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When Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, he already knew he was about to raise him. And he wept anyway. John 11:35 — the shortest verse in the Bible — is also one of the most theologically loaded. God incarnate, standing in front of death that he was about to reverse, still wept. The grief was not a mistake or a lapse of perspective. It was the proper human response to death, and Jesus entered it fully before he overcame it.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.”
In the ancient world, the 'judge' was the advocate — the one who stood for those who had no one to stand for them. God claims this role specifically for widows. This is not general kindness. It is a specific relational commitment.
“Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.”
The verse just before this one says 'thy Maker is thine husband.' God addresses both the shame of widowhood and the relational vacancy at the same time. The future tense — 'shalt not remember' — speaks to a healing that has not yet arrived but is moving toward you.
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
The gesture described — wiping away tears — is the most physical act of comfort in the book of Revelation. God is not distant in this vision. He is close enough to touch your face. And death itself is described as a 'former thing.'
“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
The word 'portion' — heleq in Hebrew — is the word for an allotted inheritance, what is given to a person as their share. God is described as an inheritance that cannot be taken. Not a supplement to what was lost, but an inheritance that outlasts it.
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
Jesus spoke these words to a grieving woman standing at a tomb — not in the abstract. Then he wept. The resurrection hope does not require grief to end before it is believed. Jesus entered the grief before he overcame what caused it.
Psalm 68:5 describes God as a "judge of the widows." In the ancient Near East, a judge was not merely a legal functionary — the judge was the advocate, the defender, the one who stood on behalf of those who had no one else to stand for them. The widow's specific vulnerability — economic, social, legal — was addressed by God claiming the role of her personal defender. Isaiah 54:4–5 takes this further: "thy Maker is thine husband." This is God making a specific relational claim in the specific relational vacancy left by widowhood.
John 11:25 — "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" — was not spoken in the abstract. It was spoken to a grieving woman whose brother had just died, standing at a tomb. The resurrection hope is not a bypass of grief. Jesus wept before he raised Lazarus. The hope frames and holds grief differently than despair does, but it does not require the grief to go away first.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Psalm 73:26 contains one of the most honest admissions in the Psalms: "My flesh and my heart faileth." Asaph describes actual physical and emotional collapse — not weakness of faith but the genuine limitation of a human being experiencing loss. And then: "but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." The word "portion" — heleq — is the word used for a person's allotted share, their inheritance, what they have been given. God is described not as a helper who assists with the loss but as the inheritance that cannot be taken.
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