John 11:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He also does this to teach us to set a limit and measure to grief and to freedom from grief. To have no sympathy or tears is proper to beasts. To pour out many tears and surrender to excessive sorrow is proper to women.

Since the Lord took upon Himself our flesh and blood (Heb 2:14), He also shares in what belongs to man and to nature. He shows us the measure in both.

For this reason the almighty Word of God appeared in the flesh, or rather became flesh. It was so that, by the operations of His Spirit, He might strengthen the weaknesses of the flesh, free human nature from earthly thoughts, and transform it toward what alone is pleasing to God.

Thus subjection to sorrows is a sickness of human nature. But this, together with everything else, is abolished in Christ the first, so that it might pass also to us.

Or the saying, "He rebuked the spirit and was troubled," should be understood in this way. Moved to mercy by the weeping of many, He commanded His own spirit, as it were, to overcome death even before the time and to raise Lazarus.

They seem to have grasped what is said in the Psalms: "Command, O God, by Thy power; strengthen, O God, what Thou hast wrought in us." They understand this "command" in a manner fitting God, even though it is spoken in human expressions. It raises us from what belongs to us toward a conception that surpasses us.

"Jesus... was troubled in spirit and came into agitation." By "trouble" the Evangelist means an angry threat directed against death.

It was in His power to experience this or that, or to experience nothing. For the Word assumed soul and flesh, adapting to Himself the whole nature of man in the unity of His Person.

The soul of the Apostle was illumined by the Word. The soul of Peter was illumined by the Word. The soul of Paul, the souls of the other apostles, and the souls of the holy prophets were illumined by the Word.

But of none of them was it said, "The Word became flesh" (Jn 1:14). Of none of them was it said, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30).

The soul and flesh of Christ, together with the Word of God, are one person, one Christ. And this Word, in whom supreme authority abides, bore weakness by His own will. Thus He troubled Himself.

I have spoken of the authority. Now consider the meaning. How gravely that Lazarus was guilty is indicated by the four days of death and the burial.

Why did Christ trouble Himself, if not to show you how you ought to be troubled when you are weighed down and crushed by so great a burden of sin?

For you have turned attention upon yourself, seen your guilt, and thought about yourself: "I did this, and God spared me. I committed this, and He showed forbearance to me."

"I heard the Gospel and despised it. I was baptized and returned again to what I had been before. What am I doing? Where am I going? How shall I escape this?"

When you speak in this way, Christ is already groaning, for your faith is groaning. In the voice of one who groans, the hope of his resurrection sounds.

If faith is within a man, Christ groans there. If faith is in us, Christ is in us. For what else did the Apostle say: "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (cf. Eph 3:17)?

Thus your faith in Christ is Christ in your heart.

The account of Christ sleeping in the boat bears witness to this. When the disciples felt danger and shipwreck was about to occur, they came to Him and woke Him.

Christ arose, commanded the winds and the waves, and there was a great calm (see Mt 8:24-26). So it is with you.

The winds break into your heart, that is, into the place where you sail and where you pass this life, like a stormy and dangerous sea.

The winds break in there, raise waves, and shake the boat. What are the winds? You heard an insult and became angry.

The insult is the wind. Anger is the wave. You have entered danger. You are ready to answer, ready to repay slander with slander, and your boat is close to shipwreck.

Wake Christ, who sleeps in you. You are disturbed and ready to repay evil for evil because Christ sleeps in the boat. For the sleep of Christ in your heart is forgetfulness of faith.

But if you wake Christ, that is, if you restore faith, what will Christ say to you, as though awakening in your heart?

"I heard, 'You have a demon'" (cf. Jn 7:20), He says to you, "and I prayed for those who reviled Me." The Lord hears and endures; the servant hears and is angry.

"But you want to be avenged." "Why? I have already been avenged."

When your faith says this to you, it is as though it commands the winds and the waves, and a great calm comes.

Thus, to wake Christ in the boat means to awaken faith. Likewise, in the heart of a man burdened with a huge mass of sins and the habit of sin, let Christ grieve.

In the heart of a man who disregards even the Holy Gospel, and in the heart of a man who despises eternal torments, let Christ grieve. Let the man rebuke himself.

To teach us this, the Lord twice became indignant in spirit against Hades and was troubled. Though by His will alone He calmly does whatever He wishes, in this way He returned Lazarus's soul to his body.

Therefore it seems to me that God, who made us, gave prudent anger to our nature as a weapon. If Eve had used it against the serpent, she would not have been seized by that passionate feeling (cf. Gen 3:1-6).

So it seems to me that one who prudently uses anger out of zeal for piety will certainly prove more experienced on the scales of recompense than one who, through sluggishness of mind, is never moved to anger.

The latter shows himself to have an inexperienced charioteer of human thoughts. The former, always ready for contests, is borne on the horses of virtue in the midst of the demonic army, training the four-horse team of self-control by the fear of God.

What, then, so troubled the soul of the Lord at that moment? A little later, when the Jews present there expressed their hostility toward Him quite plainly, He was troubled again (v. 38, the same Greek word). This gives reason to suppose that here also the Lord was troubled by the same thing: the Jews and their conduct at that time.

The Evangelist says that the Lord was thus troubled when He saw Mary weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping. On the one hand, He saw the sincere tears of the dead man's deeply grieving sister. On the other hand, beside her, He saw the weeping of those who cherished evil hostility toward Him, the beloved friend of the grieving sisters.

The crocodile tears of His enemies, the Jews, stirred the Lord to the depths of His soul. Moreover, the Lord saw that this hostility toward Him would bring Him to death. And here were the instruments of that hostility, present at the greatest miracle that was about to take place.

This miracle would be the greatest sign and proof of His messianic dignity. It ought to have extinguished hostility toward Him. Instead, as He knew, it would become the decisive occasion for the sentence of His death (vv. 47-53).

This indignation was so strong that it produced an outward bodily trembling. Yet, according to the meaning of the Greek word, this trembling was not wholly involuntary. It expressed a certain effort by the Lord Himself to restrain this spiritual indignation.

The Evangelist says that the Lord was thus troubled when He saw Mary weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping. On one side, He saw the sincere tears of the dead man's deeply grieving sister.

On the other side, beside her, He saw the weeping of these people, or of some of them. Their tears seemed as sincere as Mary's, yet they cherished evil hostility toward Him, the beloved friend of the grieving sisters (cf. Jn 11:37).

The Lord was troubled to the depths of His soul by the crocodile tears of His enemies, the Jews. Moreover, the Lord saw that this hostility toward Him would lead Him to death. And here were the instruments of that hostility, present at the greatest miracle soon to occur.

This miracle would be the greatest sign and proof of His messianic dignity and ought to have extinguished that hostility. Instead, as He knew, it would become the decisive occasion for the sentence of His death (Jn 11:47-53).

Satan would make His greatest miracle the signal for the fatal decision concerning His death. And here some of the instruments of that dark power stood, weeping crocodile tears. The Lord was troubled in spirit.

This indignation was so strong that it produced an outward bodily trembling. Yet, according to the sense of the Greek word, this trembling was not wholly involuntary. It expressed a certain effort by the Lord Himself to restrain this spiritual indignation.

This indignation was accompanied by a moment of inward struggle, whose expression was bodily trembling. Yet that same trembling was also an expression of victory over the movement during the struggle.

"The Lord restrains the trembling in His spirit, that is, by the spirit He bridles and holds back the turmoil" (Theophylact). The outward expression of this swift and decisive victory over His troubled spirit was the brief and rapid question: "Where have you laid him?"

"The God-man knew where Lazarus had been buried, but in dealing with men He acted in a human way" (Augustine, tract. 49 in Ioh.). The question was undoubtedly addressed to the dead man's sisters, and they, of course, answered Him: "Come and see."

"Jesus wept." The disturbance of spirit was conquered and resolved in the Lord's tears. This was the tribute of His human nature (cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact), which can suffer with suffering, rejoice with joy, and be tempted in all things except sin (Heb 4:15; 5:7).

After the disturbance of spirit had been calmed, the tears of the sisters and of those who sympathized with them drew tears from the Lord. The Greek word denotes quiet tears, not wailing or sobbing.

Over what did the Lord weep, when He intended to call the dead man from the tomb? Who can penetrate the mystery of the God-man's thought and analyze it?

Having asked, "Where have you laid him?" and having heard the answer, "Lord, come and see," Jesus "wept," both from love for the dead man and from the thought of sin, which had brought so many calamities upon mankind.

Some understood Jesus' tears rightly. Unbelief understood them in its own way, as a sign of powerlessness. If He did not heal the sick man whom He loved, they thought, it is strange that He could have healed the blind man.

"Because of Lazarus's death they slander even that miracle, as though it had not happened" (Chrysostom). "Jesus therefore again grieving comes to the tomb." The sight of unbelief, and the sight of increased weeping as He approached the tomb, again call forth grief.

"Why does the Evangelist carefully note, more than once, that He wept? So that you may know that He was truly clothed in our nature" (Chrysostom). "Again He rebukes feeling, that we may learn that He was man without change, as we are" (Origen).