John 11:25-44,

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[a] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

The year 1912 gave us two unforgettable things: the sinking of the Titanic and the invention of Oreo cookie — one was a tragedy, one a triumph, and we’re still fascinated by both today.

But something else important that happened in 1912 that we probably don’t think about much was the publication of an essay by the theologian B. B. Warfield. The essay is entitled, “The Emotional Life of our Lord” — and it’s about the various emotions we see Jesus express in the Gospels.

What makes the essay so amazing is that there had never really been a study like this before, and Warfield wrote it during the heyday of theological liberalism. When a lot of modern scholars were denying the deity of Christ, Warfield affirmed the deity of Christ and wrote this essay to defend the humanity of Christ.

And the reason this essay is relevant to our passage today is that Warfield gives a lot of attention to John 11 — because of the emotions we just read about in verses 33–38!

Now throughout each of the four Gospels we see the emotional life of Jesus, but there’s no other place where we see such strong emotions compounded in one scene. Warfield writes, “What John does [here in Chapter 11] is uncover to us the heart of Jesus as he wins for us our salvation.” 

And I think that’s right. Remember John was there! He saw this happen. And led by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he has written this to uncover the heart of Jesus for us, which means it’s worthy of our focus this morning. There are two questions we should ask: 

1. What do we learn here about Jesus’s heart? 

2. What difference does it make in our lives?

The goal of the sermon is to answer those two questions: I want to show you something amazing about the heart of Jesus, and then I wanna talk about why it matters.

Those are the two parts, and Part One can be titled “Uncovering the Heart of Jesus.”

1. Uncovering the Heart of Jesus

We’re gonna pick up here in verse 28, and my goal is for us to build, in our minds, the right image of Jesus in this scene.

Last week we saw the dialogue between Jesus and Martha, and this week it’s between Jesus and Mary.

After Martha’s faith confession of Jesus in verse 27, she goes back to their home in Bethany to get Mary. And I want you to try to imagine this…

Remember this is just four days after the death of Lazarus, and so it’s a crowded house of friends and family grieving with them. Martha walks into the full house and somehow in private she tells Mary that Jesus wants to see her. She most likely whispered this to Mary, because people are all around her. She said, “Mary, the Teacher is here and he’s calling for you.”

And Mary, right away, jumps up and goes to meet Jesus, and everybody is there, seeing her do this, and they assume she must be going to the tomb. So they leave the house and follow her.

So picture Mary walking to meet Jesus, and there’s this entourage of grieving people following behind her. She gets to Jesus in verse 32, and she falls down at Jesus’s feet and she says, 

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 

Where have we heard that before? This is the same thing Martha said in verse 21.

And again, I don’t think this is a rebuke. Mary is just stating a fact, and she does it here bowed down at Jesus’s feet — which is not a posture of disrespect — this is homage. She’s broken before her teacher. She’s been following him, learning from him, trusting him, and she’s honest with him.

And it’s important we get this scene right in our minds because before John tells us how Jesus responds, he tells us what Jesus sees. We need to see it too.

Verse 33 starts by saying that Jesus saw Mary weeping, down at this feet, and he saw this crowd of friends and family around her also weeping. And that word for “weeping” means wailing. This is audible, expressive grief. There’s no ‘balled fists mad’ at Jesus here. It’s heartache. 

Now look what John says Jesus did …

And this is one we need to see. I want to make sure everybody’s with me. Find verse 33 — Chapter 11, verse 33.

After Jesus sees this heartache around him, Verse 33,

“…he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”

Jesus Is Angry

Now that word “deeply moved” — that’s how the English Standard Version and the New International Version translates it. But if you have the ESV, you might notice there’s a little footnote marker, and the footnote says that this word could also be translated “indignant.” Or to be outraged. 

That’s because in nearly every other place this word is used, that’s what it means. Outside the New Testament this Greek word is used to refer to the snorting of horses, and when it’s applied to humans it means expressing anger. 

This is where I think cartoons could actually help us.

In old-school cartoons — like the Looney Tunes — it was really clear when the characters would get angry. Their faces would turn red and steam would blow out of their nostrils. That’s anger.

And the point is that the audience not miss the emotion!

That’s the point here in the use of this word.

The New Living Translation actually nails it. They translate it “a deep anger welled up within him.” That’s what the word means. Now why does it matter? 

Well, the word is repeated in verse 38. Look down at verse 38:

“Then Jesus, deeply moved again [deeply angry again], [he] came to the tomb.”

So that’s twice in this scene that John tells us this. Which means he really doesn’t want us to miss it. Jesus is angry here. He’s indignant. He’s furious. 

Jesus Is Sad

But hold on a minute: before we import our own meaning of anger, we need to see more in this story. 

We know that whatever kind of anger Jesus has here, it’s perfectly compatible with his holiness. Jesus never sinned, so this must be a holy anger. 

And there are three more words John uses here that fill in the picture. We have to see all of this together if we’re going to have the right image.

Notice back in verse 33, John tells us that Jesus was “deeply moved/angry in his spirit and greatly troubled.”

Jesus being angry “in his spirit” means that he’s under control — he’s not flying off the handle. He’s restrained.

But at the same time his emotion is visible. Because notice that word in verse 33, “deeply troubled.” That word literally means to shake. B. B. Warfield describes it as “raging in himself … His inwardly restrained fury produced a profound agitation of his whole being …” 

Can you picture that?

I know we all have ideas of what Jesus might have looked like (there’s a few windows around here that could help our imaginations) — But whatever your imagination of Jesus is, it should be able to include everything the Bible says about him, and here we read that Jesus is so enraged that he’s shaking. 

It’s like he’s about to explode, and says “Where have you laid him?” 

And then, verse 35, “Jesus wept.”

Now who would have expected that?! He’s raging in himself, and tears spill out.

And when you see tears — when there’s weeping — what does that mean? 

Even young children know what this means. This is part of early childhood development — teachers show children pictures of faces and have them match different emotions to each face. 

And when the teacher asks, “Which one is sad?”, the kids always point to the face with tears. Because tears means sorrow. Weeping means sadness. And in this story, Jesus is sad. That’s what overflowed for everyone to see. 

Jesus is fuming with fury and he grieves with tears. Fury and grief — anger with sadness — that’s the right image of Jesus here. That’s what John is showing us.

But why is Jesus responding this way? It has to do with what he encounters. 

First, and most obvious, he is surrounded by grief. He loved Mary and Martha, and Mary and Martha are both grieving; their friends and family with them are grieving, and so, at the most basic level, when Jesus weeps here, he’s joining his friends in their grief.

The people Jesus loves are sad, and he meets them in their sadness. He’s with them. This is true sympathy. Jesus is a good friend. But the anger part — what is that about? This is where we have to look at what’s behind the grief.

In this story, what has caused the grief?

Death.

Warfield writes,

The spectacle of the distress of Mary and her companions enraged Jesus because it brought poignantly home to his consciousness the evil of death, its unnaturalness, its “violent tyranny” … In Mary’s grief, he contemplates the misery of the whole human race and burns with rage against the oppressor of men…

It is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill his eyes, but his soul is held by rage…

Anger and sadness. Sadness and anger. 

Jesus Is Zealous

It’s really important to see what happens next. What does Jesus do with these emotions?

He doesn’t sit there on his hands. But he’s in motion. He’s going somewhere with this. And, at some level, this is expected. Check out verses 36–37. This is how the friends and family respond. They see Jesus’s emotion and think, “Wow, he really loved Lazarus!” And then some said, verse 37:

“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

That’s actually a smart question. It’s the logical next question after you realize that Jesus really loved the man who died. It’s clear that Jesus loved Lazarus, and we know Jesus can heal, so why didn’t Jesus just heal him?

I hope you see this is a form of the same question we talked about a month ago in our sermon “An Everyday Theology of Suffering.”

The big question we talked about is: How can God be all-powerful and all-good, and suffering still exist?

Remember that question? That’s the big question. And that’s the same thing going on here at a practical level: Jesus is powerful (he can heal), Jesus is good (he loved Lazarus). So … why is Lazarus dead in a tomb and Jesus upset about it?

It’s a fair question, and look, I think we’re all just trying to figure it out. And maybe we think Jesus doesn’t really have the kind of power we hoped he has — and if we think that, this next part is for us … Because Jesus, again, is in motion. He’s going somewhere. Verse 38:

“Then Jesus, deeply angry again, came to the tomb.”

Get the image right in your mind. Jesus is walking up to this tomb furious. He’s angry. He’s sad. And he’s zealous.

Warfield on this part quotes Calvin. I’ll read Calvin to you. He says:

Christ does not come to the tomb as an idle spectator, but like a champion who prepares for a battle, and therefore we need not wonder that he again groans, for the violent tyranny of death, which he had to conquer, is placed before his eyes.

Do you see it? Jesus approaches the tomb enraged because he is about to face our greatest enemy. And what does he do?

He says, “Move the stone.” 

Martha says, “There’s gonna be an odor.”

Jesus says, “I’m here to show you the glory of God.”

And then he looks up to his Father in heaven and says, verse 41,

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me …”

See, apparently Jesus has already been praying (and like Martha said in verse 22, whatever Jesus asks from God, God gives it to him). John wants us to know the Father and Son are in this together. 

Verse 43: 

“When Jesus had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice …”

That word for “cried out” is the same word used later when the crowd will cry out “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The word means to shout. And John also adds “with a loud voice.”

You gotta picture this. Jesus is not making a mild suggestion here. This is a loud shout from a heart enraged. He’s shouting it loudly in defiance of death.

“Lazarus, come out.”

Verse 44,

“And the man who died came out …”

See, they don’t even call him ‘Lazarus’ anymore — they call him “the man who died” — because he did die, but now he’s alive. And Jesus says,

“Unbind him, and let him go.” 

Those words are significant. It means that Jesus, the resurrection and the life, has set the dead man free. Just like Jesus will set us free — not free from the end of our physical lives in this world, but absolutely free from death.

Jesus, see, is zealous to save! He’s zealous to display the glory of God and accomplish our everlasting good, which are one in the same.

In this story, John uncovers the heart of Jesus for us.

B. B. Warfield writes,

Not in cold unconcern but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smites in our behalf. He has not only saved us from the evils that oppress us; he has felt for and with us in our oppression, and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption.

Anger against our enemy. Sadness in our grief. Zeal for our salvation.

This is the heart of Jesus. What a Savior!

2. Why Does It Matter?

Now, Part Two: What difference does this make in our lives?

I’d like to close with an application. And there’s a hundred things we could say! A hundred things we could takeaway. But for now, I’m just gonna focus on one: 

In discovering Jesus’s heart, we discover the kind of hearts we are called to have as his people.

We can’t be content to only admire him, but we must follow him as our example — especially in our witness. Because Jesus shows us what a holy heart looks like toward a fallen world.

We see it in the mingling of his anger and sadness — anger toward the ultimate enemy, and sadness for those who suffer. Indignation for the father of lies, sorrow for those captive to lies.

I think the best name for this posture is what we might call brokenhearted boldness. (That’s a Piper phrase.) Brokenhearted boldness.

And we get the boldness part. That is so vital in our day. It’s the courage to call evil evil. To hold our ground on moral clarity. To pray imprecatory psalms against the workers of Satan. And we do it with confidence, in Luther’s words:

The prince of darkness grim, 

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! His doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.

We mock the devil! We mock death! This is boldness!

But it’s brokenhearted. 

Because at the same time that we resolve never to compromise truth, we weep for the world that’s lost it. Together with the firmness of our conviction, we have the tenderness of compassion. We’re brokenhearted, because Hell is real, and we know people who will go there. And we don’t want them to. Brokenhearted boldness.

And honestly, it’s easier to recognize it than to describe it, so I’ll tell you a true story…

Just recently I was having lunch with one of our members, a college student.  And he was telling me about a class he’s in right now, and the professor is off the rails. The professor says there are at least 12 different genders, he openly mocks God in the classroom. And this student is disgusted by it. He told me he’s spoken up in class, he’s tried to dialogue with other students. He said, 

“But my classmates are so influenced by this professor. … They’re just eating it up. They’re all choosing a path of lies.”

And as he said this, his eyes filled with tears, his voice began to crack; he had to stop talking and look away … And I thought: “That’s it.”

That’s brokenhearted boldness.

That’s the heart of Jesus showing up in his people.

It’s not a witness of swagger. It’s not brash or belligerent, not snide or snarky, not cruel or crude, but it’s embracing truth with tears — a supreme love for God and a sincere love for people.

It’s a miracle, church, to have hearts like that! And would that God work this miracle in us! 

We want to be more like Jesus as we point to him and what he’s done. 

That’s what brings us to the Table.

The Table

Before we can ever imagine being like Jesus, we have to first be saved by Jesus. And that’s what we celebrate here.

The heart of Christ is an example we can follow, but the cross of Christ is the unrepeatable accomplishment of our salvation — and we can only receive it.

Christian, you know you can only receive it, so would you receive it afresh this morning? If you trust in Jesus, I invite to rest anew in this grace to you, and surrender yourself anew to his transforming work in your life.