking for a human king to lead them in war, not the divine King who was offering them a way back to God.
• He Foresaw Their Coming Judgment and Destruction: Because Jesus is divine, He knew the tragic future that was waiting for Jerusalem because they, as a whole, rejected Him as their Messiah.⁴ With sorrow in His heart, He prophesied the terrible siege and the complete destruction of the city and its temple by the Roman armies, which actually happened in AD 70.⁴ He cried out, “because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:44). That word “visitation,” it means a special, divine coming.⁴ Jerusalem had failed to recognize God’s ultimate visit in the person of Jesus, and this rejection would lead to terrible, catastrophic results. One powerful summary says, “Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because they weren’t ready when the General came to town. They were not prepared and missed out on worshipping and following Him. God in flesh was standing right before their eyes, and they missed it! Because they missed the General and weren’t ready, a future judgment would come”.⁴

That stark difference between the crowd’s joyful shouts and Jesus’s intense sobbing just highlights how tragic the situation was. This wasn’t a private sadness; it was a public display of sorrow over a nation’s spiritual condition and what was inevitably coming. His tears were a cry of rejected divine love and a deep sorrow over the missed chance for salvation for a whole nation. This shows us that God doesn’t enjoy judgment; He grieves deeply when people choose a path that leads to destruction, turning away from His offer of true peace and life.⁴

Did Jesus Cry at Other Times, Such as in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Beyond those well-known times He wept for Lazarus and over Jerusalem, the Bible hints at other moments of deep sorrow and intense prayer in Jesus’s life, especially in the Garden of Gethsemane. In that garden, the weight of the world seemingly bore down upon Him as He grappled with the imminent crucifixion, showcasing His humanity amidst His divine nature. This poignant moment not only highlights His vulnerability but also invites reflection on the profound relationship between Jesus and omnipresence explained, illustrating how He empathizes with human suffering while simultaneously embodying an eternal perspective. His prayers there resonate deeply with those who seek solace in their own trials, offering a reminder that even in moments of despair, divine presence is ever near.

The book of Hebrews gives us a general picture of Jesus’s prayer life: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7).⁶ This verse really shows us how deeply earnest and emotionally intense Jesus’s talks with the Father were, especially in moments of powerful anguish.⁶

When the Gospels tell us about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (you can read about it in Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46), they don’t specifically use the word “wept,” but they paint such a vivid picture of His immense distress. He told His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34).²² He prayed with such agony, asking the Father if it was possible for “this cup”—which represented the suffering and divine judgment He was about to take on for the sins of all humanity—to be taken from Him.⁷ Luke’s Gospel even mentions that His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44). While this verse isn’t in every ancient copy, it fits with the tradition of His intense suffering.⁷

Many theologians and Bible scholars believe that the “fervent cries and tears” mentioned in Hebrews 5:7 are talking specifically about Jesus’s agonizing time in Gethsemane.⁶ One source notes, “In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said ‘my soul is very sorrowful, even to death’ and his distress was so great that He was sweating blood”.⁷

Even with all that anguish and His plea for the cup to pass, Jesus ultimately submitted to the Father’s will, praying, “Yet not as I will as you will” (Matthew 26:39).⁶ When Hebrews says “He was heard because of His reverent submission,” it doesn’t mean the cup of suffering was taken away. Instead, it means His prayer, offered in perfect obedience, was accepted as part of God’s sovereign plan for our salvation.⁶

The sorrow Jesus felt in Gethsemane, expressed with such incredible intensity, it reveals the true and terrible weight of the burden He was about to carry: the sin of the world and separation from the Father. His tears and cries here aren’t mainly tears of empathy for others, like at Lazarus’s tomb, or prophetic grief for a nation, like over Jerusalem. No, these are expressions of deep personal agony and the human struggle as He faced the unimaginable suffering of the Cross. This was a unique kind of sorrow, deeply tied to His work of atonement for all of us. The “loud cries and tears” in Hebrews 5:7 are linked to His role as our high priest; His perfect obedience through such powerful suffering was part of what made Him the perfect and eternal High Priest for all believers.⁷

What Do Jesus’s Tears Tell Us About Him Being Both God and Human?

Jesus’s tears, they give us such a powerful insight into one of the greatest truths of our faith: that Jesus Christ is, at the same time, fully God and fully human. This amazing truth, sometimes called the hypostatic union, was clearly stated by the Council of Chalcedon way back in AD 451. It means that Jesus has two distinct natures—one divine and one human—and these are perfectly united in one person, without any confusion, without any change, without any division or separation between them.²⁴ So, He was truly God, with all the divine power and knowledge, and at the same time, He was truly man, experiencing everything it means to be human, including our limitations and our emotions.²⁵

The times Jesus wept are powerful proof of His genuine humanity. He felt the whole range of human emotions – hunger, thirst, tiredness, joy, anger, compassion, and as we’ve seen, deep sorrow.²⁵ One Bible commentary puts it this way: “The fact that Jesus—who is God incarnate (John 1:1–4)—experiences human sorrow, at all, is reason enough to be amazed. This moment speaks to His humanity…”.¹ Another early writer, Haydock, said that Jesus weeping at Lazarus’s tomb was “A mark of his human nature, when he was going to give them a proof of his divinity…”.²⁸

While His tears clearly show His humanity, the reasons He cried often reveal His divine perspective and His incredible compassion. For example, His sorrow over sin, the destructive power of death, the unbelief He encountered, and the future consequences of rejecting God’s grace – all of that points to a depth of understanding and concern that goes beyond ordinary human feelings.¹ ancient pagan gods were often shown as cold, distant, or just not caring about human problems. But the God of Israel, He was revealed as compassionate, and Jesus, as God in the flesh, He embodies this divine compassion in a way we can see and feel.¹

There’s a theological idea called communicatio idiomatum, which means the sharing of properties. It helps us understand this. It teaches that the characteristics of both the divine and human natures belong to the one person of Jesus.²⁴ So, when Jesus wept, it was the God-man who wept. The divine Son, the eternal Word (the Logos), He took on human flesh. St. Cyril of Alexandria emphasized that “…it was Christ’s appropriation of flesh that made it possible for the Logos to experience human emotions and transform them”.⁸ This concept is significant not only in understanding the nature of Christ but also in shaping the beliefs of various Christian denominations, including the distinct views found in Baptist and Assemblies of God beliefs. These traditions emphasize the personal relationship believers can have with Jesus, acknowledging His dual nature as both fully divine and fully human. This understanding fosters deeper spiritual connections, encouraging followers to recognize the profound implications of Christ’s humanity in their own experiences of faith.

So, Jesus’s tears are like a remarkable window into the mystery of the Incarnation. They show us that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, didn’t just watch human suffering from a distance. No, He entered right into it, felt its weight, and expressed its pain in a truly human way. His divine nature didn’t cancel out His human experiences, and His true humanity didn’t lessen His full divinity. For us believers, this means that God understands our weaknesses and our suffering, not just in theory through the actual, lived experience of Jesus Christ.¹

Let me lay it out for you, to show this amazing truth:

Jesus: Fully Human, Fully Divine

Fully Human Attributes Exhibited by Jesus	Fully Divine Attributes Exhibited by Jesus
Experienced hunger (Matthew 21:18)	Claimed divine authority (Matthew 28:18)
Experienced thirst (John 19:28)	Forgave sins (Mark 2:5–12)
Experienced fatigue (John 4:6)	Performed miracles (John 2:1–11)
Wept and felt sorrow (John 11:35, Matthew 26:38)	Accepted worship (Matthew 21:9)
Showed compassion (Matthew 9:36)	Is the eternal Word who became flesh (John 1:1, 14\)
Suffered and died a human death (Mark 15:37)	Is Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23)

Based on information from sources.1

This dual nature, it’s absolutely essential for His role as the perfect bridge between God and us.²⁵

How Could Jesus Feel Such Strong Emotions Like Sadness and Anger and Still Be Without Sin?

The Bible is crystal clear: Jesus Christ was without sin. The book of Hebrews tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).¹ This brings up a really good question for a lot of folks: how could He feel such strong emotions, like deep sadness or even anger, and still be sinless?

The key is understanding that emotions themselves aren’t automatically sinful. Sadness, grief, joy, even anger – these are natural human responses to different situations. Sin comes into the picture when these emotions come from selfish or wrong motives, when they lead to ungodly actions or attitudes, or when they’re out of proportion or out of control. As the theologian B.B. Warfield said, “It belongs to the truth of our Lord’s humanity that he was subject to all sinless human emotions”.¹²

Because Jesus was the only perfect human being, His emotional responses were always pure, always perfectly appropriate, and completely in line with God’s holy character and will.¹²

• His anger, like that indignation (embrimaomai) He showed at Lazarus’s tomb or when He cleansed the temple, it was a righteous anger. It was aimed at sin, death, injustice, hypocrisy, or anything that dishonored God or hurt others.¹² It was never selfish, mean, or uncontrolled rage.
• His sadness, whether it was tears for His friend Lazarus or His cry over Jerusalem, it was a holy sorrow. It came from compassion, empathy for the suffering of others, or grief over the terrible results of sin and unbelief.² It wasn’t despair, self-pity, or a loss of faith.

One theological idea suggests that Jesus, because He was sinlessly perfect and had complete control of all His faculties, actually felt emotions like pain and sorrow more purely and intensely than we fallen humans do. Sin can dull or twist our human senses and emotional responses.²⁹ It’s thought that in His Passion, He chose to feel these negative emotions perfectly, without the usual buffers or distractions that often soften human suffering.²⁹

So, the sinlessness of Jesus’s emotions is found in how perfectly they matched divine holiness and love. His anger was always a reaction against evil; His sorrow was always a compassionate response to the brokenness of this fallen world. Because He was without sin, His emotional expressions were a true and perfect reflection of God’s own heart, not the often flawed and self-centered reactions we humans can have. This perfect, sinless emotional life is part of what makes Him not only our example but also our sympathetic High Priest, who truly understands.

What Did Early Christian Leaders and Thinkers (the Church Fathers) Teach About Why Jesus Wept?

Those early Christian leaders and deep thinkers, the ones we often call the Church Fathers, they spent a lot of time reflecting on the Bible’s accounts of Jesus weeping. They might have emphasized different things they all agreed on the reality of Jesus’s human emotions and saw incredible theological meaning in His tears. They connected them to who He was, His mission, and His relationship with all of us. They believed that these moments of sorrow revealed His profound empathy and compassion, demonstrating His connection to our human experience. Furthermore, they argued that the historical evidence for Jesus‘ emotions serves to authenticate His genuine humanity, reinforcing His role as both divine and deeply relatable. This interplay between His tears and mission underscores the transformative power of His love and the hope He offers to a hurting world.

St. Augustine of Hippo (around AD 354-430):

• When it came to Jesus weeping at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35), Augustine really focused on Jesus’s deep empathy. He taught that Jesus chose to weep with Mary, Martha, and the other mourners, showing them His shared grief and teaching all believers that such compassion is right and good.²⁸ Augustine saw this as Christ willingly stepping into their human sorrow.³⁰
• And about Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), Augustine understood those tears as an expression of sorrow because the city was about to reject Him, because of their lack of faith, and the tragic things that would follow.¹⁹ He also saw it as Jesus weeping for all people who would show a lack of faith or be indifferent to God’s call.³¹

St. John Chrysostom (around AD 347-407):

• Commenting on John 11:35, Chrysostom pointed out that Jesus wept to show how truly human He was, especially since John’s Gospel really emphasizes His divinity.³² He also suggested that Jesus showing His emotion helped draw more witnesses for the amazing miracle of Lazarus’s resurrection that was about to happen.³² By seeming to mourn instead of immediately doing a miracle, Jesus avoided any suspicion about the event.³³
• For Luke 19:41, Chrysostom saw Jesus’s weeping as a prophetic cry over Jerusalem’s future destruction. This destruction was a direct result of them failing to recognize and accept Him as the Messiah, even though He loved them so deeply.²⁰

St. Cyril of Alexandria (around AD 376-444):

• St. Cyril had a particularly insightful view on Jesus’s emotions, especially in John 11. He argued that it was Christ’s “appropriation of flesh”—His coming in human form—that made it possible for the divine Logos (the Word) to genuinely experience human emotions and, most importantly, to transform them.⁸
• Cyril taught that Christ “suffered impassibly” (apatheôs epathen). That sounds like a contradiction it means that while Jesus truly suffered in His human flesh for our salvation, His divine nature remained impassible (meaning it couldn’t be affected by suffering).⁸
• Specifically about John 11:35, Cyril suggested that Jesus felt grief but then immediately showed His control over it. By weeping only a little and then stopping, Jesus showed His power to conquer the “tyranny” of human passions like grief, giving us a model to follow.¹⁷ This interpretation, which was concerned with the idea of divine impassibility, has a different emphasis than how many modern folks read it, who focus more on Jesus just sharing in the empathy.

John Calvin (1509–1564), a later Reformer whose thoughts are in the materials we have:

• On John 11:35, Calvin believed that Jesus willingly subjected Himself to human feelings to be like His brothers and sisters. This showed Him to be an empathetic Mediator who understands our human weaknesses.³⁰ He also suggested that Jesus’s groaning (embrimaomai) was partly a reaction to the “hard heartedness of man” and the weakness of their faith.¹⁶

These early Christian thinkers, even with some differences in how they saw things—like Cyril’s idea of Jesus “conquering” grief by weeping briefly, which is different from a modern focus on just “sitting in the pain” with others 3—they were all united in saying that Jesus’s human emotions were real. They all recognized that His tears weren’t just some minor detail but carried deep theological meaning, revealing His compassion, showing His true humanity (which was essential for His saving work), and offering powerful lessons for all believers.

Let me sum up their perspectives for you, friend:

Church Fathers on Why Jesus Wept

Church Father	Key Passage(s) Discussed	Main Reason(s) Attributed for Weeping
St. Augustine	John 11, Luke 19	Empathy with mourners; sorrow over unbelief, Jerusalem’s rejection of Him, and the future lack of faith in others. 19
St. John Chrysostom	John 11, Luke 19	To show His true humanity; to prepare witnesses for the miracle of raising Lazarus; sorrow over Jerusalem’s future destruction due to rejecting Him. 20
St. Cyril of Alexandria	John 11 (primarily)	Experienced genuine human emotion through the Incarnation; by weeping briefly, He demonstrated mastery and transformation over grief, showing a path to overcome its “tyranny.” 8

Conclusion: Tears That Speak Volumes

the tears of Jesus Christ—shed at the tomb of a dear over a city that was rejecting its own peace, and in the agony of prayer as He faced the cross—they speak volumes about who He is and what His mission was all about. They reveal a Savior who was fully human, capable of the deepest empathy and sorrow, yet also fully divine, whose grief was often mixed with a righteous anger against sin and death, and a prophetic understanding of what happens when people choose unbelief.

In Jesus, God didn’t stay distant from human suffering; He entered into it completely. His weeping shows us that our pain is seen, our sorrows are understood, and our weaknesses are met with divine compassion. For us Christians today, the tears of Jesus offer so much more than just an interesting historical fact; they are a lasting source of powerful comfort, an example of how to live with compassion towards others, and an unshakeable foundation for our hope. They remind us that the God who wept with humanity is the very same God who conquered death and promises a future where all tears will be wiped away. And that, is something to hold onto!