By Jim Nichols

It is a maneuver used often by younger students in a religious situation. The teacher requires each child to memorize a verse from the Bible and recite it for everyone. As you might guess, each child gravitates toward a short and simple verse. They already learned from older children that “Jesus wept” will be acceptable, though not preferable by the teacher.

This verse (John 11:35) does, indeed, play a significant role in Jesus’ life, despite its brevity. The scene is the death of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, and Jesus’ encounter with Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters. Lazarus is dead and buried when Jesus arrives at the tomb. Mary, Martha, and other mourners are distraught and wonder why Jesus could not have arrived earlier. “Lazarus might not have died,” they believe.

This is a resurrection story as Jesus restores life to Lazarus. Before that last action, however, scripture reads, “Jesus wept.” Many thinkers have pondered the cause of Jesus’ grief. Was he sad about the death of his friend? Was he sad about the corresponding grief of Mary and Martha? Was Jesus wishing that the observers could have a better view of the larger picture of this Lazarus event precluding Jesus’ own death and resurrection? It is unclear.

Despite our lack of understanding of the reason, it does, at least supply the “Shortest Verse in the Bible” to satisfy the children’s requirement for memorizing.

There are other quite short scriptures that are heavy with meaning. One such is only four words: “And it was night” (John 13:30).

The situation here is the Last Supper involving Jesus and his immediate disciples. With high drama, we read of sharing bread and wine and, finally, the identification of Judas as the ultimate betrayer of Jesus. This scene concludes with Judas receiving the morsel of bread from Jesus and leaving the room. Scripture then reads, “And it was night.”

The gospel of John has multiple contrasts of light vs. darkness/night. These four words are packed with meaning here. This is not just a comment on the literal time of day, but a reflection of the spiritual darkness of Judas and, in a sense, the known world. Rather than understanding Jesus as the ultimate “light,” we see a physical description of just the opposite occurring.

My parents introduced me to the biology of seeds by giving me several lima beans, a few child-sized garden tools, and indicating to me a section of our yard near the house where I could “plant” the seeds. It was a mysterious experiment for young me. 

The concept of planting seeds includes multiple, apparently contradictory actions. One is that the seeds must be buried in the soil. The planter covers the seeds, and it is dark where the seeds first reside. In one of the most spectacular biology activities, however, when the seeds germinate and sprout, they push through the covering soil and grow into the light. The small organism was already alive, but only after breaking through the soil can it photosynthesize with the available sunlight. The initial burial led to (if you will) a resurrection. The parallel to Jesus’ empty tomb is hard to miss. It was dark in that tomb. 

Indeed, scripture includes multiple illustrations of reversals from what appears to be dead to a restored life. Life did not truly disappear; it just changed from one form to another.

And people wonder why studying biology is interesting.

Seed germination is in the category of metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Those activities are crowded with scientific marvels that still stimulate academic study.

Scripture has no lack of short statements that communicate deep truths. There is another set of four words that fits here.

The soldiers mocked Jesus on Golgotha and then scripture adds the four words, “And they crucified him.” There is little detailed description of this process; people had seen others crucified. One might think that the light of life had been extinguished. But the darkness could not hide him. A breakthrough was just waiting.

The gospel of John begins with “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Yes, it was dark. And then the light returned—permanently this time.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain