Jesus wept

'OK, Jesus, we know you loved him. But what's the point of all this crying? You could have done something. You opened the eyes of a blind man. Why did you hang around doing nothing? This man was dying. Are you crying because you were too late?'
'It's like Martha said. If you'd been here this man would not be dead.'
'What's that? Take the stone away? Come on. Jesus it's going to stink. Don't you know what a body smells like after it has been dead four days?'
'You want us to see the glory of God? Come on! There's no glory here.'
'And really there is no point in calling a dead man by name. He's not going to get up and walk out of the ...'

The story of Jesus and Lazarus raises as many questions as it answers. The basic point is that Jesus is the resurrection. He is victorious over death. But it's still a story of great pain and confusion.  Nobody knows what Jesus means when he says that Lazarus is 'asleep.' Jesus' tears look more like defeat than victory. 
I think that the pain of this story matters. It gives us permission to be confused. It gives us permission to cry. It lets us tell Jesus that if he had been there things would be different. It lets us tell Jesus when things stink. And somehow in the end we hear the voice of Jesus, saying that if we believe we will see the glory of God.