Jesus cried at a funeral too

It's the shortest verse in the Bible — just two words. "Jesus wept." It's easy to read straight past. But stop on it, because of where it happens. Jesus is standing near the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He has already said out loud that he is about to raise him from the dead. The miracle is minutes away. And still, he cries.

Sit with how strange that is. Jesus had every reason not to weep. He knew the ending. He knew the grief in that crowd was, in one sense, temporary — Lazarus would walk out of that grave within the hour. If anyone ever had grounds to say "don't cry, it's all going to be fine," it was him, in that exact moment. Instead, he wept with them.

Your tears are not a failure of faith

This matters for anyone who's quietly been made to feel that grief is a weakness in their faith. Somewhere along the way, a lot of us absorbed the idea that strong belief means staying composed — that tears mean we don't trust God enough, that a real Christian should be able to rise above the sorrow. John 11:35 dismantles that in two words. The Son of God, with full knowledge of the resurrection that was coming, did not rise above the sorrow. He entered it. He let it move him to tears.

So your tears are not the opposite of faith. Jesus wept while knowing resurrection was on its way — which means you can grieve and hope at the very same time. The two were never enemies. You can believe with everything in you that you'll see your person again, and still be undone that they're gone now. Jesus held both, standing right there at the grave.

A God who comes close enough to cry

There's comfort, too, in what this tells us about who God is. We don't follow a God who stands at a safe distance from human pain, unmoved, telling us to toughen up. We follow the God who came close enough to cry at a funeral. When you weep, you are not weeping alone, and you are not weeping in front of a God who's disappointed in you for it. You're weeping in front of One who has done the very same thing.