John 12:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Perhaps on the day before taking the lamb, the Jews had the custom of celebrating somewhat, not according to the Law, but according to custom. Then, after taking the lamb, they would pass the time until Passover in fasting, restraint, and holiness.

It seems that in this respect also the Lord honored the customs of the feast. The amazed Evangelist says that the man four days dead eats together with Christ, in remembrance of His divine omnipotence. He also introduces Martha, who out of love for Christ serves and is zealous in her labors.

He had been freed from the inhospitable burial cloths. John brings him into view again and, passing over all who dined with Him, names this one man by name.

The Evangelist's aim was not to glorify the One of whom he preached by the participation of noble persons at the supper and table. Nor was it to tell something pleasant.

His aim was to show from the Wonderworker's own works, known to all, that He is God. Such was Christ's work, and the greatest of works: the raising of Lazarus, who had died and turned to corruption.

For this reason he presents Lazarus as dining with the Lord. He proclaims the miracle to the whole world as something not invented by fantasy.

He makes the wonder of that radiant feast a cause of joy. There Lazarus was offered as the first refreshment, like spiritual food for the guests.

It was a wondrous supper, where the pleasure of the belly was put aside and the souls of those reclining were delighted. It was an astonishing gladness, in which the one who had become a table for corruption again became a table full of wonders for living men.

When He who abounds in all things entered under the roof of the poor, He had to add riches to the poor. From His will, as from an inexhaustible spring, blessings flow forth.

So also at Cana of Galilee He added a banquet of wine not produced by agriculture. It was fitting to bring forward the one freed from death before all.

It was fitting to reveal him, like a paradise of every sweetness, to those gladdening and being gladdened. In him no odor of corruption appeared, for through the divine summons he received an incorrupt fragrance.

Nor was there any damage to his members, for the Creator was the One who restored him by His command. In general, nothing great or small appeared in him by which mutilation usually reveals itself in those who suffer violence.

Rather, he was a whole statue, everywhere complete and beautiful to behold, down to the hair.

Thus the Evangelist fittingly arranges this feast. He does so both from the pure love, I mean, of the most virtuous people who received the guests, and from the wonders of Him who had been shown superabundantly to be God.

For he knew, he knew clearly, that this above all usually delighted the divine gaze, if the Savior receiving service [...] as he had heard from Him: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (Jn 4:34).

The will of the Father and the Son is the salvation of men. The salvation of men is faith in Him who is always glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the highest.

As He says in the Gospels, "This is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life" (Jn 6:40).

Desiring our salvation, He cried out elsewhere: "I came to cast fire upon the earth" (Lk 12:49). He is the Lover of mercy, who thirsted to be thirsted for. He swore by Himself that He does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live (Ezek 33:11).

The Savior came to cast fire upon the earth, which He formed with His hands and sanctified by the divine breath.

The Savior came to cast fire upon it, that is, upon man. He came to kindle again man's free will, with which man was honored by Him from the beginning.

The inventor of evil and deceit had taken this will from man and enslaved it in the passions of dishonor.

The Savior came to cast upon man this enlightening fire, this life-giving fire, the fire of the knowledge of God. It destroys the thorns of impiety and causes pious seeds to grow.

It destroys and uproots everything contrary to nature. It plants and cultivates the natural blessings of pious seeds.

Man was voluntarily carried away by deception and by his own will brought upon himself, through disobedience, the death foretold to him by God. So also, once freed from the stupor of error, he might again know what is fitting.

He might partake of God through confession and through longing for Him.

The Lord kindled and inflamed this divine and enlightening fire for the salvation of the Jews also in Lazarus. He set before them, as it were, a trustworthy proof for salvation.

Signs are always given not for believers, but for unbelievers, as the beginning of salvation (1 Cor 14:22). Thus, when they contradicted and opposed the truth, He showed by the works of His almighty power that He is indisputably God.

As He Himself says in one place, "If you do not believe Me, believe My works, that you may understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father" (Jn 10:38).

That is, as the radiance of the sun is in the sun, and the sun is in the ray, indivisibly and unchangeably, because of consubstantiality and equal power, διὰ τὸ ὁμοούσιον καὶ αὐτοσθενές.

And elsewhere: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), just as "the tree is known by its fruit" (Mt 12:33; Lk 6:44). And in another place: "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30), indicating equality of honor and equality of power.

But let us return to the subject. "They made Him a supper, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him." This is spoken very splendidly, to give true assurance that the resurrection of the one saved from death was not imaginary.

So also the Lord Himself, after His saving resurrection, manifested Himself to His true disciples. He took food and ate before their eyes, according to the law of human nature.

Therefore now too Lazarus, who by the Lord's command conquered the law of nature and death, dines with the Master. The risen man rejoices with Him who raised him.

The clay reclines with the Potter. The one who escaped darkness keeps feast with the Light. The one who had walked in bonds rejoices with Him who courageously set the bound free.

He who, in the very furrows of death, that is, in the burial cloths, deceived Hades by his mighty swiftness, feasts with the risen Lord.

But I turn to you, Evangelist. Open to us, divine head John, your sacred tablets, for we are powerless to embrace the immeasurable depth of the miracle.

Yes, he says, Lazarus reclined with Jesus. He was the old and new man whom Jesus, through His living and almighty word, called from corruption to life.

The newborn reclined, as with a nurse, with Him who by His command proclaimed the new birth of men.

Among the Jews, newborn children usually lay together with the mothers who had given birth and were filled with joy. For "when a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man has been born into the world" (Jn 16:21).

So also our Lord, when He was about to raise Lazarus from Hades, wept in His mercy and was moved with compassion. He saw human nature being destroyed and grieved with those who had gathered.

Then He invisibly rebuked the one who held the power of death. Visibly, He cried out to the one held by death. He accomplished the great sign of His almighty power and revealed the pledge of the universal resurrection.

Therefore He reclined with the one in whom this had been done. He rejoiced, since He had assured by His deeds that He is our life and resurrection (Jn 11:25).

For this too had already been foretold by Him through the prophet: "I will rejoice in doing good to them" (Jer 32:41).

The honorable disciples of the Savior and sisters of the one raised served this miracle and their own feast. One brought refreshment, the other love of God.

Martha was hospitable like a daughter of Abraham, lover of the poor like Job, and lover of Christ like Peter. She kept open a door that loved hospitality for everyone who entered.

Therefore she did not receive the Creator and Lord of the angels under her roof secretly or in ignorance, as Lot once sheltered the angels. She received Him with good knowledge and disposition.

Such was Martha, with such qualities and such cares.

Five days before Passover He desired to come, so that by this too He might show that He was the spotless Lamb who would bear the sins of the world (cf. Jn 1:29). The Law commanded that the paschal lamb, by whose sacrifice the people of Israel were freed from bondage in Egypt, be chosen five days before Passover, that is, on the tenth day of the month, and sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the month (cf. Ex 12:3-6).

John speaks of six days and says that Christ set out for Jerusalem on the day after the supper with Lazarus; see Jn 12:2, 12.

The fact that long journeys were not permitted on the Sabbath could not have prevented the Lord’s journey from Jericho to Bethany. First, such a prohibition rested not on the Law, but on custom. Second, it is unknown from where exactly the Lord came to Bethany that day.

Perhaps, having left Jericho on Friday, since the road from there to Jerusalem could be traveled in one day, He spent the night not far from Bethany. Then on Saturday He went only the usual Sabbath distance to that village.

"To Bethany": see Jn 11:1. "Where Lazarus was," and so forth: because of the importance of the event, the Evangelist adds this remark. He does so also because Lazarus is mentioned in the subsequent narrative. The Evangelist omits everything that happened during this journey, which the first Evangelists describe in considerable detail.

But those Evangelists do not strictly follow chronological order in other cases either, while St. John is precise in observing time. According to St. Matthew (Mt 26:6) and Mark (Mk 14:3), the supper was prepared in the house of Simon the leper.

According to St. John as well, Lazarus was one of those reclining, one of the guests, and therefore was not the host providing the meal. Simon, who received the heavenly guest, is called a leper. This suggests that he was one of those healed by Jesus from that terrible disease, which removed the sick person from contact with people.

Filled with gratitude toward the heavenly Healer, Simon prepared a supper of love for Him. He invited to the same supper the risen Lazarus, as one who had been deemed worthy of the special mercy of wondrous Jesus Christ.

"Martha served." She appeared this way earlier as well (Lk 10:40). In this way, and no other, she could express her grateful love toward Him who had raised her brother. "Lazarus was one of those reclining." This also showed that the former dead man was now completely well.

"Then Mary, taking a pound of costly ointment of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus..." The Evangelists Matthew and Mark recount the same thing. But St. Luke speaks of another woman (Lk 7:37-50).

St. Luke's event occurred in the city of Nain (Lk 7:11, 37), not in Bethany. That took place in the house of Simon the Pharisee. This took place in the house of Simon the leper.

There a sinful woman anointed the feet. Here it is Mary, the pious sister of Lazarus. There the action is received by the Savior as the expression of repentant love (Lk 7:41-50). In Mary's action, the Savior shows preparation for His burial.

The event in Nain occurred after the second Passover, while the event in Bethany took place just before the Savior's sufferings on the Cross. Therefore Renan was frivolous if he himself took the woman mentioned by St. Luke to be Mary, the sister of Lazarus.

He was altogether shameless in slandering St. Luke when he wrote of him: "Mary of Bethany is taken by him to be the converted sinner."

"Taking a pound of costly ointment of pure nard." Nard is an aromatic plant (Song 1:11, 12, 13; Song 4:13), cultivated in southern India. Oil was pressed from its roots. It was the finest of aromatic liquids and an object of luxury.

This aromatic liquid was prepared best in the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. The nard is called πιστικός, from πίστις, meaning faithful, unadulterated nard. According to the Arabic translation, it is "pure nard."

According to Pliny, there was nardus sincera and pseudonardus, pure nard and false or adulterated nard. "Pure nard," says Pliny, "is recognized by its lightness, red color, pleasant fragrance, and astringent yet pleasant taste."

In the adulterated kind, oily extracts of other aromatic plants were mixed with Indian nard. Most often this was Cretan or Syrian nard, inferior in quality to Indian nard. Whole, pure nard was costly and valued very highly.

According to Judas's estimate, 300 denarii could have been obtained for Mary's vessel of nard (Jude 1:5), in our reckoning up to sixty rubles.

Among the ancients, before supper, feet were washed and sometimes anointed with oil (Talmud tract. Menachot. 85). Children were especially obliged to render this service to parents. In Aristophanes one reads: "My daughter first washed me and anointed my feet" (Vesperae v. 605).

Thus blessed Mary acted, according to St. John. In St. Matthew and Mark, the anointing of the head is mentioned. Among the Jews this anointing served as a sign of respect shown to a teacher (Lightfoot ad Math 26, 7). The same occurred among the Greeks, according to Athenaeus.

Therefore Mary first poured the precious myrrh upon the Lord's head, and then anointed His feet with it. The rite expressed Mary's filial love toward the heavenly Teacher. Yet only the rich could use a whole pound of fragrant nard for such a rite.

How rich Mary was in love, though she was not rich in money! It was not enough for her that costly oil was used. She wiped the anointed feet not with a towel, but with the hair of her head. What reverent love!