I can imagine that the crowd is waiting and wondering what Jesus is going to do as he stands outside the tomb of one of his closest friends. For me, those two words speak volumes about how we are to grieve. If we could just see Jesus weeping, it might give us permission to weep as well. Weeping is called the language of the soul. It is the cleansing river of emotional release.
Society says be strong and don t cry.
We look at crying as a sign of weakness, but it isn t. Grief is not something to be overcome, but to be experienced. I read recently of a woman who has a brain-damaged daughter. My most recent wave of grief came just before her sixteenth birthday. As the day approached I found myself brooding over all the things that she would never be able to do.