One of the things that struck me about the story of the raising of Lazarus is that Jesus was both angry and grieved at the situation. John 11:33 says that he was deeply moved in spirit and greatly troubled. This is a soft way of saying that He was angry! The Greek here is quite strong, Jesus is outraged over something! But what? We don’t know for sure, but likely the pain and death that sin has brought into the world, not to mention the unbelief of the Jews. But whats interesting is that in John 11:35 Jesus is weeping! In two verses you have Jesus both outraged and weeping.
I am convinced that you want a Jesus who gets angry and sheds tears! I am also convinced that we would do well to follow his example. When it comes to a sinful, fallen world we need to weep over it and shed tears and we need to get angry enough to do something about it. Some people are only angry at sin. You have met them or heard them. They get quite passionate about hell and righteousness and judgment, but they never seem to shed any tears over the people they are trying to reach. Others are compassionate and kind and weep with those who are weeping, but never really get angry enough to do anything risky or bold.
We need both righteous, godly anger and broken, hope-filled tears if we are to be like our Savior.
GB
