John 11:28-30

“ And having said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, The Master is here and calls thee. 29. She, as soon as she heard this, rises directly and comes to him. 30. Now, Jesus was not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ”

The words: He calls thee, are sufficient to prove that Jesus had indeed given this commission to Martha. He must have desired to prepare Mary, as He had prepared her sister; the miracle could not be really beneficial to the one or the other except on this condition. Very probably, though Weiss does not admit this idea, the precaution which Martha takes in discharging His message (λάθρα, secretly) had been recommended to her by Jesus; He had heard how Mary was surrounded; and, if He did not flee from danger, no more did He seek it (see on John 11:30).

The liveliness of Mary's emotion on hearing this message is pictured in the verbs in the present tense: ἐγείρεται, she rises, and ἕρχεται, she comes. This reading, indeed, is preferable to the Alexandrian readings ἠγέρθη and ἤρχετο, she rose and she came, as in this case Tischendorf and Weiss acknowledge, who think that the aorist and imperfect were substituted for the present under the influence of the preceding ἤκουσεν, she heard. The Alexandrian reading appears to me to have been formed under the influence of John 4:30; but there are not the same reasons for presenting in the picturesque form the arrival of Mary here, as that of the Samaritans in chap. 4. In these cases it is painful to see how the position taken by Westcott and Hort deadens their critical tact. Jesus had not entered into Bethany. This was not only because the tomb must necessarily have been outside of the village (Luthardt). There must have been some important reason which detained Him; otherwise He would have gone directly where His heart summoned Him, to the house of mourning. His purpose was undoubtedly to avoid everything which could attract attention; and the intention of the following verse is precisely to show how this design failed by reason of a will superior to His own, which had resolved to give to this miracle the greatest possible splendor.

Jesus had done what He ought; God did what He wished. There happened here something like what is related in Matthew 9:31; Mark 7:24; Mark 7:36.