“wept” is a different word than that used of the grieving sisters and Jewish sympathizers. Their weeping was a loud, unrestrained wailing and lamentation (klaio); His weeping (dakruo) was a quiet, gentle shedding of tears.

Why did Jesus weep? It was not over the death of His friend Lazarus, for Jesus was about to raise him from the dead. There were 2 reasons for Jesus to weep and both have much the same significance for us:

1. Jesus wept over the misconception of those around Him. They didn’t understand death; they didn’t understand Him or His mission; and some of those present, even after seeing the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, would still reject the free gift of salvation He was holding out to them. This reason for weeping is quite similar to the only other recorded time that He wept (Luke 19:41).
   Luke 19:41  As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it
2. Jesus wept in sympathy with His grieving friends (Rom 12:15). The heart of Jesus was deeply moved by the pain of those around Him. He empathized so much with them that an involuntary groan was wrenched from His spirit and He cried. He felt their pain and it affected Him. Even knowing that Lazarus was soon to be raised and the resulting nearness of comfort to the mourners did not prevent His tears. Robertson notes that “Often all that we can do is to shed tears in grief too deep for words.” (RWP) And as Neander points out:
   Romans 12:15  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

“A sympathetic physician in the midst of a family drowned in grief,—will not his tears flow with theirs, though he knows that he has the power of giving immediate relief?”

The weeping of Jesus would have been an amazing thing to any of the Greeks who read this account. According to Barclay, the Greeks held that the most important characteristic of God was apatheia which means the total lack of any emotion or any ability whatsoever to feel any emotion. Their argument was that if we can feel pain, or joy or any other emotion, then someone can have an effect upon us by causing us to feel these things, and when they cause us to feel these emotions, they are exerting power over us. Since nobody can have power over God, this is impossible. Therefore, God must be totally unable to experience any emotion whatsoever, because nobody can be able to cause God to feel sorrow or pain or joy.

The point that this passage makes is that this is not true. God does feel our pain and our hurt and our anguish, and, amazingly, He hurts with us. When we suffer, He actually suffers with us. He has been there; He understood then and He understands now. Whatever you are going through, Jesus knows. Whatever you are feeling, He understands, He cares, and He even feels it with you! This smallest of all verses in the Bible may carry the greatest significance of all for a hurting people. (Isa 53:3, 63:9; Heb 4:15)

Isaiah 53:3  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Hebrews 4:15  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.