John 12:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As wealth usually destroys careless people, so also does power. The former leads to covetousness, the latter to madness. Look: those subject to authority among the Jewish people judge soundly, while the rulers judge perversely. The Evangelists often say that the people believed in Christ: Many of the people believed in Him (Jn 7:31). But the rulers did not believe. The rulers themselves, not the people, say, Have any of the rulers believed in Him? (Jn 7:48). But who did believe? This people, who do not know God, are accursed (Jn 7:49). They called believers accursed, while they called themselves, murderers as they were, prudent. So now, after seeing the miracle, many believed. But the rulers were not content with their wicked deeds. They even attempted to kill Lazarus.

The Pharisees are so inhuman that they wish to kill not only Jesus, but also Lazarus, because he became for many a cause of salvation through the miracle performed upon him. He brought simple-hearted people to faith. Thus even the benefaction of Jesus became a crime for them. They were especially vexed because, as the feast approached, everyone was going to Bethany, learning of the miracle, and seeing the risen man with their own eyes.

Notice that the rulers seem to lose their minds. Stirred up on every side by envy and saying nothing reasonable, they care only for murder. They think that, together with the man who had died, they can destroy the power of the wondrous deed and stop the movement toward faith in Christ.

O foolish reasoning! O blind fury! Could not the Lord Christ, who was able to raise a dead man, raise a murdered man? If you had killed Lazarus, would you have deprived the Lord of power? If it seems to you that a dead man is one thing and a murdered man another, then look: the Lord accomplished the resurrection of both. He raised Lazarus, who had died, and He raised Himself, who had been killed.

But the law commanded: let the one who kills die. If you kill him, can Christ not bring him to life again? Should you not rather have feared that His word, which called Lazarus to life, might kill you yourselves? Cain also thought, "I will kill the man and deceive God." The man was killed because he was mortal. God was not deceived, because He is all-knowing.

With such grace of the Lord and such a miracle of God's gift, when all ought to have rejoiced, the impious became embittered. They took counsel against Christ (cf. Jn 11:47) and thought to kill Lazarus. Do you not recognize yourselves as followers of those whose hardheartedness you inherited? For you too are embittered and weave plots against the Church, because you see the dead coming to life in the Church and rising through the forgiveness of sins. What is in you is the desire, through envy, to destroy again those who have risen.

The Jews sought to kill Jesus Christ because, as they supposed, He broke the Sabbath, made Himself equal to God, and many believed in Him. But for what reason did they seek to kill Lazarus? Was it because he came back to life? What crime was there in that? Clearly this was the work of envy. The Jews envied not only the Benefactor, but also those to whom He showed benefaction. Therefore they also expelled the man born blind from the synagogue, and now they take counsel to kill Lazarus. They were not only deeply envious, but also ready for murder. Of them the prophet said: "Your hands are full of blood" (Is 1:15).

O blind deceit of the blind, to wish to kill one who had been raised to life! As though Jesus could not raise a murdered man to life, when He was able to raise a dead man! Indeed, He taught that He could do both. He raised Lazarus, who had died, and He raised Himself, having been killed.

This enraged the chief priests and Pharisees, and they resolved to kill Lazarus also, so that he could no longer bear witness to the almighty power of Jesus.

The report that in Bethany Jesus Christ had converted several more notable Jews to faith in Himself quickly reached the Sanhedrin. It fell into such furious madness that it even considered killing Lazarus, the irrefutable witness of the miracle worked by the Galilean whom they hated. At the same time, with even greater resolve, it began preparing His own destruction.

What is described in verse 9 took place between the Lord's arrival in Bethany and His solemn entry into Jerusalem. The Evangelist's remark in verses 10 and 11 may also refer to the preceding period, beginning with the resurrection of Lazarus. The Lord was coming from Jericho with crowds of pilgrims going to Jerusalem for the feast. These crowds arrived in Jerusalem while the Lord stopped for a time with His friends in Bethany (Jn 12:1 and following). They brought the news that He was going to Jerusalem for the feast and had stopped in Bethany. Thus many of the Jews learned that He was there. The word Jews seems to be used here in the same sense, or chiefly the same sense, as almost everywhere in this Gospel.

The rumor that Jesus Christ was staying in the house of Lazarus, whom He had raised, reached Jerusalem. Large crowds of people set out from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus. The next morning, when Jesus Christ went with His disciples to Jerusalem, the crowd accompanying Him increased as it met those coming from Jerusalem. As He approached the city, it grew like a snowball. Despite the malice of the Pharisees and the members of the Sanhedrin, who had condemned Jesus Christ to death and ordered that His whereabouts be reported to them, the Savior's entry into Jerusalem was exceedingly solemn. The whole people rejoiced. Hosanna! the people cried. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! Hosanna in the highest. The word Hosanna means salvation.

Verses 9-11. From the people who had gathered in Jerusalem by the thousands for Pascha, very many came to Bethany to see Lazarus, who had been dead. Many believed in the Lord Jesus. Thus the feast of Pascha became, for the people whom the Pharisees judged accursed and ignorant of the law (Jn 7:48), a true feast of liberation from Pharisaic darkness. It became a passage into the light of the knowledge of God's ways. But what was it for the members of the Sanhedrin? Their malice grew and took monstrous proportions. They wanted to kill Lazarus also. You may wish to kill Christ because He broke the Sabbaths, because He made Himself equal to God, and because of the Romans, as you say. But of what can you accuse Lazarus? Is his fault that he received a benefit?

No miracle, as St John Chrysostom remarks, brought the Jews into such fury as the great final miracle of Lazarus' resurrection. Apart from its greatness and certainty, confirmed by many witnesses, it could not even provide any occasion for accusation. Naturally, Lazarus himself became an object of special curiosity for the Jews, who knew of his death and had learned of his resurrection. The expression in verse 11 is very noteworthy: because of him, many of the Jews went away. This passage is understood to mean that went away from, ex Iudaeis... abibant, signifies that they completely departed from that fanatical and embittered party designated by the name Jews. They separated themselves fully from it and believed in Jesus. Faith began to kindle these hearts.