“Jesus wept.” John 11:35
That is famously the shortest verse in the whole of the Bible and perhaps for many one of the most shocking.
“Jesus wept.”
Our friends preparing to receive Holy Communion for the first time are growing up in a society far different to the one I grew up in. in 1997 the press was full of the story of her late majesty and the Princess Royal weeping in public as the Royal Yacht Britania was decommissioned: it was thirty-one years before that was the only time Queen Elizabeth II had been seen showing this emotion after the Aberfan Disaster. While the society is different to ??? years ago when I was at school, differences over which some of us, I might say justifiably lament, one good thing, I believe, is that among the particularly stoic, or as some Europeans regard us, cold, it is more common for the English to express emotion in public – even men!
We gather today on this Fifth Sunday of Lent in a darkened church, darkened through the Passiontide Veiling. If I were to say that all the statues and pictures are veiled to draw attention to the Cross and Jesus outpouring of love on Good Friday our friends preparing to receive Holy Communion might well, and rightly so, come back at me and ask, “Why then are the crucifixes veiled as well?” It is, dear friends, in preparation for Good Friday when the Church gathers us at the hour Jesus’ died at a service in which one crucifix is unveiled and brought into Church and we, communicants, are encouraged, not only to gaze of the figure of Our Lord who gave his life for us, but to approach that symbol and kiss it as a sign of our willingness to offer our lives to him that through our dealings with other people they may feel the same love we know he has for us.
“Jesus wept.”
Jesus did not conceal his feelings. The Gospels make this clear. He was moved with pity on seeing the plight of ordinary people when they were in difficulty, persecuted or alone. As he approached Jerusalem for the last time he wept over the city, it was there he was about to be rejected by all but a few and he knew would be physically destroyed only thirty years later. Then as we have heard in today’s Gospel he wept on his way to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, even though he was going to bring Lazarus back to life.
In more recent years the Royal Family has been more open to expressing their troubles and grief in public and have found that they have not lost any respect but in many cases expressing their vulnerability have made them more attractive. This is true of Jesus. The very fact that he broke down tells us more about his heartfelt sympathy for Martha and Mary and his solidarity with them, than any words could express. What is more is, his having the same solidarity with us his brothers and sisters.
An important part of the Mass, expressed physically on Sundays is that it is though God’s love for us, as initiated the night before he died, the bread and wine we offer him, truly becomes Jesus’ Body and Blood. With the Crucifixes veiled, greater attention is drawn to the fact, that during the long prayer, that we call the thanksgiving prayer, as we remind ourselves of this initiation on the first Maundy Thursday, you will twice hear a bell ring as the Bread and Wine are lifted up: do look up, and know, that these are no longer bread and wine, but the risen Jesus truly present among us.
We have thought of how Jesus is close to us in times of sorrow and surely, he is! It is perhaps sad that S John does not tell us what happened after Lazarus had been raised from the dead. Later in his Gospel S John does tell us that Jesus stayed with the family at the home in Bethany. No doubt there was much rejoicing in that home as they returned that night. Let’s not forget that there can be tears of joy and that Jesus is as ready to rejoice with us as he is to console and strengthen.