The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 134
• Hymn — O Bless Our God with One Accord
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 10:9-10
• Scripture Reading — Psalm 8
• Hymn — Give to Our God Immortal Praise
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — O Sacred Head Now Wounded
• Sermon
• Hymn — For All the Saints
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Scripture: John 11:28-38

I. The Internal Emotions of Our Lord

A. Martha summons Mary privately, telling her the Teacher is calling for her

1. Jesus's willingness to instruct women was counter-cultural; Mary had already sat at his feet as a disciple (Luke 10)
2. Mary echoes Martha's words: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died"

B. Jesus is met by Mary and a company of mourning Jews — likely professional mourners, consistent with wealthy Jewish funeral custom

C. Jesus is "deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled" (John 11:33)

1. The Greek word translated "deeply moved" is extremely strong — most commonly used of a snorting horse; when applied to persons it conveys indignation, outrage, and anger
2. His question "Where have you laid him?" reveals what provokes this outrage: the horrific reality of the Fall and the devastation death leaves behind
3. This is not outward ritual mourning but a disturbance of his innermost being — righteous indignation against death and the sorrow it brings
4. As the agent of creation (John 1:3), Jesus sees his crown of creation weeping over death and declares inwardly: this is not what man was made for (cf. Psalm 8)

II. The External Emotions of Our Lord

A. "Jesus wept" — the shortest verse in Scripture, yet enormously significant (John 11:35)

1. The Greek word for Jesus's weeping differs from that used for Mary and the Jews; theirs denotes loud, ritual wailing; his denotes a sudden, uncontrollable burst of tears — better translated "Jesus burst into tears"
2. Psalm 56:8 — David cries out that God keeps his tears in a bottle; here God in the flesh pours out those very tears through physical eyes
3. The shortest verse in the Bible is the guarantee that God sees your tears and weeps them with you and for you

B. Jesus weeps more deeply than those around him

1. A man born into poverty is accustomed to his condition; a rich man who loses everything feels the sting of poverty far more acutely
2. Christ has come down from the riches of glory and eternal life; the contrast between that glory and the tomb before him horrifies him more than those who have grown up in death's shadow
3. Christ weeps with you, weeps for you, and weeps more than you

III. The Saving Emotions of Our Lord

A. The onlookers rightly perceive Christ's love: "See how he loved him" (John 11:36)

B. Others question his power: "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" (John 11:37)

1. This refers back to the healing of the man born blind in John 9
2. Their doubt may add an element of outrage over unbelief to his indignation in verse 38

C. Jesus is "deeply moved again" as he approaches the tomb (John 11:38) — the same word of outrage and indignation

1. This time the inner turmoil does not produce tears but action — he advances to raise Lazarus
2. B.B. Warfield (The Emotional Life of Our Lord): "It is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death... his soul is held by rage and he advances to the tomb, in Calvin's words, as a champion who prepares for conflict"
3. The raising of Lazarus is not an isolated marvel but an open symbol of Christ's conquest of death and hell

D. The same zeal that drove Jesus to cleanse the temple (John 2; cf. Isaiah 9:7) drives him now toward the cross

1. God in his anger saves you — his righteous hatred of sin and death is the very motive of the atonement
2. 1 John 4:10 — God sends his Son as a propitiation; his love and his wrath against sin are not opposites but united
3. Isaiah 53:10 — it was the will of the Lord to crush the sin-bearer out of fury over sin
4. As John Owen expressed it, Christ advances to the cross to put death to death out of zeal for our life