John 11:32-35
When Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This is one of those verses which bring out very strongly the real humanity of our Lord, and His power to sympathize with His people. As a real man, He was specially moved when He saw Mary and the Jews weeping.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And a man, too, who, notwithstanding His amazing dignity and excellence, did not feel it beneath Him to sympathize with the distressed, and weep with those who wept―Jesus had humanity in its perfection, and humanity unadulterated is generous and sympathetic. A particular friend of Jesus was dead; and, as his friend, the affectionate soul of Christ was troubled, and he mingled his sacred tears with those of the afflicted relatives. Behold the man, in His deep, heart-felt trouble, and in His flowing tears!
J. C. RYLE: Jesus is no less certainly perfect man—able to sympathize with man in all his bodily sufferings, and acquainted by experience with all that man’s body has to endure. Power and sympathy are marvelously combined in Him who died for us on the cross―If we saw His divine acts only, we might forget that He was man. If we saw His seasons of poverty and weakness only, we might forget that He was God. But we are intended to see in Jesus divine strength and human weakness united in one person. We cannot explain the mystery; but we may take comfort in the thought, “this is our Saviour, this is our Christ—one able to sympathize, because He is man, but one Almighty to save, because He is God.”
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): As God, He of necessity possessed every perfection: but, as man and mediator, He learned much from His own experience. By His own temptations, He learned our need of succour. He Himself, under His own grievous sufferings, “prayed to God with strong crying and tears, and was heard,” and was strengthened from above, Hebrews 5:7; Luke 22:42,43. Hence then, He knows how much we must need assistance under our trials, and how certainly we must faint, if we be not supported by His almighty power…Are we exposed to severe afflictions and manifold temptations? In Him is boundless compassion to sympathize with us, and irresistible power to succour and support us.
WILLIAM PRINGLE (1790-1858): How needful it was for Him to become man, and to suffer as He did―In being capable of sympathy with His people, God made Him perfectly qualified to be the Captain or leader in our salvation, that is, in the work of saving us, even through sufferings, as thereby He procured our salvation and became experimentally acquainted with the temptations and trials of humanity.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Christ is a brother to us, not only on account of unity as to flesh and nature, but also by becoming a partaker of our infirmities.
CHARLES SIMEON: A consciousness of His relation to us calls forth His sympathy―yet He could not know this experimentally, but by being reduced to a suffering condition; this therefore was one benefit which He derived from His sufferings. He learned by them more tenderly to sympathize with His afflicted people, and more speedily to succour them when imploring His help.
J. C. RYLE: One comfortable practical lesson stands out on the face of this truth, which ought never to be overlooked. Our Lord is able to sympathize with man in every stage of man’s existence, from the cradle to the grave. He knows by experience the nature and temperament of the child, the boy, and the young man. He has stood in their place. He has occupied their position. He knows their hearts.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is our mercy that the Lord Jesus perfectly knew, and as truly felt the whole of what human nature is in all its parts, yet without sin. Had it been otherwise, He would have been man in appearance, and not in reality. Whereas, the Holy Ghost expressly saith, that “in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren,” Hebrews 2:17.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Now look back to Psalm 22, verses 14 and 15, and you will see how fully Christ can sympathize with His people, because He also walked through the valley of the shadow of death even as they have to do. Hear Him crying there, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me”—remember that this is the Saviour speaking here―“thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Well then, there is great comfort for the sheep in the fact that their Shepherd has been along that gloomy way before them.
CHARLES SIMEON: We are assured that “he learned obedience by the things that he suffered,” Hebrews 5:8. Now, as obedience consists entirely in love to God and man, sympathy, which is the highest office of love, must of necessity have been learned by Him. And how perfectly He had learned it, His address to the persecuting Saul declares, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Acts 9:4―Whether it be good or evil, He considers it as done to Himself. Thus it is with our blessed Lord. Are we persecuted? He feels in his inmost soul the dagger that pierces us, Zechariah 2:8. Do we labour under distresses of any kind? “In all our afflictions he is afflicted,” Isaiah 63:9.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): And the same tenderness He retains still toward His afflicted.
J. C. RYLE: He did not leave behind Him His human nature when He ascended up into heaven. At this moment, at God’s right hand, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and can understand tears as well as ever―Our Lord Jesus Christ never changes. He is “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. His heart is still as compassionate as when He was upon earth. His sympathy with sufferers is still as strong.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Such an one is Christ, a merciful King, as well as High Priest, who is touched with a feeling of His people’s infirmities.
JOHN CALVIN: Therefore whenever any evils pass over us, let it ever occur to us, that nothing happens to us but what the Son of God has Himself experienced in order that He might sympathize with us; nor let us doubt but that He is at present with us as though He suffered with us.
CHARLES SIMEON: Let this be a source of comfort to you under every affliction.
