John 11:36Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore He allowed His flesh to weep a little, although by nature He was tearless and inaccessible to every grief, insofar as His divine nature is concerned.

Even the enemies marvel at the Lord's weeping, for those who have reached the highest degree of philosophy and enjoy great honor do not weep, since they can overcome every misfortune.

The Jews thought that He wept because of Lazarus's death. Yet He wept out of pity for all human nature. He mourned not only Lazarus, but also what happens to all, because all human nature had come under the dominion of death, justly undergoing such punishment.

Others, consumed by envy, said nothing good. Falsely and hypocritically, they accused the Lord as though He had commanded Lazarus to die. For only believers could think that He was able to stop death.

They speak as though saying, "Where is Thy power, O Wonderworker? Behold, even against Thy will, the one Thou lovedst has died. From Thy weeping it is clear that Thou lovedst him.

Therefore, if healing the blind man was the work of Thy power, Thou couldst also have stopped death, which is truly beyond human nature." Thus they say this maliciously because they saw His glory seemingly weakening.

Again the divine Evangelist is struck with wonder as he sees the tearless Nature weeping. But this suffering was human, for He rightly grieved when He saw His own image subjected to corruption. He suffers with our calamities.

For if He had not wept for us, He would not have taken away my tear. As the Word who said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world," He once allowed His own flesh to be overcome by hunger.

So here also, though as God He is inaccessible to grief, He compassionately permitted His flesh to express sorrow in tears, as an example for us. Excessive weeping must be judged unseemly, yet complete abstinence from tears is cruelty and inhumanity.

If you hear that He wept, grieved, and began to be weak, understand again the man who is also God. Give to His humanity what belongs to it.

Since He assumed a mortal and corruptible body, subject to such passions, it was necessary that together with the flesh He appropriate its passions. When it experiences these things, He is said to experience them.

Οὕτω δεδάκρυκε καὶ ἐπὶ Λαζάρῳ, ἵνα συνῶμεν ὅτι λελύπηκεν αὐτὸν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις πεσοῦσα πρὸς θάνατον. Thus He wept over Lazarus, that we might understand that human nature, fallen into death, moved Him to pity.

For Righteousness loves not by indulgence, but by judgment. Since Lazarus was righteous and had gloriously departed from the arena of this life, he had undoubtedly been counted worthy of rest and honor.

Therefore, when Christ was about to raise him for His own glory, He wept, as though saying, "This man who has entered the harbor I summon again into the storm. This man already crowned I lead out again to struggles."

After Mary had spoken them, she could say nothing more. Her tears troubled the spirit of the Lord Himself. All human suffering was near to His soul, especially the suffering of those whom He loved.

Tears involuntarily appeared in His eyes. Even the thought that these tears would soon be turned into joy did not overcome His compassion.

This sight moved many of the Jews who had come from Mary's house. But here, as everywhere, they remained true to themselves. Some, seeing His tears, marveled at Jesus' love for Lazarus. Others maliciously recalled the healing of the man born blind.

They pointed out that Jesus had not helped Lazarus in time. Therefore, they implied, one could not think that He had opened the eyes of the man born blind either.

In response to Mary He asked, "Where have you laid him?" They answered Him, "Lord, come and see." The Lord's compassion for those who grieved drew tears from His eyes. The Jews who were there said among themselves, "See how He loved him."

But those hostile to the Lord said, "If He loved Lazarus, how did He, who opened the eyes of the man born blind, allow Lazarus to die? Does this not show that He did not really heal the man born blind either?"

This greatly troubled the Lord's spirit. Coming to the cave, the Lord commanded that the stone closing its entrance be taken away.

At that moment, however, the odor of the decomposing body reached those present. This so powerfully affected Martha's sorrowful soul that she seems to have forgotten what she had confidently asked of the Lord only minutes before, and what the Savior had promised her (vv. 22-27).

She was overcome with horror at the thought of the disfigured state in which she would see the body of her beloved brother if the Lord's command to remove the stone were carried out. So she said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been in the tomb four days."

Then the Lord, in a tone of reproach for the weakness of her faith, reminded Martha of what had been said to her a few minutes earlier (vv. 25-26).

It is assumed that they knew the sisters had sent word to the Lord about their brother's illness. Why did He not then come in time and heal him, if He could, and now weep?

Either these tears are insincere, if He could have come to the sick man and healed him but did not wish to. Or He did not come to him in time because He could not heal him.

Together with this, they cast doubt on the reality of His healing of the man born blind as well (cf. Chrysostom). In either case, they tried to present the Lord's conduct as highly suspicious.

They refer to the healing of the man born blind, and not to the miraculous raisings the Lord had performed in Galilee, which of course they knew about. This was because the healing of the blind man was the Lord's most recent miracle in Jerusalem.

Another reason is that they apparently were not now thinking of Lazarus's resurrection. They were only saying that He could have healed the sick Lazarus.

At least the Gospel text gives no basis for thinking that they now had in mind the Lord's raising of Lazarus. The point of comparison with the blind man is healing, not resurrection.

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).