John 11:34Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Show Me," He says, "those who buried him, clothed him, and bound the dead man. Let them, as witnesses of My coming miracle, come forward and acknowledge their part in this matter. Then, when they see the man whom they buried risen, they will not attribute his death merely to deception of the senses."

And He says, "Where have you laid him?" Did He not know where Lazarus was buried, He who knew the time of his death? Of course He knew. But alongside divine miracles He uses words proper to man, to show that He is also man.

As the prophet says: "He is man, and who shall know Him?" He said this beforehand to make it understood that there is something else in Him, namely the Godhead.

"Where have you laid him?" Mary answered, "Lord, come and see."

On the contrary, in this very question He is shown to be equal to the Father. For the Father also asks, "Adam, where are you?" (Gen 3:9). He takes on the appearance of one who does not know and asks, "Where have you laid him?"

Through this question many people are gathered to show the place. More than this, the miracle of giving life to one already subject to corruption is attested even by enemies.

The question, "Where have you laid Lazarus?" is not a sign of one who does not know. Rather, because humility was very dear to Him, He refrains from saying, "Let us go to the tomb," and expresses this in another way.

Or it may be interpreted otherwise. By saying, "Where have you laid him?" the Lord awakens in many a desire to go with Him and show the place, especially because the One asking was regarded as most worthy of honor.

Since in Him there was both God and man, He naturally mingles the human with the divine. He goes to work the miracle as God, but speaks as man. What He knew as God, He sometimes appeared not to know, in no way refusing the poverty of humanity.

He knew the stubbornness of the Jews, with which they denied His glorious works. So He bound them by His question: "Where have you laid the dead man?" He did not ask where Lazarus had been placed or buried, but, "Where have you laid him?"

"Show Me this yourselves, you unbelievers." The Father also asks similar questions (cf. Gen 3:9; 4:9), and many speak about this. But I glorify Him in silence, without entering into perverse inquiries.

Truth stands for itself. Ornate words have no power to overcome faith. Simplicity sees the truth openly as it is, and stands for it without disputes, contention, or subtle inquiries.

Which is greater: to know where the tomb is, or to raise one who already stinks? Since even hidden things are known to Him, before He came He said to His apostles, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep" (Jn 11:11).

But He asked those who had given him to burial, as unbelievers, "Where have you laid him?" He did this to receive confirmation from them of his burial, and only then to call him back to life.

The Wise One bound them by their own testimony that they had truly committed Lazarus to the tomb. Then, when He would call and raise the dead man, they too would become witnesses of his resurrection.

"Where have you laid him?" He asked. They answered, "Come and see." The question bound them so that they could not contradict. The Son is not less than the Father because He asked about the tomb.

On the words, "And when He had said this, He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.'"

They have the appearance of something unknown, though it is not unknown to God. The Word, when He came, did the same, so that the saying might be fulfilled: "My Father has been working until now, and I am working" (Jn 5:17).

"Where have you laid Lazarus?" He asked, when He was near the place of Lazarus' burial. Yet before arriving at the place, and without hearing from anyone about Lazarus, He said to His disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep" (Jn 11:11).

Then was it possible that, while so far away from Lazarus' dwelling during the journey, the Savior knew he had died, yet did not know when He was present at the very place?

By no means. But He wished to show that, while He was doing all this, no one yet believed in Him perfectly. Thus He revealed the great love for mankind shown in His condescension toward us.

Lazarus' sisters ought not to have said, "He has been dead four days; already he stinks" (Jn 11:39). Nor ought they to have come and shown Him.

They should have said, "Thou knowest all things, and if Thou willest, he will live." Therefore He wept over the stoniness of men's hearts.

Thus He asked not in ignorance, but testing them, He reproves and shows love for mankind.

Again He says, "Who touched Me?" not because He did not know who had touched Him. Rather, it was so that the miracle that had occurred might not be proclaimed by the disciples themselves.

The woman who heard this question was to come and speak of the grace bestowed upon her. Having confessed it, she was to hear, "Your faith has saved you" (Lk 8:48).

Thus she would turn others to faith, so that they also might be healed.

"Who," He says, "do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So also in the Old Testament it is said in the person of the Father, "Adam, where are you?" (Gen 3:9).

God knew where he was. Therefore He also reproves him, saying, "Have you eaten of the tree?" (Gen 3:11).

And to Cain He says, "Where is Abel your brother?" (Gen 4:9). He did not ask this in ignorance.

For He says, "Cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Behold, his blood cries out to Me" (Gen 4:10-11).

Therefore the One who said that the blood cried out was not ignorant. He asked in order to give Cain room for repentance and self-defense.

But again, through ignorance, they turn to love of dispute and say that all these words found in the Old Testament are the words of the Son Himself.

Yet their wickedness is immediately exposed. For the One who said to Moses, "What is this in your hand?" (Ex 4:2), also says, "I am He who is" (Ex 3:14).

And the Lord says to the Sadducees, reasoning about the resurrection: "Concerning the dead, that they rise, God said, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mk 12:26-27).

In many further ways one can show that what is said in the Old Testament is spoken in the person of the Father.

But it is also often spoken in the person of the Son, and again in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Then, seeing the divine power of Christ manifested in Lazarus's resurrection, they would show themselves to be His enemies if they did not believe in that power.

For the Lord had earlier said to them, "If you do not believe Me, believe My works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him" (Jn 10:38).

Should we not say that here He shows Himself to be man, portraying in Himself our imperfections? For ignorance, and the sensations that arise from it, belong to us, not to Him who knew all things before anything existed.

Although He took upon Himself all the properties of our nature, He took only those that were removed from sinful defilement. He did not share in the stains that clung to nature from sensual desire or from its corruption.

He was undefiled and not subject to passions. He took upon Himself our whole nature without change in His Godhead.

Can it be supposed that the Word took upon Himself all the imperfections of our nature by appropriation, while remaining utterly removed from them in His essence?

"Where have you laid him?" He does not ask from ignorance. Otherwise, how could He, being far from the place, have said, "Lazarus is dead"?

"Where have you laid him?" He says, "I ask in order to give greater credibility to the miracle." We should think that many, out of joy, hastened to show the place where Lazarus had been laid.

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).