John 11:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But being unable to fulfill the promise, we ended the discourse at its very beginning.

First examining why the other Evangelists were silent about Lazarus while John alone wrote of him, we said that the Holy Spirit cut off suspicion of invention beforehand.

He permitted the Evangelists to describe the Savior's miracles similarly and harmoniously. At the same time, He arranged that one of them omitted one thing and another omitted another.

In this He presented clear proof that the Gospels were written by them without evil intent, preparation, agreement, or desire to please anyone.

Thus everything expresses artless truth, even when something appears to be missing.

Since this was sufficiently prepared by us then, let us see what timely need the Evangelist had for the miracle performed upon Lazarus.

The Savior often and repeatedly spoke with the disciples about His Passion. He saw that they grew numb and were terrified by such words.

They considered the Passion foretold by Him to be the result of weakness rather than divine economy. They still wavered with human judgments and trembled.

Therefore, when the Passion was already drawing near and the cross was ready to be planted, He raises Lazarus from the dead.

He did this to teach His learners by the deed itself that the cross and death are not the result of weakness.

He wished to persuade those present that He commands death and calls back the soul that had been loosed from earthly bonds.

With a certain purpose He sets voluntary death beside it, perhaps tracing beforehand in Lazarus His own three-day resurrection.

He consoles the fainthearted by the shortened time of His stay beneath the earth. At the threshold of the cross, He fittingly weakens the disciples' fear.

He shows that what He granted to another will easily be accomplished by Him for Himself.

By His deeds He instructs those who doubt. Thus He adapts words to deeds, and by His deeds proclaims approximately the following.

"I have never left the humanity I assumed without participation in divine power.

"Now as man, now as God, either revealing the nature or confirming the divine economy, I teach that the lower things must be assigned to humanity and the higher things raised to the Godhead.

"Through this unequal mingling of deeds, I explain the unequal union of the natures. Through authority over sufferings, I show that My sufferings are voluntary.

"As God I bridled nature, prolonging the fast for forty days. As man I afterward hungered and became exhausted.

"As God I calmed the raging sea. As man I was tempted by the devil, and as God I drove out demons by command.

"As man I am to suffer for men. But so that you may not ascribe this to weakness, before the arrival of death I call forth one held by death.

"Having first shown the power of the Godhead, I then pay the ancient debt of humanity.

"Having loosed bonds, I then Myself accept bonds. By these very deeds I show that 'I have authority to lay down My life, and I have authority to take it again'" (Jn 10:17-18).

Such is the Savior's teaching, given through deeds.

If this were not so, and if He did not postpone the miracle-working over Lazarus with some purpose, then surely He would not have delayed long when He was informed on the road of Lazarus' illness.

"His sisters sent," says the Evangelist, to the Lord, "saying to Him, 'Behold, he whom You love is sick'" (Jn 11:3).

On hearing such a thing, He would not have delayed long. As He did with the centurion and the Syrophoenician woman, He saved the son of the absent man and the daughter of the absent woman.

So He would have done also for Martha when she informed Him that her brother was sick.

But now He deliberately awaits his death. He delays long and intentionally postpones His arrival, so that He may show victory over death before His own struggle with death.

He delays for three days, to confirm the reality of the death.

After these words Jesus, according to the Evangelist's testimony, "remained two days in that place."

Why did He remain two more days? He delayed so that the death of Lazarus would become beyond doubt, and so that the wave that had rushed upon him would sink the ship.

For if He had been in Bethany, the illness would not have gained strength over Lazarus. The favorable turn of the illness would have been explained by natural causes.

Even if it had been attributed to Jesus, the miracle would certainly not have been so astonishing.

What need was there for the Lord to delay after receiving the news, and not go at once to the sick man?

Clearly, He was awaiting the death of Lazarus, so that this death would serve for the greater strengthening in faith of those who witnessed the miracle.

Death took the buried man and handed him over to dissolution. The worm laid its mouth upon him, and his flesh was given over to corruption. He sank into the pit of the dead, was mired in the Sheol of the buried, and was carried off 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 in him might gladden even those decaying in Sheol.

Jesus permitted him to fall into the depth of death and to sink there, so that His resurrecting voice might descend there and tread upon the head of Hades.

Death snatched Lazarus from the dwelling of the living, led him into its fortress, shut its strong gates, and hoped they would not be opened. But Jesus delayed and allowed corruption to seize the flesh, so that the stench from the corpse would clearly bear witness to his resurrection.

By delaying until the dead man had begun to stink, He magnified the miracle of the 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 grave.

But Lazarus He left in the prison of the tomb until he began to decay. Thus His voice would enter the dwelling of the strong one and raise the dead man.

In the house, on the road, and from the tomb He returned the dead to life. Thus He set milestones along the whole road of death, and sowed the hope of life along the entire path of the dead.

At its beginning, at its middle, and at its end, He revealed the resurrection. For this reason He delayed when Lazarus, His friend, died, so that when he had passed the way of death to the end, He might call him back to life from there.

The Giver of life followed death in its tracks along the path of its dominion, and sprinkled its whole way, from beginning to end, with resurrection.

On the words: "And having said this, He cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth."

Martha, Lazarus, and Mary loved the Lord not at one time and not at another, but always. All of them remained steadfast in calm times and in distress. Seeing their disposition thus grow stronger, Christ saved one of the women and crowned the other.

For concerning Lazarus He had said to them: "He will arise. He will rise, saying, 'Thou art life and resurrection.'"

He knew that by the raising of the dead Lazarus God would be glorified. He also knew that this glory would glorify Him, the Son of God, who performed such a miracle.

"That the Son of God may be glorified through it," that is, through Lazarus's sickness. With these words Jesus again declared Himself to be the Son of God. Yet Count Tolstoy and others still try to persuade their blind admirers that Jesus never called Himself the Son of God.

Nor was it said for Lazarus's sisters. On the one hand, He would not burden their hearts with the heavy truth. On the other, He would sustain their faith in its struggle with bitter reality.

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." His love is seen also in His care for the inward state of the sisters. And this was a rare family. Even before Lazarus's death, his sisters received the Lord Jesus in their house with all tender love.

Each showed Him love in her own way. One did so by busy care for His refreshment, the other by listening to His instruction and forgetting the earth. Then Jesus Himself also showed His love to the loving sisters. He gave them instruction needful for their souls, Lk 10:38-42.

Since Lazarus is mentioned last in the family, while Martha is named before the others, one must suppose that Lazarus was the youngest member of the good household, and that Martha was older than both Mary and Lazarus.

"Then He remained in the place where He was two days." Why did He remain? "So that Lazarus might die and be buried, lest anyone say that He raised him while he had not yet died. It might be said that it was only deep sleep, paralysis, or loss of consciousness, but not death. For this reason He remained so long that even corruption set in, so that they said, 'He already stinks.'" Thus reasons St. Chrysostom.

Yet from the meaning of the Evangelist's words, and from the nature of the matter, it is more accurate to think that the Savior was kept in Perea by the works of His calling, which had to be completed. The end of His ministry was near, while He could raise Lazarus equally after a day or after a week.

The result of His two-day stay in Perea, indicated by Chrysostom, came of itself, apart from the Savior's efforts. It served the glory of the preacher of truth, who had no need of forced measures for His own glory.