John 11:17-27

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 17-27.

1. The opinion of Godet is probably correct, that the death of Lazarus occurred on the day when the messenger came to Jesus from the sisters, after he had started from Bethany.

2. The persons referred to in John 11:19 must be regarded as belonging to the party of the rulers, because of the usual sense of the term the Jews in this Gospel. They were evidently friends of the two sisters, and had come to them for the purpose of consolation. Their minds would seem, therefore, to have been occupied at this time, as far as possible, with other feelings than those of hostility to Jesus.

3. John 11:22 seems to show that Martha had a hope probably in view of the other cases which had occurred that Jesus might now, by the exercise of miraculous power, raise her brother to life; and she understands His words in reply as not fulfilling this hope. Jesus then turns her thought to Himself.

4. The words, I am the resurrection and the life, find their explanation in what follows. The life into which faith introduces the soul is one which abides; the believer lives, even though physical death comes; he lives so truly and permanently that he never has any real experience of death in its deepest meaning; he lives, even in that he has, so to speak, the principle of the resurrection within himself. Christ is thus the source and animating principle of his inner life and the power which secures the resurrection. The resurrection is, as it were, the development of the life. He calls upon Martha to grasp this truth, and she answers the call with the declaration of her belief that He is the Christ, the Son of God. We have here, certainly, a very near approach to the words of John 20:31: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”