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Scott's Reference Library
November 2, 2003 | November 5, 2006 | November 1, 2009
John 11:32 through John 11:44 (NIV)
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his
feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also
weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34“Where have you laid
him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have
kept this man from dying?”
38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone
laid across the entrance. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a
bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the
glory of God?”
41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank
you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this
for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent
me.”
43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a
cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 17-32
Here was a house where the fear of God was, and on which his blessing rested;
yet it was made a house of mourning. Grace will keep sorrow from the heart, but
not from the house. When God, by his grace and providence, is coming towards us
in ways of mercy and comfort, we should, like Martha, go forth by faith, hope,
and prayer, to meet him. When Martha went to meet Jesus, Mary sat still in the
house; this temper formerly had been an advantage to her, when it put her at
Christ’s feet to hear his word; but in the day of affliction, the same temper
disposed her to melancholy. It is our wisdom to watch against the temptations,
and to make use of the advantages of our natural tempers. When we know not what
in particular to ask or expect, let us refer ourselves to God; let him do as
seemeth him good. To enlarge Martha’s expectations, our Lord declared himself to
be the Resurrection and the Life. In every sense he is the Resurrection; the
source, the substance, the first-fruits, the cause of it. The redeemed soul
lives after death in happiness; and after the resurrection, both body and soul
are kept from all evil for ever. When we have read or heard the word of Christ,
about the great things of the other world, we should put it to ourselves, Do we
believe this truth? The crosses and comforts of this present time would not make
such a deep impression upon us as they do, if we believed the things of eternity
as we ought. When Christ our Master comes, he calls for us. He comes in his word
and ordinances, and calls us to them, calls us by them, calls us to himself.
Those who, in a day of peace, set themselves at Christ’s feet to be taught by
him, may with comfort, in a day of trouble, cast themselves at his feet, to find
favour with him.
VERSES 33-46
Christ’s tender sympathy with these afflicted friends, appeared by the troubles
of his spirit. In all the afflictions of believers he is afflicted. His concern
for them was shown by his kind inquiry after the remains of his deceased friend.
Being found in fashion as a man, he acts in the way and manner of the sons of
men. It was shown by his tears. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief. Tears of compassion resemble those of Christ. But Christ never approved
that sensibility of which many are proud, while they weep at mere tales of
distress, but are hardened to real woe. He sets us an example to withdraw from
scenes of giddy mirth, that we may comfort the afflicted. And we have not a High
Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. It is a good
step toward raising a soul to spiritual life, when the stone is taken away, when
prejudices are removed, and got over, and way is made for the word to enter the
heart. If we take Christ’s word, and rely on his power and faithfulness, we
shall see the glory of God, and be happy in the sight. Our Lord Jesus has taught
us, by his own example, to call God Father, in prayer, and to draw nigh to him
as children to a father, with humble reverence, yet with holy boldness. He
openly made this address to God, with uplifted eyes and loud voice, that they
might be convinced the Father had sent him as his beloved Son into the world. He
could have raised Lazarus by the silent exertion of his power and will, and the
unseen working of the Spirit of life; but he did it by a loud call. This was a
figure of the gospel call, by which dead souls are brought out of the grave of
sin: and of the sound of the archangel’s trumpet at the last day, with which all
that sleep in the dust shall be awakened, and summoned before the great
tribunal. The grave of sin and this world, is no place for those whom Christ has
quickened; they must come forth. Lazarus was thoroughly revived, and returned
not only to life, but to health. The sinner cannot quicken his own soul, but he
is to use the means of grace; the believer cannot sanctify himself, but he is to
lay aside every weight and hinderance. We cannot convert our relatives and
friends, but we should instruct, warn, and invite them.