Luke’s Favorite Verse

John 11:35

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What is my favorite verse? This is going to sound a little silly perhaps, but I would actually say that my favorite verse is John 11:35. Now, let me give you a little bit of background first. This is a verse that often comes up as a running joke, especially among confirmations students.

Every year when the eighth graders are about to be confirmed and we’re trying to figure out what would be a good Bible verse for them to take as their confirmation verse, a lot of them will come back with this verse, namely because it’s the shortest verse in all the Bible. Two words.

Jesus wept. John 11:35.

It makes sense if you’re going to have to memorize a Bible verse, that one’s easy to memorize. Jesus wept. Now. It’s meant to be a joke, but there’s a lot going on in this verse. I love this verse. Jesus wept. It speaks to us about how our Savior is one who understands sorrow.

When you’re going through hardships in life, when you are at the grave of a loved one, which is where Jesus was at outside of the grave of Lazarus, and you are weeping how comforting it is to know that we have a God who can identify with us. We have a God who knows exactly what that is like. Why? Because Jesus wept.

He came as one of us. He came, he was a true human being. He understands our emotions. He understands us on this basic human level. And that’s a comfort. He gets us. He understands what we go through, and he is here for us.

And so that’s why I love this verse. Jesus wept. But you know what else? Jesus rejoices. He rejoices in knowing that some day you are going to be like Lazarus coming out of that tomb, being called by the Savior to new life. Because of what He has done, there will be no more weeping in heaven. What a glorious day that will be when we we join him there.

But how wonderfully comforting it is to know that Jesus understands us. He’s a fellow human being like us. Jesus wept. He understands our emotions, but he also is going to be with us in that place where there will be no more weeping, where he calls us out of our tombs to be with him forever in heaven.

Thank you, Lord, for this. Thank you for this awesome short favorite Bible verse. John 11:35 Jesus wept.