John 11 - CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible

11:1-44 Augustine: Among all the miracles done by our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Lazarus holds a prime place in preaching. But if we consider attentively who did it, our duty is to rejoice rather than to wonder. A man was raised up by him who made humankind. [Jesus] is the only one of the Father by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things were made by him, why is anyone amazed that one was raised by him when so many are daily brought into the world by his power? It is a greater deed to create men and women than to raise them again from the dead. Yet he decided both to create and to raise again; to create all, to resuscitate some. Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.1.

11:3 Chrysostom: Many are offended when they see any of those who are pleasing to God suffering anything terrible. There are those, for instance, who have fallen ill or have become impoverished or have endured some other tragedy. Those who are offended by this do not know that those who are especially dear to God have it as their lot to endure such things, as we see in the case of Lazarus, who was also one of the friends of Christ but was also sick. Homilies on the Gospel of John 62.1.

11:6 Peter Chrysologus: You see how [Jesus] gives full scope to death. He grants free reign to the grave. He allows corruption to set in. He prohibits neither putrefaction nor stench from taking their normal course. He allows the realm of darkness to seize his friend, drag him down to the underworld, and take possession of him. He acts like this so that human hope may perish entirely and human despair reach its lowest depths. The deed he is about to accomplish may then clearly be seen to be the work of God, not of man.

[Jesus] waited for Lazarus to die, staying in the same place until he could tell his disciples that he was dead. Then he announced his intention of going to him. “Lazarus is dead,” he said [in Vv. 14-15], “and I am glad.” Was this a sign of his love for his friend? Not so. Christ was glad because their sorrow over the death of Lazarus was soon to be changed into joy at his restoration to life. “I am glad for your sake,” he said. Why for their sake? Because the death and raising of Lazarus were a perfect prefiguration of the death and resurrection of the Lord himself. What the Lord was soon to achieve in himself had already been achieved in his servant. . . . This explains why he said to them, “I am glad for your sake not to have been there, because now you will believe” [v. 14]. It was necessary that Lazarus should die, so that the faith of the disciples might also rise with him from the dead. Sermon 63.2.

11:11 Hippolytus: [T]ruly the death of human beings is counted with the Lord as sleep. Why does he say “I go”? [Was he] unable to enliven the dead while remaining [t]here? But, [Jesus says], the Jews in my absence do not receive the grace. For perhaps on his arising they will think Lazarus has come to life by some chance. I therefore am coming so that, if I am there, they will be eyewitnesses of the miracles done by me. And when they receive this grace from me, they can then be brought to a sure and certain faith. On the Gospel of John and the Resurrection of Lazarus.

11:21 Andrew of Crete: Do you see her faith? Do you see her undoubting mind? She affirmed in two ways that he was God and the Giver of life, even though she was led astray on account of her simple nature: “If you had been here,” she said. What are you saying, Martha? Your reasoning is false. For he was there and he has been and still is present everywhere. . . . “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Do you see how she believed him to be God and able with his power to restrain death and to raise the dead? For she was saying, I know that if you had been here, death would not have prevailed. Homily 8 on Lazarus.

11:26 Cyprian: The apostle Paul reproaches and rebukes those who show sorrow for those who have left this world. “I would not,” he says, “like you to be ignorant, my dear brothers and sisters, about those who are sleeping, so that you feel sorrow like those who have no hope. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring those who are asleep in Jesus with him” [1Th 4:13-14]. Those who show sorrow at the departure of their friends reveal their own lack of hope. But we who live by hope and believe in God and are convinced that Christ suffered for us and that he rose again, who remain with Christ and find our resurrection by him and in him, why should we either show reluctance when we ourselves have to depart or lament and grieve for others who depart as though they were dying forever? Christ himself, our Lord and God, tells us, “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in me, though he should die, shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” [Jn 11:25-26]. If we believe in Christ, let us put faith in his words and promises. Since we shall not die once and for all, let us pass into Christ in joy and confidence since we shall live and reign with him forever. On Mortality, 21.

11:35 Hippolytus: What need was there to weep for him whom he was soon about to raise? But Jesus wept to give us an example of sympathy and kindliness toward our fellow human beings. Jesus wept that he might by deed rather than word teach us to “weep with those that weep” [Rm 12:15]. He wept but did not mourn—avoiding absolute tearlessness as harsh and inhuman but rejecting love of mourning as ignoble and cowardly. He wept, assigning due measure to his sympathy. On the Gospel of John and the Resurrection of Lazarus.

11:40 Cyril of Alexandria: Faith is a truly excellent thing when it is produced from an ardent mind. It has such great power that not only is the believer healed but in fact others also can be healed besides those who believe. For instance . . . Lazarus is saved by the faith of his sister to whom the Lord said, “If you believe you shall see the glory of God,” which is like saying, “Since Lazarus, being dead, is not able to believe, you then are to fill up the faith that is lacking in him that is dead.” Commentary on the Gospel of John 7.

11:48 Augustine: They were afraid of losing temporal things with no thought for that which is eternal and so lost both. For the Romans, after our Lord had suffered and was glorified, did come and take away [the Jewish leaders’] place and nation, reducing the one by siege and dispersing the other. . . . Or they were afraid that if all believed in Christ, none would remain to defend the city of God and the temple against the Romans, since they thought that Christ’s teaching was directed against the temple and their laws. Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.26.

11:54 Cyril of Alexandria: As God, Jesus knows the secret plans of the Jews even though no one reported them to him, and he withdraws, not because he is afraid but so that his presence might not irritate those who were already seeking to kill him. Here, he also teaches us to avoid stirring up the passions of those who are angry and not to thrust ourselves into dangers, not even when it may be for the sake of truth. When we are overtaken by dangers, he teaches us to stand firm, but when we see them coming, since it is unclear what the actual terms of the conflict will be, it is best for us to get out of their way. Commentary on the Gospel of John 7.