John 11:28-44

1. There seems to be no sufficient reason to suppose, as many commentators do, that Jesus had bidden Martha to call her sister secretly. She acted probably on her own impulse possibly because she feared a meeting of Jesus with the Jews, but more probably because of the natural desire that her sister, like herself, might meet the Master more privately. Mary rose as quickly on hearing of His arrival as Martha had moved before, and she said to Him the same words. The differences in the character of the two sisters, which have been often insisted upon, and much to Martha's disadvantage, rest on rather weak foundations, so far as this passage, or even the one in Luke 10:40-42, is concerned.

2. The word ἐνεβριμήσατο has troubled all the writers on this Gospel. That the use of the word, outside of the New Testament, is confined to the feeling of anger or indignation, must, apparently, be admitted. It is to be observed, however, that the instances in which it occurs are not very numerous, and that words of this character, expressive of emotion, are those which may, perhaps, more easily than other words, pass into a somewhat wider or looser sense in the progress of a language from age to age. In the present case it is exceedingly difficult to find any satisfactory explanation of the word as meaning anger or indignation. The scene was one of sorrow the sisters were weeping, Jesus Himself wept, even the Jews were weeping. Anger would seem inconsistent with the occasion. The idea that the tears of the Jews were crocodile tears, which Meyer suggests, is entirely without foundation in the text, and contrary to the whole impression of the apostle's language. The suggestion that His indignation was excited against Satan, as having brought death into the world, is improbable, considering that there is no distinct reference to Satan in the sentence or in the context. This suggestion has all the characteristics of a device made to meet a difficulty. That He was indignant at Himself, or that His divine nature was indignant at His human nature, because He could not restrain His tears, is a supposition scarcely worthy of mention. That His indignation was aroused by the want or weakness of faith in the sisters is opposed by everything in the story; their faith was not weak as compared with that of His nearest disciples, and they were full of love to Him. Godet's suggestion, that the sobs of those around Him, pressing Him to raise His friend to life, turned His thought to His own death, and that He was indignant at the diabolical perversity of His enemies, some of whom were present, which would make the act of raising Lazarus a means of bringing about His crucifixion, is, to say the least, remote from any statement made in the verses, and has in it a certain artificiality. How can the author have been supposed to suggest all this to the reader's mind, when he says nothing about it, except in this one quite indefinite word, and when everything points to sorrow and not to indignation? In view of all the circumstances of the case, it may be seriously questioned whether the change of the word to a slightly different sense the violent emotion of grief, rather than anger is not to be supposed, in this passage, as belonging to the later language or the individual writer.

3. Meyer, in accordance with his theory of “crocodile tears,” regards the words of John 11:37 as indicating that the τινές there spoken of were “maliciously and wickedly disposed to treat Jesus' tears as a welcome proof of His inability” to heal Lazarus. Weiss has a similar view. Godet also. Godet argues for this view from the fact that the expression, But some of them, is found in John 11:46 as designating the evil-disposed party, and from the difficulty of discovering otherwise any relation between these words and the new emotion (ἐμβριμώμενος) in John 11:38. But the expression τινὲς δέ is one which might be found in any case where there happened to be two divisions, and can prove nothing; and the emotion of anger (as Godet supposes it to be) has as loose a connection with what precedes in John 11:33, as it would have in John 11:38 if John 11:37 were taken in the favorable sense. The natural sense of John 11:37, as the expression of weeping and sympathizing friends of the sisters, is the favorable one, and there is no indication to the contrary.

4. Meyer finds the “mobile, practical tendency” of Martha, as contrasted with Mary, exhibited here in her words (John 11:39), which indicate a shuddering at the exposure of her brother's body to the gaze of those present. But the most that can be affirmed is, that it was she, and not Mary, who spoke. The reason of her speaking may have been something else than a greater “mobile, practical tendency.” The recording of Martha's words here is, no doubt, connected with the author's desire to present the miracle in its greatness; the glory of God was to be displayed in the most wonderful manner.

5. The simplest explanation of the closing words of John 11:41 is that the requests of Jesus and the answers from the Father are so coincident that the answer anticipates the possibility of utterance in words, and so the utterance becomes a thanksgiving that the prayer is already heard. The relation of the whole action in the case to the production of faith is prominently set forth in this prayer, as well as in the words addressed to Martha in John 11:40.