John 11

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1Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.

2It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.

3The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”

4But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”

5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

6When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.

7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”

8The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”

9Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

10But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”

11He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”

12The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

14So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.

15I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”

16Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.”

17So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.

18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.

19Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

20Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.

21Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

22Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.

26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

28When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.”

29When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him.

30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.

31Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

32Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

35Jesus wept.

36The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”

37Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

38Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

39Jesus 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.”

40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”

41So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me.

42I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

45Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him.

46But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.

47The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.

48If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,

50nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

51Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

52and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

53So from that day forward they took counsel that they might put him to death.

54Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with his disciples.

55Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.

56Then they sought for Jesus and spoke one with another, as they stood in the temple, “What do you think—that he isn’t coming to the feast at all?”

57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had commanded that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him.

Commentary

11:1-6 It is no new thing for those whom Christ loves, to be sick; bodily distempers correct the corruption, and try the graces of God's people. He came not to preserve his people from these afflictions, but to save them from their sins, and from the wrath to come; however, it behoves us to apply to Him in behalf of our friends and relatives when sick and afflicted. Let this reconcile us to the darkest dealings of Providence, that they are all for the glory of God: sickness, loss, disappointment, are so; and if God be glorified, we ought to be satisfied. Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. The families are greatly favoured in which love and peace abound; but those are most happy whom Jesus loves, and by whom he is beloved. Alas, that this should seldom be the case with every person, even in small families. God has gracious intentions, even when he seems to delay. When the work of deliverance, temporal or spiritual, public or personal, is delayed, it does but stay for the right time.

"\nIt was [that] Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment,.... Not the woman in Lu 7:37, as some have thought, whose name is not mentioned, and which history is not related by John at all: but Mary in Joh 12:3, who is both mentioned by name, and along with Lazarus her brother, and with whom all the circumstances of the affair suit; and though the fact was not yet done, yet John writing many years after it was done, and when it was well known, proleptically, and in a parenthesis, takes notice of it here:\n\nand wiped his feet with her hair; instead of a napkin, after she had anointed them with oil; [See comments on Lu 7:37],\n[See comments on Joh 12:3].\n\nWhose brother Lazarus was sick; this is observed, to show how well they were all acquainted with Christ, and affected to him.\n\n\n "

"\nTherefore his sisters sent unto him,.... Both the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, sent to Jesus; they did not go themselves, being women, and the place where Jesus was, was at some distance; and besides, it was necessary they should abide at home, to attend their brother in his sickness, and therefore they sent a messenger, or messengers to Christ,\n\nsaying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick; for it seems that Lazarus was in a very singular manner loved by Christ, as man, as John the beloved disciple was; and this is the rather put into the message by the sisters, to engage Jesus to come to his assistance; and they were very right in applying to Christ in this time of need, who is the physician, both of the bodies and souls of men; and are greatly to be commended both for their modesty and piety, in not prescribing to Christ what should be done in this case: and it may be further observed, that such who are the peculiar objects of Christ's love, are attended in this life with bodily sickness, disorders, and diseases, which are sent unto them, not in a way of vindictive wrath, but in love, and as fatherly chastisements; which, as they are designed, so they are overruled for their good; and are to be considered, not as instances of wrath, but as tokens of love.\n\n\n "

2. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, &c.—This, though not recorded by our Evangelist till Joh 12:3, was so well known in the teaching of all the churches, according to our Lord's prediction (Mt 26:13), that it is here alluded to by anticipation, as the most natural way of identifying her; and she is first named, though the younger, as the more distinguished of the two. She "anointed THE Lord," says the Evangelist—led doubtless to the use of this term here, as he was about to exhibit Him illustriously as the Lord of Life.

"\nWhen Jesus heard that,.... That his friend Lazarus was sick,\n\nhe said; either to his disciples, or to the messenger or messengers that brought the account to him, and that on purpose to yield some relief to the afflicted family when it should be reported to them:\n\nthis sickness is not unto death; it was to issue in death, but not in death which was to continue, or under which Lazarus was to continue till the general resurrection; for though he should die, yet he should be so quickly restored again to life, that it scarcely deserved the name of death. The Jews distinguish between sickness and sickness; there are some that are sick, the greater part of whom are, \u05dc\u05d7\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd, "for life"; and there are others that are "sick", the greater part of whom are, \u05dc\u05de\u05d9\u05ea\u05d4, "for death" {z}, or are sick unto death, whose sickness issues in death; but this of Lazarus's was not to be unto death, at least not finally:\n\nbut for the glory of God; of his power and goodness in raising him again:\n\nthat the Son of God might be glorified thereby; that is, that his glory, as the Son of God, might be made manifest in the resurrection of him from the dead; see Joh 2:11.\n\n{z} T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 71. 2.\n\n\n "

3-5. his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick—a most womanly appeal, yet how reverential, to the known affection of her Lord for the patient. (See Joh 11:5, 11). "Those whom Christ loves are no more exempt than others from their share of earthly trouble and anguish: rather are they bound over to it more surely" [Trench].

"\nNow Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

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