"Jesus sayeth unto [Martha], I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Jesus knew from the first that he would raise Lazarus from the dead--which is why He waited two days before going to Bethany--that the glory of God might be fully revealed. For who could imagine that a putrefying corpse already four days dead could be brought back to life?
Even so, this is the only place in the Gospels where it is recorded that "Jesus wept." But why did He weep if He knew full well the mighty miracle He was about to accomplish? Jesus wept--according to His human nature--over the tragedy of death, which was--and remains to this day--the root cause of all the suffering and violence in this fallen world. Lazarus, after all--unlike the Most Holy Theotokos--was not raised in a glorified body that would live forever. Though our Lord truly has "trampled down death by death," the tragedy of death overshadows our entire earthly life, from cradle to grave, and shall continue to do so until the final consummation at the end of time.
Our sojourn in this fallen world is indeed bittersweet: the stark reality of death and corruption is interwoven with the bright rays of Christ's resurrection and the promise of eternal life in His heavenly Kingdom, "where there shall be neither sickness nor sorrow, nor any more sighing, but life everlasting." The only hope for salvation from this "body of death" is in and through our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, who assures us, "whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
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