John 11: The Death of Lazarus
1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying,
“Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
Now a certain man was sick... (1) This was no ordinary man. This was Lazarus of Bethany, a man beloved by the Master. For this man the covenant was confirmed, the Scripture being "fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ (Genesis 15:6) And he was called the friend of God.'" (James 2:23)
"Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” "The sisters presume to make no request. They boast not of Lazarus’s love to Jesus [as is the custom of some]; but modestly refer to the Lord’s love to Lazarus, and leave that love to decide what shall be done." (Whedon's Commentary)
4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
“This sickness is not unto death - Not to final privation of life at this time; but a temporary death shall be now permitted, that the glory of God may appear in the miracle of his resurrection.” (Adam Clarke)
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.
“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” (5) He loved them all! “Therefore His staying two days longer in Bethabara was not through lack of affection for this distressed family, but merely that He might have a more favorable opportunity of proving to them how much He loved them.” (Adam Clarke)
7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
"Let us go to Judah, again." "The Bethania where Christ was at this time was beyond the Jordan, and was likewise called Bethabara; whereas the Bethania where Lazarus lay sick, was two miles to the south of Jerusalem, and formed a part of the suburbs of that city." (Calmet)
"What!?" said the disciple; "the Jews are trying to kill you!!!" Jesus answered: ”If anyone walks in the day…” (9a) "The Jews always divided the space from sunrise to sunset, were the days longer or shorter, into twelve parts: so that the hours of their day were all the year the same in number, though much shorter in winter than in summer. ‘If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not’, as if He had said, ‘So there is such a space, a determined time, which God has allotted me. During that time I stumble not, amidst all the snares that are laid for me.’” (Wesley) Is there not an appointed time for Me and all men upon earth? Job 7:1. "Shall I not live out my stint?… A priest, indeed, might enter without danger into a leprous house, because he had a calling from God so to do. A man may follow God dryshod through the Red Sea. This our Saviour calls here ‘to walk in the day,’ by an excellent and elegant similitude.” (Trapp)
"But if one walks in the night…” (10a) without the light of Christ – "But a man whose great object is himself, and who seeks supremely earthly things, is like one who travels in the night, without sun, moon, or stars. He is in darkness, and liable every moment to [stumble,] fall and perish.” (Justin Edwards)
11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” 12 Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
“Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”..., (11) Speaking of death as sleep, He used “the language of heaven. But the disciples did not yet understand this language.” (John Wesley) Often death is referred to as“sleep" in the ancient Writings. And thus: “The Greeks call their churchyards dormitories, sleeping places... The Germans call them God’s Acre, because their bodies are sown there to be raised again. The Hebrews Bethchajim, the house of the living.” (John Trapp) In the Jewish prophets it is said that death is a sleep, until the dead "rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan 12:2)
"And I am glad for your sake that I was not there that you might believe…" (15a) "His purpose in waiting was to demonstrate beyond question both His omniscience and omnipotence (John 11:4,15)." (New Defender's Study Bible Notes) "Nevertheless let us go to him." (15b) Thus, for this certain man- a member of the church of the firstborn, Jesus went back to the seat of His enemies into peril. What a gracious Lord we serve!
16 Then Thomas, who is called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
Then a certain Thomas, who is called the twin..., one of the Lord's disciples, indicated that he wanted to go with Jesus on His mission to awaken Lazarus. (11b) He appealed to the other disciples to likewise walk while it was day.(9) Let us “‘die with Him’; with Jesus. Let us go with Him, [even] if it cost us our lives” (Justin Edwards), that we may also rise at the sound of His voice on Resurrection Morning.
John 11: I Am the Resurrection and the Life
17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
20 Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
The body of Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. According to ancient Torah, man is dust brought to life by the Spirit of God. He returns to dust at death, whereas the Spirit returns to God. However, it is speculated that bad theology made it into their thinking. "There is some evidence that the later Jewish rabbis believed that the spirit of a person who had died lingered over the corpse for three days or until decomposition of the body had begun. They believed that the spirit then abandoned the body because any hope of resuscitation was gone. They apparently felt that there was still hope that the person might revive during the first three days after death. Other scholars question whether this is what the Jews believed as early as this event. [Note: Carson, The Gospel . . ., p411.] In either case the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus after he had been dead for four days would have left no question that Jesus had truly raised the dead. Customarily the Jews buried a corpse the same day the person died due to the warm climate and the relatively rapid rate of decay it caused (cf. Acts 5:5-6; Acts 5:10).[Note: Edersheim, 2:315.]" (Constable's Expository Notes)
"Many of the relatives and friends of the family came, according to the Jewish custom, to mourn with the afflicted sisters." (Clarke) During these days of mourning, "their neighbours and friends came to... relieve them in their sorrow, with such arguments as they had." (Poole) We as saints of the Most High comfort others with the Scriptures— the comfort whereby we ourselves are comforted. See 2 Corinthians 1:4. But ”many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother." (19) These Jews in the party were unbelievers. "The word 'Jews' is to be understood in St. John’s general sense (comp. Note on John 1:19) of those opposed to our Lord, who had lately sought to stone Him (John 10:31), and afterwards to take Him by force (John 10:39). The family at Bethany was one of position and substance (comp. Notes on Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9), and they would naturally have had many friends among the higher rank of the Jews." (Ellicott)
"The faith of the sisters must needs be much shaken, to see their brother dead, though Christ had sent them word he should not die." (Trapp)
Martha... went and met Him, but Mary sat in the house (20), perhaps taking the better part. But Martha cried: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” (21) And she lets the Master correct her theology. "The root of a happy religion is clear, distinct, well-defined knowledge of Jesus Christ. More knowledge would have saved Martha many sighs and tears. Knowledge alone no doubt, if unsanctified, only 'puffs up.'... Yet without clear knowledge of Christ in all His offices we cannot expect to be established in the faith, and steady in the time of need." (J. C. Ryle)
"There are some who think that Martha spoke in a spirit of petulancy, that she was reproaching the Lord for not having responded more promptly to the message sent Him while He was in Bethabara. But we think this is a mistake. Neither do we regard Martha's words as a sorrowful lamentations, the telling out the grief of her heart." (A. W. Pink)
"But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." (22) “This is our comfort, that our Advocate is all in all with His Father, and may have what He will of Him. What need we any other 'master of requests' than Christ? If David will hear Joab for Absalom; and Herod, Blastus for the Tyrians, Acts 12:20; what may not we hope?" (John Trapp)
"Your brother will rise again." (23) "As the same divine hand that buried Moses, that locked up this treasure and kept the key of it, brought it forth afterwards glorious in the transfiguration. The body that was hidden in the valley of Moab appeared again in the hill of Tabor." (John Trapp) "Martha should have accepted this as assurance that Jesus would raise Lazarus [now]; but she... limited what he said to what she supposed he meant. Martha said to Him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.' Although, in context, a limitation of the power of Jesus, this statement of Martha is one of tremendous hope and consolation. The intimacy of that family with the Lord gives great weight to her confidence of the resurrection at the last day. She associated the resurrection with the 'last day,' as conspicuously taught by Jesus; and in this instance of Martha's knowledge, it certainly exceeds that of exegetes who deny that John's Gospel has any teachings of the 'last' things." (Burton Coffman)
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." (25) - not he will never die. Many preachers read these verses at funerals and then proceed to contradict the very Words of Jesus, saying that the saint is at that very moment in Heaven proper with his or her resurrection body. But these Methodist preachers got it right.
1) "These words take us... forward to His coming again,... The Saints, who believed on Him and died in Christ, will be raised first. This truth is expressed in His words: 'He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live.' And all who live when He comes for His Saints, when His shout opens the graves, will be caught up in clouds, changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, passing into His presence without dying. Of this He speaks in His last statement: 'He that liveth (when He comes) and believeth on Me shall never die…..” [Arno Gaebelein. 1861-1945]
2) "I am the resurrection..." "It so depends on My power and will, that it may be said that I am the resurrection itself. This is a most expressive way of saying that the whole doctrine of the resurrection came from Him, and the whole power to effect it was His...- 'and the life' - ... As the resurrection of all depends on Him, He intimated that it was not indispensable that it should be deferred to the last day. He had power to do it now as well as then. ‘He who believes in Me, though he may die…’ - Faith does not save from temporal death; but although the believer, as others, will die a temporal death, —yet he shall live. Even if he dies, he shall hereafter live... be restored to life in the resurrection." (Albert Barnes, December 1, 1798 – December 24, 1870)
"And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." (26a) "This is the promise of the resurrection of the righteous. And this is what the raising of Lazarus would foreshadow and illustrate." (Petts Bible Commentary)
"Do you believe this?”(26b) - all of these sayings. "Every Divine communication challenges the heart to which it is made." (A.W. Pink)
She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
John 11: When Jesus Wept
28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Master has come and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.
Jesus called the more spiritual Mary and her inner circle, secretly... "by Christ’s command: and secretly, belike, she did it..." (Trapp) "Jesus still waited outside the village. This was the time for privacy and He wanted the sisters to be able to see Him alone. Note how it indicates that we have not been party to the whole conversation." (Pett's Bible Commentary)
And "with characteristic quietness and calm Mary had remained seated in the house, but now she hears that the One at whose feet she had loved to sit, was here at hand, she rises and goes forth to meet Him at once, 'quickly.' The knowledge that He was 'calling' her lent wings to her feet. She needed not to tarry and inquire who was meant by 'the Master' -she had none other, and that one word was sufficient to identify the One who was the Fairest among ten thousand to her soul." (A. W. Pink)
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”
They said, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." ”They had not heard Martha call her." (Barnes) Perhaps only the true mourners went with her. And thus Jesus called forth a vine from Israel, as Egypt (Ps 80:8)- those who had been delivered from their own slavery to sin and death.
32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
Mary, Martha, and their loved ones went... And Mary said: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Again this was not a rebuke. It revealed a confidence in her Master, as Martha likewise had.
In contrast, the house of Lazarus was now filled with a mixed company of believers and unbelievers. Rather this group and this other place were sanctified by Jesus. "A particular friend of Jesus was dead; and, as his friend, the affectionate soul of Christ was troubled, and he mingled his sacred tears with those of the afflicted..." (Adam Clarke) loved ones.
"Not many passages in the New Testament are more wonderful than the simple narrative contained in these verses. It brings out, in a most beautiful light, the sympathizing character of our Lord Jesus Christ. It shows us Him who is 'able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him,' as able to feel as He is to save. It shows us Him who is One with the Father, and the Maker of all things, entering into human sorrows, and shedding human tears." (J. C. Ryle)
Jesus wept and thus comforting those who mourned (Matthew 5:4). He "tenderly and deeply sympathizes in human sorrow [particularly those of the saints]. He delights in soothing hearts that trust in Him, and turning their temporary mourning into everlasting joy." (Justin Edwards)
37 And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”
"Some of them” said this, as Martha and Mary had. "Yet they never dreamed that He could raise him again [before the resurrection at the last day]. What a strange mixture of faith and unbelief." (John Wesley)
John 11: Lazarus, Come Forth
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
"Take away the stone." "'What majestic composure in the midst of this mighty emotion!' (Stier). Though weeping outwardly and groaning inwardly, the Lord Jesus was complete master of Himself. He acts and speaks with quiet dignity." (A. W. Pink)
"Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, though they had often seen Christ raise the dead, did not fully believe that He could raise their brother." (Augustine) Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” (39b) "Martha said this from weakness of faith, thinking it impossible that Christ could raise her brother, so long after death." (Theophyl)
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
"Herein is the glory of God, that he that stinks and has been dead many days, is brought to life again." (Augustine) "If to them who pray worthily after this fashion is given the promise in Isaiah, 'You shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am'; what answer, think we, our Lord and Savior would receive? He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus. He was heard by the Father before He prayed; His request was granted before made. And therefore He begins with giving thanks; I thank You, Father, that You have heard Me." (Origen) He prayed for our sakes.
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.
“Lazarus, come forth!”- "He calls him by name, that He may not bring out all the dead." (Augustine) Just as He spoke, in the beginning, and "it was"; so now He spoke, calling forth Lazarus came from the grave. “A more plain, distinct, and unmistakable miracle it would be impossible for man to imagine. That a dead man should hear a voice, obey it, rise up, and move forth from his grave alive is utterly contrary to nature. God alone could cause such a thing. What first began life in him, how lungs and heart began to act again, suddenly and instantaneously, it would be waste of time to speculate. It was a miracle and there we must leave it.' (J. C. Ryle)
“Loose him, and let him go.” (44) “He would have the disciples and those who were at hand take part in this business, that the fullest conviction might rest on every person's mind concerning the reality of what was wrought.” (Clarke)
Moreover, “He came forth bound, that none might suspect that he was a mere phantom. Besides, that this very fact, viz. of coming forth bound, was itself a miracle, as great as the resurrection. Jesus said to them, 'Loose him,' that by going near and touching him they might be certain he was the very person. 'And let him go.' His humility is strewn here; He does not take Lazarus about with Him for the sake of display." (Chrysostom)
“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.” (45) “They saw that the miracle was incontestable; and they were determined to resist the truth no longer. Their friendly visit to these distressed sisters became the means of their conversion. How true is the saying of the wise man, ‘It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting!’ Eccl 7:2.” (Adam Clarke)
"And as the general resurrection is to take place in the twinkling of an eye, so did this single one: And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was as bound about with a napkin. Now is accomplished what was said above, 'The hour is coming, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.' (John 5:25)" (Theophyl) On resurrection morning- those who have been dead in Christ for six thousand years, as well as one day, will come forth.
John 11: Jesus’ Hour Has Come
46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
Many of the Jews at the would-be-funeral of Lazarus believed after Jesus called him forth from the grave.
“But’: ominous word is this. Solemn is the contrast now presented. Some of those who had witnessed the miracle went at once to the Pharisees and told them of what Christ had done. Most probably they were their spies. Their motive in reporting to these inveterate enemies of our Lord cannot be misunderstood; they went not to modify but to inflame their wrath. What an example of incorrigible hardness of heart! Alas, what is man! Even miracles were to some ‘a savor of death unto death’!”( A.W. Pink)
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “If we leave this Man alone like this, everyone will believe in Him…”
"And the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation…”, “literally, this place, τον τοπον : but that the temple only is understood is clear from Acts 6:13, Acts 6:14; 2 Maccabees 1:14; 2:18; 3:18;5:16, 17; 10:7; where it is uniformly called the place, or the holy place, because they considered it the most glorious and excellent place in the world. When men act in opposition to God's counsel, the very evils which they expect thereby to avoid will come upon them. They said, If we do not put Jesus to death, the Romans will destroy both our temple and nation. Now, it was because they put him to death that the Romans burnt and razed their temple to the ground, and put a final period to their political existence." (Adam Clarke) That place has never been rebuilt, though the nation has been reestablished. Yet, I am not sure that the latter is a fulfillment prophecy. I am a Zionist with my eyes set on the New Jerusalem.
The Middle East is perhaps a ruse; the real warfare is not physical, but rather spiritual warfare- "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)
49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
"Being highpriest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. God gave the Spirit to Saul after his consecration; and Chrysostom says here of Caiaphas, that 'Satan held his heart, while God moved his tongue.' The leading persons in this council must have known, at least obscurely, that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew his declarations, that he had called God his Father, that he had asserted his preëxistence, and divine descent. Our Saviour admits that they knew him, by the parable of the husbandmen, who had said, 'This is the heir, come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' — After the council had thus agreed to kill the Saviour, as well as in several of their former sittings, God gave them up to judicial blindness. In righteous judgment he blinded their minds, and shut their ears: otherwise they had not assented to the assertions of Caiaphas, 'Better that one die for the people, than that the whole nation perish.' Thus they crucified the Lord of glory; and in a few years, rebelling against the Romans, as against the Saviour, the Romans really did come to burn their city and temple, and denationalized them for future ages." (Sutcliffe's Commentary) Unbeknownst to the high priest and council, He died for the sins of the world- for any person who trusts in His salvation.
53 Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. 54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.
“Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews.” - No more publicly, in the cities and towns. “But went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim”— a small town in the tribe of Ephraim, about five miles west of Jericho.” (Albert Barnes' Notes)
Jesus’ time was at hand; so, perhaps He retired to a type of the New Jerusalem. “Ephraim and Manasseh originally were recognized as ‘the people of Joseph’ (Jos 16:4). Together they occupied the central highlands area between Jerusalem and the plain of Esdraelon. Ephraim's territory lay to the south of Manasseh. The area was relatively high, and the expression ‘the hill country of Ephraim’ (1 Sm 1:1) was an apt description. In places the hard rocks form steep and difficult slopes, and the valleys leading to the west are steep. Roads followed the spurs between the valleys rather than the valleys themselves. Movement between Ephraim and the coastal plain along the edge of the rocky Sarida Valley was not easy, but it was possible. Another road followed by the Philistine invaders (1 Sm 4) led up from Aphek. The expression in Joshua 16:9, ‘the towns which were set apart for the Ephraimites within the inheritance of the Manassites’ (RSV), suggests that there had once been a disputed boundary; however, Ephraim was evidently able to strengthen itself and to emerge as a dominant force in Israel. Indeed, the name Ephraim is sometimes used as the equivalent of Israel (Hos 4:17; 5:3, 11-14; 6:4, 10).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
55 And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. 56 Then they sought Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, “What do you think—that He will not come to the feast?” 57 Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him.