Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 11:3
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
3. Therefore his sisters sent ] This shews that Joh 11:2 ought not to be made a parenthesis: ‘therefore’ refers to the previous statement. Because of the intimacy, which every one who knew of the anointing would understand, the sisters sent. Note that they are not further described; S. John has said enough to tell his readers who are meant: but would not a forger have introduced them with more description?
he whom thou lovest is sick ] Exquisite in its tender simplicity. The message implies a belief that Christ could, and probably would, heal a dangerous sickness. See on Joh 11:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whom thou lovest – Joh 11:5. The members of this family were among the few special and intimate friends of our Lord. He was much with them, and showed them marks of special friendship Luk 10:38-42, and they bestowed upon him special proofs of affection in return. This shows that special attachments are lawful for Christians, and that those friendships are especially lovely which are tempered and sweetened with the spirit of Christ. Friendships should always be cemented by religion, and one main end of those attachments should be to aid one another in the great business of preparing to die.
Sent unto him – They believed that he had power to heal him Joh 11:21, though they did not then seem to suppose that he could raise him if he died. Perhaps there were two reasons why they sent for him; one, because they supposed he would be desirous of seeing his friend; the other, because they supposed he could restore him. In sickness we should implore the aid and presence of Jesus. He only can restore us and our friends; he only can perform for us the office of a friend when all other friends fail; and he only can cheer us with the hope of a blessed resurrection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. He whom thou lovest is sick.] Nothing could be more simple, nor more modest, than this prayer: they do not say, Come and heal him: or, Command the disease to depart even where thou art, and it will obey thee: – they content themselves with simply stating the case, and using an indirect but a most forcible argument, to induce our Lord to show forth his power and goodness: – He is sick, and thou lovest him; therefore thou canst neither abandon him, not us.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Christ (as was said before) seems to have been very familiar at the house of these two sisters, and often to have made them his hostesses; and it should appear by this verse that in those visits he had showed particular kindnesses to this their brother Lazarus, who was now sick; this makes them style their brother, he whom thou lovest. They plead no merits either of their own or his, but only plead with him for his own goodness and love. Nor do they express in particular what they desired for their brother, though it is easily understood by their representation of his state and condition.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3-5. his sisters sent unto him,saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sicka most womanlyappeal, yet how reverential, to the known affection of her Lord forthe patient. (See Joh 11:5;Joh 11:11). “Those whomChrist loves are no more exempt than others from their share ofearthly trouble and anguish: rather are they bound over to it moresurely” [TRENCH].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore 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,
saying, 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Sent saying ( ). First aorist active indicative of and present active participle. The message was delivered by the messenger.
Thou lovest (). means to love as a friend (see in verse 11) and so warmly, while (akin to , to admire, and , good) means high regard. Here both terms occur of the love of Jesus for Lazarus ( in verse 5). Both occur of the Father’s love for the Son ( in 3:35, in 5:20). Hence the distinction is not always observed.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Thou lovest [] . See on 5 20. “They do not say, come. He who loves needs but know” (Bengel).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying,” (apesteilan oun hoi adelphai pros auton legousai) “Then the sisters (Mary and Martha) sent (a message) to him saying,” directly instructing the person authorized to bear the report to Jesus who was in Bethabara (the Bethany) beyond Jordan in Perea, where He had come some thirty miles northeast from Bethany, where Lazarus lay ill, Joh 1:28; Joh 10:40.
2) “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” (kurie ide on phileis asthenei) “Lord look (this way) the one you love ails,” is sick, exists in a physically debilitating condition. The sisters were intimate friends of Jesus and turned to Him, as “friend-to-friend,” who “loveth at all times,” in this hour of anxious care, Pro 17:17.
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were three of His most devout disciples in Judea, Joh 7:3. They did not request Him to come, but the message was apparently a veiled desire that He come to them in this crisis hour, Joh 4:49; For they knew of His power of healing and power over death, Mat 8:8; Mat 9:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
3. Lo, he whom thou lovest is sick. The message is short, but Christ might easily learn from it what the two sisters wished; for, under this complaint, they modestly state their request that he would be pleased to grant them relief. We are not forbidden, indeed, to use a longer form of prayer; but our principal object ought to be, to pour into the bosom of God all our cares, and every thing that distresses us, that he may afford deliverance. Such is the manner in which the women act towards Christ: they plainly tell him their distress, in consequence of which they expect some alleviation. We ought also to observe that, from Christ’s love, they are led to entertain a confident hope of obtaining assistance, he whom thou lovest; and this is the invariable rule of praying aright; for, where the love of God is, there deliverance is certain and at hand, because God cannot forsake him whom he loveth
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Therefore his sisters sent unto him.Better, The sisters therefore sent unto Himi.e., because of the fact of the illness, which has been repeated at the close of the last verse, and also because of the intimacy between our Lord and this family, of which the anointing was a proof. (Comp. Joh. 11:5.)
Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.The words are given in the touching simplicity of the message just as they were sent by the sorrowing sisters. They feel that the sad news needs no addition, and that there is no necessity for a prayer for help. Weakness, conscious of strength which loves, needs but to utter itself. (Comp. Joh. 11:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Whom thou lovest The sisters presume to make no request. They boast not of Lazarus’s love to Jesus; but modestly refer to the Lord’s love to Lazarus, and leave that love to decide what shall be done.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The sisters therefore sent to him saying, “Lord, he whom you love is sick”.’
It is apparent that Lazarus was very ill, and his sisters therefore turned to the only One Whom they felt could help them. They sent Him a message, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill’. These words emphasise the close friendship there was between Jesus and the family. Jesus is seen to be human and to have close personal friends.
The use of ‘Lord’ here goes beyond just a formal greeting. It is not to be seen as over-theological in its use by Martha and Mary, but rather as an acknowledgement of the respect in which they held Him. It was probably otherwise in the mind of the writer who wants us to see Him as Lord over all.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 11:3. His sisters sent unto him, The modesty of his sisters, and their confidence in Christ’s affection for their brother, appear very great. They do not desire the Lord to come to him; they do not desire him to heal their brother at a distance, as he had done other persons who were in a dangerous condition. They only inform him that their brother, who happily enjoyed a place in his affection, was dangerously ill; and they leave it to the dictates of his own wisdom, and the warmth of his own love, to determine what measure to pursue.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 11:3-4 . Merely the message that the beloved one is sick. The request lay in the message itself, and the addition supplied the motive for its fulfilment.
] spoken generally, and not addressed to any definite person, but in the hearing of those present, the messenger and the disciples. Sufficient for the moment as a preparation both for the sisters and the disciples.
] refers to destination (comp. afterwards ): it is not to have death for its result , which, however, does not mean, as the antithesis shows: it is not deadly , he will not die of it. The idea of death is used with a pregnancy of meaning, and the words signify: he shall not fall a prey to death, as death usually is, so that no reawakening takes place ; , Euth. Zigabenus. Comp. Mat 9:24 . That Jesus certainly knew, by His higher knowledge, that the death of Lazarus was certain and near at hand , though the death must be conceived as not having yet actually taken place (see on Joh 11:17 ), is confirmed by Joh 11:14 ; for the assumption of a second message (Paulus, Neander, Schweizer) is purely arbitrary. With this significant declaration, Jesus designed to supply to the sisters something fitted, when the death of their brother took place, to stimulate the hope to which Martha gives actual expression in Joh 11:22 . There is no warrant for dragging in a reference to the spiritual and eternal life of the resurrection (Gumlich).
. . .] i.e . for the furtherance of the honour of God. Comp. Joh 9:3 . The emphatic and more definite explanation of the expression is given in , etc. words which, containing the intention of God, state the kind and manner of the . . . ., so far, namely, as the glorification of the Son of God involves the honour of God Himself , who works through Him (comp. Joh 5:23 , Joh 10:30 ; Joh 10:38 ). It is in these words, and not in Joh 11:25 (Baur), that the doctrinal design of the narrative is contained. Comp. Joh 11:40 ; Joh 11:42 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Ver. 3. Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick ] This was enough to say to a loving Saviour. We need not be careful in anything, more than to make our wants known to God, Phi 4:6 , and let him alone to help us, how and when he pleaseth. So, to mind and move Christ for the labouring Church, it shall suffice to say, She whom thou lovest is sick, is in ill case, &c. But St Augustine asketh, Si amatur, quomodo infirmatur? If it is love, how is it weak? Oh, well enough: afflictions are Christ’s love tokens. “As many as I love,” saith he, “I rebuke and chasten.” God may give the dearly beloved of his soul into the hand of her enemies, Jer 12:7 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] The message (see Joh 11:21 ; Joh 11:32 ) evidently was to request the Lord to come and heal him: and implies that the sickness was of a dangerous kind.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 11:3 . The sisters were so intimate with Jesus that they naturally turn to Him in their anxiety, and send Him a notice of the illness, which is only a slightly veiled request that He would come to their relief: “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is ill”. “Sufficit ut noveris. Non enim amas et deseris.” Augustine.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
sent. Greek apostello. App-174., If the place of Joh 10:40 was Bethabara beyond Jordan, and is to be identified with Beth-nimrah (Num 32:36) in Peraea, it would be about 25 miles from Jerusalem.
unto. Greek. pros. App-104.
Lord. App-98.
behold. Greek. ide. App-133.
lovest. App-135.
is sick: literally is weakening = is sinking.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] The message (see Joh 11:21; Joh 11:32) evidently was to request the Lord to come and heal him: and implies that the sickness was of a dangerous kind.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 11:3. , whom Thou lovest) This is more modest, than if they were to say, he who loves Thee, or Thy friend; comp. Joh 11:11, Our friend Lazarus [Jesus words].-, is sick) They elegantly do not express [but leave to be inferred] the consequent, therefore come to our help [Joh 11:31-32, (Mary to Jesus) Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Truly greater things were now close at hand.-V. g.] Comp. ch. Joh 2:3, When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine [leaving the consequent unexpressed, but implied, Do Thou relieve them]. The great love of the sisters towards their brother here shines forth.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 11:3
Joh 11:3
The sisters therefore sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.-There seems to have been no effort upon the part of Jesus or of the sacred writers to conceal the special love that Jesus had for this family, for the apostles, and for John above others of his followers and friends. Jesus is absent at this time in Bethabara, and when Lazarus sickens, the minds of the sisters turn toward Jesus as one able to relieve in time of sickness. It was two days journey from Jerusalem to Bethabara. They appeal to the love Jesus bore to Lazarus to induce him to come to their relief. [The disease is not stated, but it proved fatal.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
he: Joh 11:1, Joh 11:5, Joh 13:23, Gen 22:2, Psa 16:3, Phi 2:26, Phi 2:27, 2Ti 4:20, Heb 12:6, Heb 12:7, Jam 5:14, Jam 5:15, Rev 3:19
Reciprocal: Gen 48:1 – thy father 1Ki 14:3 – he shall tell 1Ki 17:17 – the son of the woman 2Ki 4:20 – and then died 2Ki 4:22 – I may run 2Ki 13:14 – fallen sick Dan 10:19 – O man Mar 1:30 – they tell Mar 5:23 – besought Luk 4:38 – they Luk 7:2 – was sick Joh 2:3 – They have Act 9:37 – she was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Sickness, Death, and Resurrection
Joh 11:3-43
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The resurrection of Christ is the usual message of Easter. However, we must remember that indissolubly linked with the resurrection of our Lord is the resurrection of all of His saints.
It is also well for us to remember that sickness and death are also linked with the resurrection. Sickness and the collapse of the physical man leads to death, and the resurrection is the glorious conquest over the reign of death.
1. The story of death. We are now personifying death. We will imagine “death” as standing with his scythe in his hand, ready to mow down the lives of men.
Whenever some plague rules the hour, or when famine reigns the daily papers picture death as a skeleton specter, gathering in his harvest of falling victims.
Whatever may be said of death it is man’s recognized foe. It is spoken of in the Word of God as “the last enemy.”
Men live, they build their palaces of hope, they flourish for a season unmindful that they are soon to be cut down, and then, one day, they open their eyes and lo, standing hard by is “death” ready to spoil their dreams of human power and glory; ready to cut them asunder from everything they love and hold as dear.
How solemn is the Word of God. “He lived” and “he died.” Yet these words have been written over every man who ever has been born, with the exception of Enoch and Elijah.
The earth is one great grave yard. Its soil has ever been enriched by the decaying bodies of the dead.
The greatest dreams of men have never dared to entertain the hope of staying the hand of death. Man has tamed all manner of beasts and of birds, man has builded up great enterprises; man has wrought great deeds of valor, man has invented wonderful machinisms, man has conquered earth and sea and air, but man has never vanquished death. “In Adam all die,” is still the accepted code of the living.
2. The vision of Christ and His victory over death. Where man has never dared to make battle, the Son of Man, alone, entered, and grappled with the monster who is man’s greatest and last enemy. Stealthily the deathless Son of God pressed on His way to Calvary. He voluntarily gave up His life, He purposely yielded up His spirit, bowed His head and died, that He might conquer death.
Jesus Christ not only died, but they laid His body in a sealed tomb. He Himself descended in hell. He went down where death reigned and where it holds its ghoul-like sway. He entered without fear, met sin on the Cross, broke its reign; met death and hell in its own realm, and vanquished them both.
Here is the graphic way in which the Book of books describes the Risen Christ. John, on the Isle called Patmos, received visions of coming events. The Lord said to John, “Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
Bless God. Christ went down to hell, and came back with its keys in His hand. Now we can cry, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is Thy victory?”
I. NEW IDEAS OF SICKNESS (Joh 11:1)
1. A good man was sick. Are the good ever sick? The Bible carefully states that a certain man was sick. God would not leave us in doubt as to who he was. It was none other than Lazarus. That Lazarus was a good man, none of us doubt. He was a believer, a disciple of our Lord, and a follower who delighted in having the Master in his home.
What is our conclusion? Even this, that sickness is no sign of God’s displeasure.
2. A man beloved of God was sick. Twice we read that Christ loved Lazarus. In Joh 11:3, “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” In Joh 11:5, “Now Jesus loved * * Lazarus.”
We press our point further. Not only the good, but the, “beloved of the Lord” may be sick. Sickness then, is not always, and, probably, is seldom a matter of Divine chastisement. The Scriptures do speak of some who failed to discern the Lord’s body in “the breaking of bread,” and says, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”
However, sickness is usually caused by natural sequences. In the last analysis sickness is from sin, but not necessarily from the sin of the one who is sick. We are living in a world under the curse. The ravages of sin are everywhere. And the best of saints are partakers of that curse in its present effects.
3. A man sick to the glory of God. In Joh 11:4 Christ said, “This sickness is * * for the glory of God.” We stand on the circumference of a marvelous thought. God can cause the wreckage of sin, and even the reign of death to praise Him.
Would that we might be able to see in many of our own sorrows the Lord working out for Himself, and incidentally for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Had Martha and Mary known that God was working for His glory and for theirs, they might have sung where they wept.
II. THE DEATH OF A SAINT (Joh 11:14)
1. Left to die alone. Joh 11:6 is, at first sight, a verse of mystery. It reads, “When He had heard * * that he (Lazarus) was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.”
We shudder! Christ knowing the need of Martha and Mary, and the approaching death of Lazarus, purposefully delayed going to the rescue. In this act, He left Lazarus to die alone, and Martha and Mary to weep alone.
Have we ever felt that we were forsaken? The disciples so felt when they found themselves in the midst of the sea, tossed helplessly and madly about by the storm.
2. Christ to the rescue. They thought the Master had come too late, for Lazarus was four days dead. However, the Lord is never too late. Too late for our circumscribed vision, it may be, but never too late for our best good.
It was the fourth watch of the night when Christ came to the storm-tossed boat; it was the fourth day dead when He came to the sepulcher of Lazarus. In either case had the Lord come sooner He could not have manifested His glory, and revealed His power and purposes as He desired so to do. There is, in each of the mentioned events, a far-reaching revelation of God’s will toward us, neither of which could have been made potent had the Lord followed natural instincts and come earlier.
3. What is death? Concerning Lazarus it was thus described: “Lazarus sleepeth.” The Bible speaks of the dead as “those who sleep in Jesus.” Sleep does not mean cessation of being, or of sense; it means “they do rest from their labors.”
To die is to “be with Christ” which is far better. To die is to be taken away from the strife and the sighs which mark our earth life. To die is to be “at Home” with the Lord.
III. THE QUICKENING OF FAITH (Joh 11:15-42)
1. Faith quickened in the disciples (Joh 11:15). When Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead,” He told the disciples that He was glad for their sakes, that He was not there, “To the intent,” said He, “that ye may believe.”
Thus the raising of Lazarus, while bringing, for the while, great sorrow to the home of Martha and Mary; brought also a lasting, strengthening of faith to the Twelve. As Lazarus came forth from the tomb they knew that Christ was, indeed, the very Son of God.
2. Faith quickened in Martha, and Mary (Joh 11:40). To the two sisters, and to Martha, in particular, Christ spoke saying, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Already Mary had often sat at Jesus’ feet and had heard His word. Now she was to see in Him more, perhaps, than she had ever seen. With Lazarus raised, her faith would take on a far wider sweep, both as to Christ’s Person and power.
3. Faith was quickened in many of the watching Jews (Joh 11:45). The Jews who had come to weep with Martha and Mary, were, in part, unbelievers. Some of them, no doubt, had never stood with the sisters of Lazarus in their faith in Christ. Now, as they saw Christ raise Lazarus, we read, “Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him.”
We begin to see the far-reaching benefaction of the death of Lazarus. This threefold quickening of faith could not have come in any other way.
Time and again, no doubt, the Lord permits this and that to happen in the lives of saints, that they, too, may have their faith strengthened. Of one thing we are certain, for every test and trial which the Lord permits us to enter, there may be found, somewhere, a blessing from above.
IV. THE INSTRUCTING CHRIST (Joh 11:23)
Christ used the resurrection of Lazarus as an opportunity, not only of quickening the faith, but also of enlightening the mind. Let us observe three things that He taught as a result of this sad bereavement in the home at Bethany.
1. He taught concerning the resurrection (Joh 11:23). Perhaps the three in Bethany were in such seeming health and in such vigor of youth, that they had seldom thought much of the future. They knew something of the resurrection in a general way, for Martha had said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” The resurrection had a place, but not a vital place with Martha. It was a doctrine which was accepted by the Pharisees, as well as by Mary and Martha, but there was something about the resurrection that they knew not.
2. He taught that He was, Himself, the resurrection (Joh 11:25). Christ brought the resurrection much nearer home than a far-off happening of which they knew but little. He said, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life.”
Little did Martha know that the “Resurrection” was actually standing at her side. Little did Martha know that, at Christ’s voice all of the dead would some day come forth.
As we stand at the grave of some dear one, do we realize that Christ is the Resurrection? The truth is that in the New Man Christ is all in all. Christianity remains forever not a theory, or a system of fables, that would survive the One who taught them. Christianity is Christ. It is not a religion, but a Person. With Christ dead, all would be gone.
3. He taught that He was the Rapture of saints (Joh 11:26). We all believe that the Lord will descend from Heaven and that the dead in Christ shall rise, and, together with the living, be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. However, do we believe that Christ is this Rapture, just as He is the Resurrection? What He taught was that there is no Rapture apart from Him. It is His voice that shall call out the dead, and that shall cause those who are living not to die. Thus Christ said, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”
V. THE SYMPATHETIC CHRIST (Joh 11:35)
We now come to the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.” There is much hid away in the depths of these two simple words. Many have wept during the ages. In fact all of the human race have wept again and again. Why, then, do these words have so much import? It is because they speak of the One who is inherently all joy. It is because, to Christ and to the realms from which Christ came to earth and to which we yet shall go, there is no such thing as weeping. Let us then weigh deeply the words, “Jesus wept.”
1. Christ groaned (Joh 11:32-33). As the Lord approached the grave of Lazarus He groaned in spirit. He groaned because the people groaned. Their grief was His grief. In this we see how perfectly Christ entered into every sorrow that was ours. He was indeed the Son of Man because He so perfectly aligned Himself with the things which concerned man. No matter what befell others, it befell Him. As it is written: “The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.”
2. Christ was troubled (Joh 11:33). He who, afterward, said unto us, “Let not your heart be troubled,” was Himself troubled. Some one may attempt to say, “Physician, heal Thyself.” However, that would be shallow indeed. Had He healed Himself, we could not have been healed. In the words, “Let not your heart be troubled,” is hid away all the marvelous depths of the atonement. He was troubled that we might not be troubled. Our cares He takes, He bears, that we may forevermore be trouble free.
3. Christ wept (Joh 11:35). This is climactic. Tears are troubles and groanings in their surge and overflow. Why did Jesus weep? He knew that Lazarus would soon be restored to his own. He knew that Martha, and Mary, and the Jews who wept would soon be overjoyed. Why did He weep? It was because He stood face to face with the ravages of sin and death. In their tears He saw ours. He saw the whole of sin’s agony both now, and hereafter-no marvel that He wept. As we see those tears let us assure ourselves that our God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
VI. THE ALL-POWERFUL CHRIST (Joh 11:43)
1. An unheard of request (Joh 11:39). When the Lord Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone,” Martha quickly asserted herself, saying, “By this time he stinketh.” Martha sought to stay the Lord thinking, perhaps, that He merely wanted to look upon him whom He loved.
There is another unheard of request in the Bible. The Jews went to Pilate and asked him to appoint a guard to watch over the sepulcher of our Lord. Whoever heard of a dead man rising; or of a dead man having a guard to keep him dead. Of how little avail were Pilate’s soldiers; of how little avail was Martha’s fear, or the fact that Lazarus had been dead four days. Christ is an all-powerful Christ, and He has power over death and hell.
2. An assuring assertion (Joh 11:40). The Lord Jesus calmed Martha’s fear by reminding her of His words: “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
How often do we miss God’s best by our lack of faith! We read of Nazareth that Christ could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief. So it always is.
Has not the Lord said, “According to your faith be it unto you?” What we believe, He does. It was by faith that the ancients of old wrought miracles, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, etc.
3. An authoritative command (Joh 11:43). We delight to picture Christ as He stood before the tomb and cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The Lord spoke with assurance. He had already talked to the Father about this very thing, and He said before the crowd, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.”
He spoke without hesitancy. He knew that Lazarus would come forth. There were no question marks in His faith.
VII. THE RESURRECTION (Joh 11:44)
1. The dead came forth. Lazarus couldn’t come forth, even though he had been alive. No live man can walk out of a tomb bound hand and foot with grave clothes, be he a gladiator, those bands would hold him fast.
However, with God all things are possible. The man with a withered hand could not stretch it forth, but he did stretch forth his hand. The sick of the palsy could neither take up his bed nor walk, but he did both. The Children of Israel could not walk over the Jordan on dry land, but they did. Lazarus could not come forth, bound hand and foot, however, he came forth.
The difficulty with men is that they want to humanize God, and place His activities in the realm of man’s power. “When we realize that Jesus Christ is God and that God was in Christ, we do not need to put forth any endeavor to do away with the miraculous. It needs no explaining; it needs only to be believed.
2. The loosing. As Lazarus stood before Christ, bound hand and foot, the Lord said, “Loose him.” In the resurrection there will be no stench of the tomb and no marks of death left upon raised saints. They will come forth loosed from the bands of death.
In regeneration, which is a resurrection out of the old life, there is no stench of the tomb left. The Lord Jesus commands every believer to put off the old life, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and to go forth robed in the new life, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.
3. Let him go. The saints, in resurrection, having been loosed from the chains of death will go forth to serve the Lord.
The saints who are born again and who have been loosed from sin’s power and dominion should also go forth to serve the Lord. We are saved to serve.
AN ILLUSTRATION
RESURRECTION, FAITH IN
“Jesus is not dead.” These words were inscribed on a banner displayed at a heathen funeral in China on Easter Sunday. The funeral was that of Sung Chisojen, a prominent Chinese gentleman, whose assassination shocked all China. The great procession filled many streets, and numerous and gorgeous banners were displayed. The most remarkable of all, however, was the one that declared belief in the risen Jesus of Nazareth. It may be that these heathen mourners were not wholly conscious of all the words implied, but it is a significant fact that they bore this testimony to their faith, or at least to their hope, that death does not end all, and that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
-Missionary Review of the World.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
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He whom thou lovest. We are taught that Jesus was a friend of publicans and sinners, and that he loved everybody. That is true, of course, but Jesus was human as well as divine, and he could have his per sonal favorites as well as other human beings could have. There is nothing wrong in such affection as long as one does not allow that sentiment to influence him in the wrong direction, which we know it did not do with Jesus. But the word love is so much used in the New Testament, and has so many applications because of the definitions of the original Greek, that I insist the reader see the long critical note given at Mat 5:43.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 11:3. The sisters therefore sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Their confidence in the love and in the power of Jesus is shown by the absence of any request: the message is a tender and delicate expression of their need. With the description of Lazarus compare chap. Joh 20:2 (where the same verb for love is used), the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 11:3-6. Therefore his sisters Observing his sickness was of a dangerous kind, and therefore being full of concern for him, knowing where Jesus was, thought proper to send him word of it; for they firmly expected that he, who had cured so many strangers, would willingly come and give health to one whom he so tenderly loved. When Jesus heard this he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God The event of this sickness will not be death, in the usual sense of the word, a final separation of his soul and body; but a manifestation of the glorious power of God, and a confirmation of the doctrine and mission of his Son. Dr. Campbell renders the clause, will not prove fatal, observing that this reading gives the full import of the Greek expression, , and at the same time preserves the ambiguity intended. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, &c. That is, he loved them with a peculiar affection, on account of their unfeigned piety toward God, their friendship and affection toward one another, and their faith in him as the Messiah, and had often visited them, and lodged at their house. And, in consequence of his peculiar love to them, he was determined to conduct himself toward them, in their present trying circumstances, in such a manner as he knew would be most for their final advantage, though it might, for a while, be an occasion of greater affliction to them. When he heard therefore that he was sick Instead of making all possible haste to go to him, and without declaring he had any thoughts of going; he abode two days still On the other side of Jordan; and in the same place where he was before This he did not only though he loved them, but because he loved them. He loved them, and therefore he designed to do something great and extraordinary for them; to work such a miracle for their relief, as he had not wrought for any of his friends. If he had gone immediately, and had arrived at Bethany while Lazarus was still alive, and had cured his sickness, he would have done no more for him than he had done for many; if he had come to him, and raised him when he was but just dead, he would have done no more than he had done for some; but deferring his relief so long, he had an opportunity of doing more for him than he had done, or ever should do, for any other. Observe, reader, God hath gracious intentions even in his apparent delays. See Isa 54:7-8. Christs friends at Bethany were not out of his thoughts, nor was his affection to them lessened, though when he heard of their distress he made no haste to give them relief. His lingering so long after their message came, did not proceed from want of concern for his friends, but happened according to the counsels of his own wisdom. For the length of time that Lazarus lay in the grave put his death beyond all possibility of doubt, and removed every suspicion of a fraud, and so afforded Jesus a fit opportunity of displaying the love he bare to Lazarus, as well as his own almighty power, in his unquestionable resurrection from the dead. It is true, the sisters were thus kept a while in painful anxiety, on account of their brothers life, and in the conclusion were pierced with the sorrow of seeing him die. Yet they would think themselves abundantly recompensed by the evidence accruing to the gospel from this astonishing miracle, as well as by the inexpressible surprise of joy which they felt, when they received their brother again from the dead.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 3, 4. The sisters therefore sent to Jesus to say to him, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. 4.Jesus, having heard this, said: This sickness is not unto death; but it is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.
The message of the sisters is full of delicacy; this is the reason why the evangelist reproduces it as it came from their lips (, saying). The address, Lord, alludes to the miraculous power of Jesus; the term , behold, to the impression which this unexpected announcement will not fail to produce upon Him; finally, the expression ,he whom thou lovest, to the tender affection which binds Jesus to Lazarus and makes it their duty not to leave Him in ignorance of the danger to which His friend is exposed. On the other hand, they do not insist; how could they press Him to come, knowing as they did the perils which await Him in Judea? They lay the case before Him: Judge for thyself as to what must be done.
The words of Jesus (Joh 11:4) are not given as a reply to this message; the statement is: he said, not: he answered. They are a declaration which was directed as much to the disciples who were present, as to the absent sisters. The ever original and very often paradoxical character of the sayings of the Lord must be very imperfectly understood, if one imagines that He meant seriously to say that Lazarus would not die of this sickness, and that only afterwards, in consequence of a second message, which is assumed by the narrative, He recognized His mistake (Joh 11:14).
No doubt, as Lucke observes, the glory of Jesus here on earth did not imply omniscience; but His moral purity excluded the affirmation of that of which He was ignorant. Reuss very fitly says: Here is no medical statement. The expression which Jesus makes use of is amphibological; whether it contained an announcement of recovery, or a promise of resurrection, it signified to the disciples that the final result of the sickness would not be death ( ). The glory of God is the resplendence which is shed abroad in the hearts of men by the manifestation of His perfections, especially of His power acting in the service of His holiness or of His love. And what act could be more fitted to produce such an effect than the triumph of life over death? Comp. Rom 6:4. In Joh 11:40, Jesus reminds Martha of the saying which He here utters, in the words: Did I not say unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldst see the glory of God?
We may and should infer from this expression, that, at the moment when Jesus was speaking in this way, the death of Lazarus and his resurrection were already present events to His view. For the very grave terms: for the glory of God, to the end that …, indicate more than a mere miracle of healing (see Keil). We must therefore go back to this very moment in order to locate rightly the hearing of the prayer for which He gives thanks in Joh 11:42. This manifestation of divine power must also have shed its brightness over Him who was its agent. How can God be glorified in the person of His Son, without a participation on the part of the latter in His glory? , in order that, does not therefore indicate a second purpose in juxtaposition with the one which had been previously indicated (); it is the explanation of the means by which the latter will be attained. We see in this passage how far the meaning of the name Son of God passes, in the mouth of Jesus, beyond that of the title Messiah: it designates here, as in Joh 11:30, the one who is so united with the Fatherthat the glory of the one is the glory of the other. The pronoun , by means of it, may be referred to the glory; but it is more natural to refer it to the sickness. This saying recalls that of Joh 9:3; but it passes beyond it in greatness, in the same degree in which the resurrection of Lazarus surpasses in glory the healing of the one who was born blind.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
The title "Lord" (Gr. kyrie) was respectful and did not necessarily imply belief in Jesus’ deity. Obviously Jesus had had considerable contact with Lazarus and his two sisters, so much so that the women could appeal to Jesus’ filial love (Gr. phileis) for their brother when they urged Him to come. They also believed that Jesus could help their brother by healing him (cf. Joh 11:21; Psa 50:15). They must have realized that Jesus was in danger anywhere near Jerusalem (Joh 11:8).