CHAPTER XI. The ministry of Christ was. manifestation of God in him; of the Father in the Son; of the Son by his own works and words. The miracles selected by John out of the great number wrought by the Redeemer, are chosen according to their bearing on this manifestation and reach their climax in... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS (JOHN 11:1-44) 1. Now. certain man was sick, named Lazarus. The name of Lazarus is not mentioned by any of the sacred writers but John, but his family is named or referred to by Matthew, Mark and Luke. With his sisters we know, from Luke 10:38, that Jesus had. previous ac... [ Continue Reading ]
IT WAS THAT MARY WHICH ANOINTED THE LORD WITH OINTMENT. There were. number of Marys distinguished in gospel history, Mary the mother of the Lord, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Mark, Mary the wife of Cleophas. Hence, John, to distinguish this one, names an incident related by all the historians... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, BEHOLD, HE WHOM THOU LOVEST IS SICK. In their distress the sisters turn to one whom they know to be. sympathizing friend. They have complete confidence in him and are assured he will do what is best. They do not urge any petition, but simply report their trouble.... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SICKNESS IS NOT UNTO DEATH. Death was not its object. It had been permitted for another reason; viz., _for the glory of God._ He was glorified by the manifestation of the divine power of Christ in rescuing Lazarus from the jaws of death, as well as in the sublime teaching for which the case of... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW JESUS LOVED MARTHA, AND HER SISTER, AND LAZARUS. This statement is made (1) to explain why the sisters sent to Christ such. message, and (2) to show that his delay was not caused by indifference.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ABODE STILL TWO DAYS IN THE SAME PLACE. He did not hurry off at once, probably because his work beyond Jordan was not yet completed. His great personal sympathy could not induce him to abandon. work that was only half done. His ministry was above the claims of friendship. Besides, his delay, and... [ Continue Reading ]
LET US GO INTO JUDEA AGAIN. His proposal to recross the Jordan, and to return to the locality where his enemies were gathered, was opposed by his disciples. They knew well that the authorities at Jerusalem had determined on his death; they therefore reminded him that he had just escaped from an att... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THERE NOT TWELVE HOURS IN THE DAY? The Jews always divided the space from sunrise to sunset into twelve hours, whether the days were long or short, the hours varying in length according to the season of year. There were twelve hours of the daylight, and during this daylight. man could see clear... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. It seems probable that an interval had passed after Christ's last words. Christ was wont to speak of death as. sleep. See Mark 5:39. In the order of things over which he presides, death is death no longer, but assumes the character of. temporary slumber.--_ Godet._ To sp... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HE SLEEP, HE WILL DO WELL. The disciples took the Lord's words literally. They were all interested in the case of Lazarus and regarded him as. friend, but did not wish Jesus to return to the vicinity of Jerusalem; hence, they intimate that if he was sleeping the case was hopeful and there was li... [ Continue Reading ]
AM GLAD FOR YOUR SAKES THAT. WAS NOT THERE. Had he been at the home of Lazarus before his death he would have felt constrained to heal him. Such. miracle would have been less striking and less proof of his divine power than the one which would now take place. For the sake of his disciples, for the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SAID THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. "Thomas the Twin," one of the apostles, the doubter after the Lord's resurrection. See John 20:24-29. LET US GO ALSO, THAT WE MAY DIE WITH HIM. He looked upon his return to Jerusalem, where the hate of him was so intense, where his death was already determined, w... [ Continue Reading ]
HE FOUND THAT HE HAD LAIN IN THE GRAVE FOUR DAYS ALREADY. Christ had in Galilee raised two persons from the dead, one soon after death; the other from the bier on which he was carried to burial. Now, in Judea, right at Jerusalem, in the face of his enemies, and just before his own death and burial,... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW BETHANY WAS NIGH UNTO JERUSALEM. It was on the eastern slope of Mt. Olivet, distant fifteen _stadia,_ or furlongs. The stadium was 600 feet, so that the distance was 9,000 feet, or. little less than two miles.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MANY OF THE JEWS CAME TO MARTHA AND MARY. By "Jews" John distinguishes the inhabitants of Judea and usually means those of influence or official character. They came to "comfort." Pharisaism arranged that friends and professional mourners should, after the funeral, sit with the afflicted on the... [ Continue Reading ]
MARTHA... WENT AND MET HIM. Where Christ, either from caution, or because the mourning customs were offensive to him, or that the family might be prepared, had paused. The bustling, active sister, the type of all the Marthas, goes; the quiet Mary, so absorbed that she did not hear the message, rema... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU HADST BEEN HERE, ETC. These words express. conviction,. lamentation and. slight degree of reproach, all combined. She cannot realize that "All things work for good to them that love God" and groans in her sorrow, but at the same time intimates. faint hope, that she hardly dares to express,... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BROTHER SHALL RISE AGAIN. Martha does not understand this as an assurance that Lazarus shall be raised now, nor do. know that the Savior wished her so to understand it. His object was to lead her to. higher faith in himself as the "Resurrection and the Life." She declares her belief that he wil... [ Continue Reading ]
AM THE RESURRECTION, AND THE LIFE. She had declared her belief in the resurrection. Christ makes the grand, striking declaration that he is the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, words that never could have fallen from the lips of. sane mortal. They mean that he is the power which opens every grave, gives l... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND BELIEVETH IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE. Those dead, who believed in him, shall be raised and live, and those living who believe, shall never perish. Death will only be. change to. better existence and is to be disregarded. Whoever has faith in Christ, has Christ in him the hope of glo... [ Continue Reading ]
BELIEVE THAT THOU ART THE CHRIST, ETC. He asks about her faith. She responds by the good confession that embraces all, Martha's creed, Peter's creed, the true "Apostles' creed," the only creed of the Apostolic church.... [ Continue Reading ]
CALLED MARY HER SISTER SECRETLY. The Lord had evidently directed her to do this, for she said, "The Master calleth for thee." At once, with. promptitude that shows her joy, Mary arose and hastened out of the town to the place where the Lord still tarried.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE GOETH TO THE GRAVE TO WEEP THERE. The message to Mary was secret. When she suddenly arose and left hurriedly the only explanation that suggested itself to the Jews was that she had gone to weep at the tomb,. custom of Jewish women. They at once followed obtrusively, thus preventing. private int... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE FELL DOWN AT HIS FEET. Her act depicts her grief, her dependence, and her faith in Christ. Her words are the same that Martha had uttered. Had the Lord been there her brother would not have died.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE GROANED IN SPIRIT AND WAS TROUBLED. The word rendered "groaned," undoubtedly means "was indignant" and is so rendered in the margin of the Revision. Jesus was deeply moved by the grief of Mary, but the hypocritical weeping of the Jews who followed her and who were acting according to the rules,... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS WEPT. The shortest verse in the Bible and one of the most touching.. see in the Lord weeping over the sins of Jerusalem, the Prophet; but in the Lord weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, the Brother.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD HOW HE LOVED HIM! Some of the Jews were touched by his evidence of tender affection. Others, remembering the healing of the blind man right there at Jerusalem, asked if he could not have saved Lazarus from death. The latter, however, spoke sneeringly in all probability. The occurrence of the... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS... COMETH TO THE GRAVE. Graves were sometimes cut perpendicularly in the rock, as we dig them in the earth, and sometimes were horizontally cut into the side of the hill. Sometimes natural eaves were selected and sometimes artificial. This family vault was. cave, closed by. stone that covered... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE YE AWAY THE STONE. The large stone that closed the entrance and which several persons would be required to remove. The practical Martha at once interposes. The body had been four days in the tomb,. period so long that decomposition must have begun. It will be offensive. She seems to have thoug... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JESUS LIFTED UP HIS EYES. The Son always sought to honor the Father and to show that the Father was in him as he was in the Father. I THANK THEE THAT THOU HAST HEARD ME. Constantly in communion with the Father he had the Father's answer already and assent to what he was about to do. THOU HEA... [ Continue Reading ]
HE CRIED IN ALOUD VOICE. A suggestion of the "voice like the sound of many waters" (Revelation 1:15) at which all who are in their graves shall come forth (1 Thessalonians 4:16). It was the voice of authority. LAZARUS, COME FORTH. "Lazarus, _here, out,_ " is the literal rendering of the Greek; tw... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE THAT WAS DEAD CAME FORTH. The earth had never beheld. more wonderful or startling sight. At once the sleeper arose, came forth from the dark and cold bed where he had lain for four days, bound with his grave clothes, with the napkin still upon his face that had been bound under his jaw to ke... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SANHEDRIM IN SESSION (JOHN 11:45-57). 45. Many of the Jews who came to Mary. Verse 19 speaks of many Jews of Jerusalem who came to the house of Martha and Mary. Verse 31 speaks of them remaining in the house with Mary and following her when she went forth; now, therefore, they are named in con... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SOME.. WENT TO THE PHARISEES. They, as was usual, divided into two classes. Others, though unable to explain the miracle, were hostile and went at once to the Pharisees with. report. As this sect was now in declared enmity to Christ, this report was no doubt an unfriendly act.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHIEF PRIESTS THEREFORE AND THE PHARISEES GATHERED. COUNCIL. The chief priests, including Caiaphas, the acting high priest, and Annas, who had been high priest, as well as other great hierarchs, were Sadducees and the leaders of that party. The old feuds between them and the Pharisees were now... [ Continue Reading ]
IF WE LET HIM THUS ALONE, ALL MEN WILL BELIEVE. They take it for granted that his miracles were calculated to produce belief. They also held that the people would regard him the Messiah and would rise in insurrection, or raise tumults that would induce the Romans to interfere. THE ROMANS... WILL T... [ Continue Reading ]
CAIAPHAS, BEING HIGH PRIEST THAT YEAR. John does not mean that the high priesthood was an annual office, but places the emphasis on "that year." With him the "year of our Lord" was the year of his death. In that ever memorable year Caiaphas was high priest. Caiaphas was. Sadducee,. crafty, powerful... [ Continue Reading ]
NOR CONSIDER THAT IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR US. What was "expedient for us" was the main thing to consider. This required "one man to die for the people (_laos,_ Jewish race in its relation to God), that the whole nation (_ethnos,_ the nation as. civil organization) perish not." The word "nation" is appl... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS HE SPAKE NOT OF HIMSELF. He thought he spoke it of himself, but unwittingly he uttered. prophecy. The high priest represented the divine headship of the Jewish nation and through him, of old, an inspired decision was given on questions of doubt. So Caiaphas by virtue of his office utters. prop... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD GATHER IN ONE THE CHILDREN OF GOD. Christ died for his enemies, for the Jewish nation, and not for it alone, but his death broke down the barrier between Jew and Gentile and made friends of the hostile clans and nations of the earth. Jew, Gentile, Indian, African and Anglo-Saxon;--all who ar... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THAT DAY THEY TOOK COUNSEL. From the time of this meeting they were brought over to the policy of Caiaphas and steadfast in carrying out their plans for the death of Christ. Here is the official culmination of Jewish hatred, and what had been. decree before (5:18) now becomes. settled plan. Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS THEREFORE WALKED NO MORE OPENLY AMONG THE JEWS. The Savior once more retired from Jerusalem to avoid the blow that was ready to be struck and retired for. short time INTO. CITY CALLED EPHRAIM. Its location is not surely known, but it is supposed to be an Ophrah named in Joshua 18:23, called... [ Continue Reading ]
THE JEWS' PASSOVER WAS NEAR AT HAND. It could not have been more than. few weeks away when he went to Ephraim. MANY WENT OUT OF THE COUNTRY. They gathered to the great national festivals, not only from all parts of Judea and Galilee, but from the foreign countries where Jews were scattered abroad... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SOUGHT THEY FOR JESUS. There was. restless curiosity among these country people to know more of the wonderful Teacher of whom they had heard so much. As they gathered in groups in the temple they discussed the probability of his coming, and that the more eagerly as they knew that,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND THE PHARISEES HAD GIVEN. COMMANDMENT. The Sanhedrim had published an edict commanding any man who knew of his whereabouts to reveal it in order that they might take him. Godet is of the opinion that this order was given to intimidate Christ and his disciples so as to prevent t... [ Continue Reading ]