John 11:39Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Their own hands, and their very coming to the tomb, bore witness that it was he. If they had not come, they might perhaps have thought they were seeing a phantom, or one man instead of another.

But now they came to the place and took away the stone. They were commanded to loose the dead man wrapped in burial bands.

The friends who brought him out of the tomb recognized from the burial bands themselves that it was he. The sisters themselves were present, and one of them said, "Already he stinks, for he has been in the tomb four days."

All this was already enough to stop the mouths of ill-disposed witnesses. Therefore He commands them to take away the stone from the tomb, in order to show that He is raising Lazarus himself.

For this reason He also asks, "Where have you laid him?" (Jn 11:34). Thus those who said, "Come and see" (Jn 11:34), and who led Him, could not say that He raised another man.

Voice and hands had to bear witness: the voice that said, "Come and see," and the hands that rolled away the stone and loosed the bands.

Sight and hearing also bore witness. Hearing did so because it heard the voice. Sight did so because it saw the one who came out of the tomb.

The sense of smell also bore witness, for it perceived the stench: "Already he stinks, for he has been in the tomb four days."

Therefore I was right to say that this woman understood nothing of Christ's words, "Though he die, he shall live" (Jn 11:25).

See what she says here. She considers the matter already impossible because of the length of time. Indeed, it was an extraordinary thing to raise a dead man who had been four days in corruption.

Jesus says to them, "Take away the stone." A strange command! He who crushes the bronze gates and destroys the iron bars of death says, "Take away the stone."

Why, O Master, do You not remove the stone by Your word? "Take away the stone," He says. You yourselves do it, slanderers, unbelievers, deceivers.

Take hold of it, touch it, and be assured, so that you may not again disbelieve. Be convinced by what you see.

No shadow is to come out of the tomb, and no phantom. Such things do not need the stone blocking the exit to be removed.

"Martha, the sister of him who had died, said to Him, 'Lord, already he stinks, for he has been in the tomb four days.'" Indeed it was fitting for the servant not to appropriate what marked out the Master.

The Master rose on the third day according to His own promise, but Lazarus is raised after four days. The servant is one thing, the Master another.

They say to Him, "Lord, already he stinks, for he has been in the tomb four days." For God this is not much.

These are not yet dry bones. There is not yet a complete absence of flesh and sinews, as once in Ezekiel's vision (Ezek 37).

Yet that army of the dead, covering the earth with its bones, was already deprived of everything: soul, sensation, capacity for perception, and the spirit of life.

Still, it rose at the tombs, displaying a visible proof of the resurrection to come.

He comes to the cave and sees the stone laid against the tomb. He commands the Jews around Him to roll the stone away from the door of the tomb.

"If you have faith as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' it will move" (Mt 17:20), You said. How, then, can You not now roll away the stone Yourself?

He would answer: I do this not as one powerless, but so that the whole event may not be thought a deceptive vision.

I command the Jews themselves to roll away the stone with their own hands. By this very act I prepare the greatest proof on My behalf, so that they themselves become witnesses to the truth of the miracles I have performed.

So she was still not high in faith. The Lord, without doubt, will stand at the tomb. He will command the blindness lying upon memory to be taken away, like a certain stone.

He will bring to remembrance the good things to come and the torments. The dead man gave forth an odor because he was four days dead.

That is, he had died to the four meek and radiant virtues, and toward them he was idle and motionless.

There is nothing surprising if she, having confessed faith, is again troubled by unbelief because of the greatness of the miracle.

Or, since she greatly honored Christ, she said, “By now there is a stench,” so that He might not be distressed by the odor of the dead man.

Or she says this out of shame. For the relatives of the dead hasten to hide the body in the earth before it begins to give forth a stench.

They are ashamed before the living and regard it as dishonor to the dead when anyone is repelled by him.

Let each man look into his own soul. If he sins, he perishes, for sin is the death of the soul.

Sometimes, however, sin is committed only in thought. You delighted in what is evil, you yielded, and you sinned.

That consent killed you, but this death is only within, because the evil intention has not yet become deed.

The Lord showed that He would raise such a soul by raising the girl who had not yet been carried out for burial and still remained lying at home. It was as though the sin were hidden.

If you not only delighted in evil in thought, but also did evil, then you have, so to speak, carried the dead man outside the gates.

You are already outside, and you are being carried to the tomb. But the Lord also raised such a man to life and returned him to his widowed mother.

If you have sinned, repent. The Lord will raise you and return you to mother Church.

The third dead man is Lazarus. This is a fearful kind of death, and it is called the habit of sinning.

It is one thing to sin, and another to do so habitually. The one who falls into sin and at once takes the path of amendment quickly lives again.

He is not yet under the power of habit, because he is not yet buried. But the one for whom sinning becomes a habit buries himself.

Of him it is fitting to say, “By now there is a stench.” For he begins to have an evil reputation, like a repulsive odor.

Such are all who are accustomed to committing crimes and have despised morality. You say to such a man, “Do not do this.”

But will he hear you, when earth has so crushed him, corruption has swallowed him, and the burden of habit has trampled him down?

Yet the power of Christ was not less able to restore such a man also to life.

What then does “Take away the stone” mean? “Preach grace.” For the apostle Paul calls himself a minister of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit.

The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6). The killing letter is like a crushing stone.

“Take away the stone,” He said. Take away the burden of the Law. Preach grace.

For if a law had been given which could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But Scripture has shut up all under sin, so that the promise might be given to believers through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:21-22).

For this reason also, “Take away the stone.”

And He said, "Loose him" (Jn 11:44) yourselves from the bonds with which you bound him, so that you may acknowledge the work of your own hands.

First He allowed corruption to touch the dead man, and only then He came to raise him. Thus his stench would assure all of his death, and his return to life of the general resurrection.

The man who had died remained unharmed for three days in the country of death. On the fourth day he sank into the sea of corruption.

Death led him through three stages, and when he had passed them, on the fourth stage, as the last, it shut him in the abyss of the decaying.

Jesus delayed until Lazarus had descended to the end of the netherworld, so that He might draw him from the very depth of the pit and overcome the corruption of death.

Death took the buried man and handed him over to dissolution. The worm set its mouth upon him, and his flesh was given over to corruption.

He sank into the pit of the dead. He was mired in the Sheol of the buried. He was carried away and cast into the ocean of those who decay.

The wind of death hurled him into the abyss of destruction, so that the resurrection shown to him might gladden even those decaying in Sheol.

Jesus allowed him to fall into the depth of death and become mired in it, so that His life-giving voice might descend there and tread upon the head of Hades.

Death snatched Lazarus from the dwelling of the living. It led him into its stronghold, shut its strong gates, and hoped they would not be opened.

But Jesus delayed and permitted corruption to take hold of the flesh, so that the foul smell from the corpse might clearly testify to his resurrection.

He restored the little girl to life in the house and gave her to her father. He raised the young man when he was being carried to the tomb.

But Lazarus He left in the prison of the tomb until he began to undergo corruption, so that His voice might enter the strong man's dwelling and raise the dead.

In the house, on the road, and from the tomb He restored the dead to life. Thus He placed waymarkers along the whole road of death.

Along the whole path of the dead He sowed the hope of life, showing resurrection at its beginning, its middle, and its end.

For this reason He delayed when Lazarus, His friend, died. When Lazarus had gone all the way along death's path, then from there He called him to life.

The Giver of life walked after death along the tracks of its dominion. From beginning to end He watered its whole path with resurrection.

The sisters were mourning their brother, who had died and already begun to stink. A multitude of Jews had gathered to comfort his sisters.

Then Jesus commanded that the stone be rolled away from the door of the tomb. He did this according to His unsearchable wisdom.

He allowed the unbelieving Jews to open the tomb so that, after rolling the stone away, they would be struck by the smell of death.

The stench from the dead man struck them after the stone was removed from the tomb for this reason: while the foul smell still remained on their garments, they would see the miracle of resurrection.

That is, it is no longer possible to raise him, since he has decomposed so greatly. It was said above that Martha did not yet have a proper understanding of Jesus Christ and did not understand what He had said to her.

Look at what follows. Martha approaches the stone and says, “Lord, by now there is a stench, for he has been in the tomb four days.”

But the Ever-Living One, fully conscious of His power, says, “I chose to learn this from you, Martha. Repeat what you said about him.”

“By now there is a stench.” “Repeat this, announcing that his resurrection has been accomplished.” His death was confirmed several times, in order that his resurrection also might be confirmed.

He commanded the Jews to roll away the stone with their own hands, while reserving the greatest sign for Himself. Thus they became witnesses of the signs He performed.

Nor will you say that I raised another man instead of this one. Take away the stone, if you wish to see a great miracle.

“Martha, the sister of him who had died, says to Him, ‘Lord, by now there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’”

For he had lain four days in the tomb, during which the dead man had to undergo corruption. “By now there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

These are words of unbelief and doubt. Yet unbelief almost always precedes extraordinary miracles.

“By now there is a stench.” Martha said this when she perceived the odor after the stone had been lifted.

Although the words did not proceed from faith, they related to the certainty of the miracle. Thus no doubt would remain that the body had come to dissolution.

“Lord, by now there is a stench.” Do not approach, she says, lest You perceive the foul odor.

“By now there is a stench.” Fragrant myrrh, do not draw near to a foul-smelling corpse.

“Lord, by now there is a stench.” The woman’s words magnify the miracle.

By the fourth day after death, decomposition must have reached such a degree that even believing Martha began to doubt the possibility of Lazarus’ resurrection.

Therefore, as though wishing to prevent this sorrowful and, in her opinion, purposeless sight, she timidly says to Jesus, “Lord, by now there is a stench, for he has been in the tomb four days.”

Moreover, this smell certainly painfully struck the natural feeling of a loving sister. Thus, in the turmoil of her feelings from the extraordinary command and the odor from the beloved corpse, she tells the Lord that he already stinks.

Nevertheless, in this expression one cannot fail to see some decline in Martha’s faith from the height to which the Lord had raised her (Jn 11:23-27).

She “already considered her brother’s resurrection impossible after so many days had passed since his death” (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom). By His answer (Jn 11:40), the Lord raises her again to the same height.

Martha’s mention that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days cannot in any way be taken as an indirect reproach to the Lord for taking so long to come to them.

Such was not Martha’s disposition at that moment. It was only an explanation of why there was already a stench.

The bodies of the dead were buried among the Jews with spices, with which they were also anointed (Jn 19:39-40 and parallels). Yet even with these spices, the smell of the corpse was perceptible when the body had already greatly decomposed.

Why then did He not do so? In order to make them themselves witnesses of the miracle, so that they would not say what they said about the blind man: ‘It is he,’ and, ‘It is not he.’

Their own hands and their very coming to the tomb testified that it was he” (Chrysostom).

At the thought of the four-day-dead man, Martha is troubled first of all that the foul smell will offend the senses of the beloved Teacher.

She forgets His might. She forgets that she had promised to believe Jesus Christ in everything. So unsteady is human faith. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.