The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 24. — Martha saith unto Him , I know , & c. Christ had said that Lazarus should rise again, not explaining whether now, or in the day of judgment. Martha, then, to elicit an explanation of this ambiguity from the mouth of Christ, adds, I know that he shall rise again in the day of judgment ; but this will not be any benefit peculiar to him, but the common lot of all men. But if he shall rise before that time, and be raised by Thee now, this will be a singular privilege to him and to us all ; and I would that Thou wouldest say the word openly. Learn hence, that the Jews, and especially the Pharisees, believed in the immortality of the soul, and from thence the resurrection of the body ; and this appears from 2 Macc. xii. 44, Job
Ver. 25. — Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am He who recalls to life, I am He who gives life ; by Me both the dead rise and the living live ; therefore I am able now, immediately, before the general resurrection, to raise up thy brother from death. Whence S. Augustine : She says, My brother shall rise again in the last day . Thou sayest truly ; but He by whom he shall then rise is able
[to raise him] also now, because He is the Resurrection and the Life: that is, Christ saith, “ I am the cause of the Resurrection and Life, so that all rise again by Me, and no one except by Me can rise.” Others explain thus, “ I am the resurrection to life,” which is an hendiadys. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,
To Martha asking that the life of the body should be restored to Lazarus, Christ replies more fully, and assigns assuredly life also to the soul ; so that his soul should live here a new life by greater grace, and in the future by glory. “ The soul shall live,” says Augustine, “until the body shall rise again, never afterwards to die!” The sense then is, “Not only thy brother shall rise again by My power, but whosoever is faithful, who believes in Me with a living faith, working by love, shall live even though he were dead : as well because his soul shall live always by Me a life of love and grace, and of glory in heaven ; as because his body shall be raised by Me from death to a life blessed and eternal in the day of judgment to which Christ here chiefly alludes. Wherefore, although it (the body) may die, yet this will be for a short time only, so that death will seem not so much death as sleep and repose ; from which it shall awake and arise on the day of judgment.
S. Cyprian (De Mortalitate) cites this place and explains : “ If we believe in Christ, let us have faith in His words and promises ; and since we shall not die for ever, let us come in glad security to Christ, with whom we shall live and reign for ever.”
Ver. 26. — And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die . I, as I will raise up the faithful, though dead, to a new and blessed life, so those also who are still alive, who believe in Me, I will keep in life eternal, and I will provide that they shall not die for ever : for although from the debt of nature they shall die for a brief time, yet I will soon raise them up from death to life eternal, so that they shall seem not so much to die as to sleep. Wherefore I am the
Resurrection and the Life of all the faithful whether dead or living, because I will bestow upon them eternal life through the resurrection .
Believest thou this? Christ requires faith in the Resurrection, not from Lazarus, inasmuch as he was dead, but from his sister Martha, so that she may be at once excited to greater trust in it and hope for it, and therefore may prepare herself for it with greater desire and reverence. So Christ required from the father who begged that his son should be freed from the evil spirit, that he should believe Him to be able to do this (S. Mark ix. 23) ; and from those who carried the paralytic He required a similar faith.
Ver. 27. — The Christ, the Son of God, that is, that Son, viz., the true and only Son by nature. Christ perfected the imperfect faith of Martha, saying, I am the Resurrection and the Life. Wherefore she, being thus enlightened by Christ, burst forth into a perfect act of faith, and said : I believe that Thou art Messiah, the true Son of God, and therefore God, the first cause of all life and resurrection. I believe that Thou, as God, art therefore able to raise up and give life to Lazarus and to whomsoever of the dead Thou willest.
Ver. 28. — And when she had so said, &c. Secretly , because Mary was surrounded with the Jews who were condoling with her. Martha therefore calls her in private, lest she might excite a tumult of the Jews, if she should call Mary openly and say that Jesus was there. Theophylact says somewhat differently : “ The presence of Christ constitutes a calling. For His presence in itself summoned Mary, as love calls the lover to the loved.”
Ver. 29, 30. — As soon as she heard that , &c. Because Jesus wished to go to the sepulchre of Lazarus, which, according to the manner of the Jews, was outside the village or town : hence He did not wish to enter Bethany, because He would have to quit it again to go to the sepulchre. Therefore He remained outside, and there awaited Mary.
Ver. 31. — Followed her. The Providence of God ordained that very many Jews following Mary should see Jesus raising Lazarus, and should therefore be irrefragable witnesses of his being raised from the dead ; and should thus believe in Jesus, and bring others to believe likewise.
Then when Mary was come , &c. She fell at His feet from reverence and gratitude, inasmuch as once bedewing them with her tears and drying them with her hair, she had heard Him say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace (S. Luke vii. 38). But she says the same thing as her sister Martha, because they had the same sense of grief, the same faith, and therefore the same words ; yet she says less than Martha, who was not hindered by tears, had said. (Bede.)
Ver. 33. — When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, &c. You will ask, of what nature was the groaning and trouble of Christ ?
First, Eusebius Emissenus, or rather Gallus : He groaned that He might teach us to groan over sinners. (Infremuit) that is, He groaned:
But the groan is of one who pities, the murmur of one who is indignant . Nonnus translates agitated or disturbed by His fatherly mind. But this is too general, nor does it explain what or of what nature this trouble was.
Secondly, Theophylact by spirit understands Divinity; as if it were said, Jesus by His Spirit, i.e., by His Divinity, powerfully and as if by groaning, repressed His tears and the feeling of commiseration which was aroused in Him because of the lamentation of
Mary and of the Jews, lest bursting forth into tears, and sobbing like others, He might speak in a voice weak and tearful, such as would be unfitting one so grave and holy.
To this agree S. Chrysostom and others, who by “ murmur ”
understand the feeling of anger, indignation, and wrath which Christ, putting as it were a force upon Himself, mastered and repressed with a serene and firm countenance His feeling of commiseration and the tears ready to flow : as if it were said, Christ threatened and restrained His spirit and His human nature, that it should not yield to weeping. But against this is, first, that this feeling of compassion had plainly not yet been aroused when Christ groaned, but a little after, when He was troubled. Secondly, because in Christ these passions and affections were not involuntary and violent, but freely and voluntarily assumed, as I shall soon state.
I say then, that Christ here displayed the feeling and act of murmuring (A. V. groaning ), that is, of indignation in spirit or mind and the innermost perceptions of the soul, when by sign and murmur, or indignant voice, He signified outwardly the grief which He felt arising from the death of Lazarus, and from the sobbing of Mary and the Jews : and that by this murmur He, as it were, prepared and animated Himself to the arduous combat with death, that He might signify how difficult would be the raising of Lazarus from the grave after four days’ dwelling there. Whence S. Augustine says : In the voice of indignation appears the hope of resurrection ; in truth Jesus foresaw that He because of the raising up of Lazarus would be crucified by the envious Pharisees ; yet not allowing this to stand in the way, He determined to raise him up ; which act of heroic fortitude He allowed to be manifested in this groan. So soldiers groan when battle is near, and excite and sharpen their anger for the difficult and perilous combat that is imminent; for their anger is the whetstone of valour and bravery. Hence also we, when temptation, whether of the devil, the flesh, and the world, threatens, should sharpen our anger against them, that we may overcome the temptation ; for by anger is concupiscence overcome, though the difficulty of the task be great. Further, this murmur, that is, indignation, was against death, and the devil, by whose envy death had entered into the world ; which had been the cause of such bitter sorrow and lamentation.