St Bede the Venerable's Commentary on John Chapter 11

 

Bede's Commentary on John Chapter 11

Jn 11:1-3 "Now there was a certain man sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the castle of Mary and Martha."

Many things indeed in this miracle of Lazarus are manifest. Let us not seek an exposition of each single detail, that we may more freely treat of necessary things. In the preceding reading, you remember that the Lord departed from the hands of those who wished to stone Him, and withdrew beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. Therefore, with the Lord established there, Lazarus was sick in Bethany, which castle was near Jerusalem. "Mary, however, was she who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." "His sisters therefore sent to Him, saying..." Now we understand that they sent to where the Lord was, since He was absent—namely, beyond the Jordan—they sent messengers to the Lord, announcing that their brother was ill, so that if He deigned, He might come and free him from sickness. He delayed healing so that He might be able to raise him. What therefore did his sisters announce? "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." They did not say "Come"; for to one loving, it only needed to be announced. They did not dare to say "Come and heal"; they did not dare to say "Command there, and it shall be done here." For why should not this one [be healed] also, if the faith of that centurion is praised for this? For he said: "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed" (Matt 8:8). None of these things [did they say], but only: "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." "It suffices that You know; for You do not love and desert." Someone may say: "How was the sinner signified by Lazarus, and yet so loved by the Lord?" Let him hear Him saying: "I have not come to call the just, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). For if the Lord did not love sinners, He would not have put on the likeness of sinful flesh.

Jn 11:4: "But Jesus hearing, said to them: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it." Such glorification of Himself did not increase Him, but profited us. Therefore He says this: "It is not unto death," because that very death is not unto death, but rather unto a miracle, by which, having been done, men might believe in Christ and avoid true death. Indeed, see how, as it were indirectly, the Lord said that He is God, on account of certain ones who deny [it]. For there are heretics who deny that the Son of God is God; behold, let them hear: "This sickness," He says, "is not unto death, but for the glory, that the Son of God may be glorified by it"—by what? By that sickness. Of God? Whose glory? Of what God? Hear what follows:

Jn 11:5-6: "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus." That sick man [made] all the beloved sad; but He loved them, and [He is] the Savior of the languishing, indeed also the raiser of the dead and the comforter of the sorrowing. "When therefore He had heard that he was sick, then indeed He remained in the same place two days." Therefore those women announced; He remained there. So long a time was drawn out until the four days were completed. Not without purpose, unless perhaps—indeed, because certainly—that very number of days also intimates some sacrament.

Jn 11:7-10: "Then after this, He said to His disciples: Let us go into Judea again." Where He had nearly been stoned, who on that account seemed to have departed thence lest He be stoned. He departed indeed as a man, but in returning, as if having forgotten [the danger], He showed [His] power. "Let us go," He says, "into Judea." Finally, having said this, see how terrified the disciples were: "The disciples say to Him: Rabbi, now the Jews sought to stone You, and again You go there?" Jesus answered: "Are there not twelve hours of the day?" What does this response mean? They had said: "Just now the Jews wanted to stone You, and again You go there that they may stone You?" And the Lord: "Are there not twelve hours of the day?" It is so, but for our understanding, as if it were still night. "If a man walk in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if he walk in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." Indeed, He spoke concerning the day. Let us invoke the day that it may repel the night and illuminate the heart with light. For what did the Lord wish to say? As much as it seems to me, as much as the depth and profundity of the sentence lies open: He wished to rebuke their doubt and infidelity. For they wished to give counsel to the Lord that He not die, who had come to die, lest they themselves die. So also in another place, holy Peter, loving the Lord but not yet fully understanding why He had come, feared lest He die, and "it displeased the Life"—that is, the Lord Himself (Matt 16:23). When therefore men wished to give counsel to God, disciples to the master, servants to the lord, the sick to the physician, He rebuked them and said: "Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he does not stumble." "Follow Me, if you do not wish to stumble. Do not give counsel to Me, from whom you ought to receive counsel." To what therefore does "Are there not twelve hours of the day" pertain? Because, that He might show Himself to be the day, He chose twelve disciples. "If I," He says, "am the day, and you the hours, do the hours of the day give counsel to the day? The hours follow the day, not the day the hours." If therefore they [were] hours, what of Judas there, himself among the twelve hours? If he was an hour, he was giving light; if he was giving light, how was he handing over the day to death? But the Lord in this word foresaw not Judas himself, but his successor. For with Judas falling, Matthias succeeded, and the number twelve remained. For not without purpose did He choose twelve disciples, except because He Himself is the spiritual day. Therefore let the hours follow the day; let the hours proclaim the day; let the hours be illuminated by the day; let the hours be enlightened by the day; through the preaching of the hours let the world believe in the day. Therefore He says briefly: "Follow Me, if you do not wish to err."

Jn 11:11-15: "And after this He said to them: Lazarus our friend sleeps, but I go that I may awaken him from sleep." He spoke truthfully; to the sisters he was dead, to the Lord he was sleeping. To men he was dead, who were not able to raise him. For the Lord was raising [him] from the sepulcher with such ease as you do not awaken a sleeper from his bed. Therefore according to His power He said [he was] sleeping, because also others called dead are often called sleeping in the Scriptures, as the Apostle says: "Concerning those who sleep, I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, that you may not be sorrowful, even as the rest who have no hope" (1 Thess 4:13). Therefore He Himself also called them sleeping, because He proclaimed them about to rise. And in another place: "We shall all indeed sleep, but we shall not all rise again" (1 Cor 15:51), signifying our death by the name of sleep. For the body, while it is deserted by the soul, sleeps in the sepulcher, to be raised on the last day. But souls, when they desert the bodies, have various receptions: the good [have] joy, the evil [have] torments. But when the resurrection shall have been made, both the joy of the good will be greater and the torments of the evil more grievous, when they shall be tormented with the body.

While the Lord was speaking concerning the sleep of His friend, the disciples responded as they understood: "Lord, if he sleeps, he will be safe." For the sleepings of the sick are wont to be indications of health. "But Jesus had spoken of his death; but they thought that He spoke of the repose of sleep." "Then therefore Jesus said to them manifestly"—for He had spoken somewhat obscurely concerning sleep. He says therefore manifestly: "Lazarus is dead. And I rejoice for your sakes, that you may believe, because I was not there." But I know that he is dead. For he had been announced sick, not dead. But what could be hidden from Him who had created [him], to whose hands the soul of the dying one had gone forth? This that He says, "I rejoice for your sakes, that your faith may be increased or strengthened, that you may believe"—that is, that you may believe more fully and robustly. "But let us go to him."

Jn 11:16: "Thomas therefore said, who is called Didymus, to his fellow disciples: Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Jn 11:17-18: "Jesus therefore came, and found him having been in the monument now four days." Concerning the days indeed many things can be said, just as the obscure places of Scriptures, which produce many senses according to the diversity of those understanding. Let us say also what seems to us to be signified by the man dead four days. For just as in that blind man we understand in some way the human race, so perhaps also in this dead man we shall understand many things. For one thing can signify by diverse [applications]. Man, when he is born, is already born with death, because he draws from Adam, whence the Apostle says: "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned" (Rom 5:12). Behold, you have one day of death which man draws from the propagation of death. Then he grows, he begins to approach to rational years, that he may know the natural law which all have fixed in the heart: "What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to another" (Tobit 4:16). Is this said concerning pagans, and is it not read in nature itself in some way? You do not wish to suffer theft; certainly you do not wish [it]. Behold, the law in your heart: "What you do not wish to suffer, do not do"; and men transgress this law—behold, another day of death. Also the law given divinely through the servant of God Moses: it was said there: "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, you shall not covet your neighbor's goods" (Exod 20). Behold, the written law, and it itself is despised. Add a third day of death. What remains? The Gospel comes and is preached, the kingdom of heaven is proclaimed everywhere, Christ threatens hell, promises eternal life, and He Himself is despised. Men transgress the Gospel—behold, the fourth day of death. Meritoriously now one might think: "Is mercy perhaps to be denied even to such?" By no means; even to such the Lord does not disdain to approach to raise [them].

Jn 11:19-22: "Many however from the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother." "Martha therefore when she knew that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him. Mary however sat at home." "Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you shall have asked from God, God will give you." She did not say: "But now I ask you that you raise my brother." For whence did she know if it would be useful for her brother to rise again? She said only this: "I know that You can; if You will, You do. Whether however You do is of Your judgment, not of my presumption. But even now I know that whatever you shall have asked from God, God will give you."

Jn 11:23-27: "Jesus says to her: Your brother shall rise again." "Martha says to Him: I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection on the last day." "Concerning that resurrection I am secure; concerning this one, uncertain." "Jesus says to her: I am the resurrection and the life." "You say 'my brother shall rise on the last day'; it is true, but through whom does he rise then? He can rise now, because I am the resurrection and the life." Therefore [I am] the resurrection because [I am] the life; because "who believes in Me shall not die in eternity." What is this? "Who believes in Me, even if he shall have been dead, shall live," just as Lazarus was dead and lives, "because He is not the God of the dead but of the living" (Matt 22:32). Concerning the fathers long dead—that is, concerning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—He gave such a response to the Jews: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; He is not the God of the dead but of the living" (Mark 12:26, 27); for all those live. Believe therefore, and if you shall have died, you shall live. But if you do not believe, even while you live, you are dead. Whence therefore is death in the soul? Because there is not faith in it. Whence is death in the body? Because the soul is not there. Therefore faith is the soul of your soul; as the soul is the life of the body, so faith is the life of the soul. "Who believes in Me," He says, "even if he shall have been dead in the flesh, shall live in the soul until the flesh rise, never thereafter to die." This is: "Who believes in Me, though he die, shall live; and everyone who lives in the flesh and believes in Me, even if he die for a time on account of the death of the flesh, shall not die in eternity on account of the spirit and the immortality of the resurrection."

This that He says: "And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall not die in eternity. Do you believe this?" "She says to Him: Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who into this world have come." "When I believed this? I believed that You are the resurrection; I believed that You are the life; I believed that who believes in You, even if he die, shall live, and who lives and [believes] in You shall not die in eternity."

Jn 11:28-30: "And when she had said these things, she went away and called Mary her sister in silence, saying: The Master is present and calls you." It is to be noted how she called [it] "suppressed in silence." For how did she keep silence who said "The Master is present and calls you"? It is to be noted how the Evangelist did not say where, when, or how the Lord called Mary; this was rather to be understood in the words of Martha, the truth of the narration being preserved. "She when she heard rises quickly and comes to Him. For Jesus had not yet come into the castle but was still in that place where Martha had met Him."

Jn 11:31: "The Jews therefore who were with her in the house and were comforting her, when they saw Mary because she rose quickly and went out, followed her, saying that she goes to the monument to weep there." Why did it pertain to the Evangelist to narrate this? That we may see what occasion made that more be there when Lazarus was raised. For the Jews, thinking that she was hastening on that account that she might seek solace for her sorrow with tears, followed her, that so great a miracle—the rising of a man dead four days—might find very many witnesses.

Jn 11:32-34: "Mary therefore when she had come where Jesus was, seeing Him fell at His feet and said to Him: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." "Jesus therefore when He saw her weeping and the Jews who were with her weeping, He groaned in spirit and troubled Himself, and said: Where have you laid him?" Something He intimated to us by groaning in spirit and troubling Himself. For who could trouble Him except Himself? Therefore first here attend to the power, and thus seek the signification. You are troubled unwillingly; Christ is troubled because He willed. Jesus hungered—it is true, but because He willed. Jesus slept—it is true, but because He willed. Jesus was sorrowful—it is true, but because He willed. Jesus died—it is true, but because He willed. In His power it was to be affected or not to be affected thus or thus. For He took up a true soul and flesh, uniting the whole man to Himself in the nature of one Person. For also the soul of the Apostle was illuminated by the Word, and the souls of the other apostles and holy prophets were illuminated by the Word; but concerning none was it said "The Word was made flesh" (John 1:14); concerning none was it said "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). The soul of Christ and the flesh of Christ with the Word of God are one Person, one Christ. And on this account, where there is supreme power, according to the nod of the will, infirmity is troubled. This is: "He troubled Himself." I have said: attend to the power; attend to the signification. A great debtor is he whom the death of four days and that burial signifies. What therefore is "He troubles Himself," Christ, except that He signify how you ought to be troubled when you are weighed down and pressed by so great a mass of sin? For you have attended to yourself; you have reckoned yourself a debtor: "I did that, and God I offended; and I delayed; I heard the Gospel and despised [it]." Say, say with weeping: "I was baptized, and again I have turned back to sin. What do I do? Where do I go? Whence do I escape?" When you say these things, now Christ groans, because faith groans. In the voice of the one groaning appears the hope of the one rising. Where that faith is within, there is Christ groaning. If faith [is] in us, Christ [is] in us. For what else does the Apostle say than "that Christ dwell by faith in our hearts" (Eph 3:17)? Therefore if your faith concerning Christ, Christ is in your heart; therefore let Christ groan in your heart.

Therefore Christ wept for a dead friend, whom He had come to raise. For why did He weep, except that He might teach man to weep, oppressed by the weight of sins? Why did He groan and trouble Himself, except that the faith of a man displeasing to himself meritously ought in some way to groan in the accusation of evil works, that by the violence of repenting the custom of sinning may yield? "And He said: Where have you laid him?" You know that he is dead, and do you ignore where he is buried? And this is a signification. I did not dare to say "He does not know." For what does that One not know? Whence do we prove this? Hear the Lord about to say in judgment: "I know you not" (Matt 7:23). "I see in My light; I do not see you in that justice which I know." So also here, as if not knowing such a sinner, He said: "Where have you laid him?" Such is the voice of the Lord in Paradise after Adam sinned: "Adam, where are you?" (Gen 3:9). "They say to Him: Lord, come and see." What is "see"? "Have mercy." For the Lord sees when He has mercy; whence it is said to Him: "See my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins" (Ps 24:18).

Jn 11:35-37: "And Jesus wept." "The Jews therefore said: Behold how He loved him." What is "He loved him"? "I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32). "Certain however from themselves said: Could not this one who opened the eyes of the blind born make that this one not die?" What did He wish to do, that this one not die? Greater is what He is about to do, that the dead man be raised.

Jn 11:38: "Jesus again groaning in Himself came to the monument." Let Him also groan in you, if you dispose to revive. To every man pressed by the worst custom it is said: "Come to the monument." "Now it was a cave and a stone was superposed to it." The dead man under the stone, the debtor under the law. For you know that the law which was given to the Jews was written on stone (Exod 34). But all debtors are under the law. For those living well are not under the law: "For the just man no law is laid down" (1 Tim 1:9). What therefore is to roll away the stone? To proclaim grace. For the Apostle Paul says himself a minister of the New Testament, "not in the letter but in the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6). The killing letter is as it were a pressing stone. "Remove," He says, "the stone; remove the weight of the law; proclaim grace."

Jn 11:39-40: "His sister says to Him who had been dead: Lord, already he stinks; for he is four days." "Jesus says to her: Did I not say to you that if you shall have believed, you shall see the glory of God?" What is "you shall see the glory of God"? Because He raises one stinking and four days dead. "All have sinned and need the glory of God, and where sin abounded, grace did more abound" (Rom 5:20).

Jn 11:41-44: "They took away therefore the stone. Jesus however having lifted up His eyes said: Father, I give thanks to you because you have heard me. But I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the people who stand around I said it, that they may believe that you sent me." When He had said these things, "with a loud voice He cried out." He groaned and wept. "With a loud voice He cried out." He whom the mass of evil custom has pressed down rises with difficulty; but nevertheless he rises when by hidden grace he is vivified within. He rises after the loud voice. What was done? "With a loud voice He cried out: Lazarus, come forth! And immediately he came forth who had been dead, bound feet and hands, and his face was bound." How did he proceed with bound feet? Do you wonder, and do you not wonder that he rose again four days dead? In both was the power of the Lord, not the strength of the dead man. He proceeded and still bound, still wrapped, nevertheless now he proceeded forth. What does it signify? When you despise, dead you lie; and if you despise so great things as I have said, buried you lie; when you confess, you proceed. For what is to proceed except by going forth from hidden things to be manifested? But that you may confess, God by crying with a loud voice—that is, by calling with great grace. Therefore when the dead man had proceeded, still bound, confessing and still a debtor, that his sins might be loosed, He said this to the ministers: "Loose him and let him go." "Whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt 18:18). For He who raised the dead man could loose the bonds; but on account of the unity of holy God's Church and the indivisible charity, it is said to the ministers—that is, to the disciples of Christ: "Loose him," because without the unity of the Catholic Church, of faith and of ecclesiastical charity of holiness, sins are not loosed.

Jn 11:45-48: "Many therefore from the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen those things which Jesus did believed in Him. Certain however from themselves went away to the Pharisees and said to them those things which Jesus did." Not all from the Jews who had come together to Mary believed, but nevertheless many. Certain however from them—either from the Jews who had come together, or from those who had believed—went away to the Pharisees and said those things which Jesus did, either announcing that they themselves also might believe, or rather betraying that they might rage. But however and by whomsoever these things were brought forth to the Pharisees, "the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and said: What do we do?" And nevertheless they did not say "Let us believe." For lost men thought more how they might harm that they might destroy, than how they might take counsel for themselves that they not perish; and nevertheless they feared and as it were took counsel. For they said: "What do we do? Because this man does many signs; if we let Him thus, all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation." They did not wish to lose temporal things, and they did not think of eternal life, and thus they lost both. For also the Romans after the Lord's passion and glorification took away from them place and nation, both by fighting and by transferring; and that follows them which was said elsewhere: "But the sons of this kingdom shall go forth into exterior darkness" (Matt 8:12). This however they feared, lest if all believe in Christ, no one remain who might defend the city of God and the temple against the Romans, since they perceived the doctrine of Christ to be against the very temple and against their paternal laws.

Jn 11:49-53: "But one of them, Caiaphas, since he was high priest of that year, said to them: You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." "But this he did not say from himself, but since he was high priest of that year, he prophesied." Here [the Evangelist] taught that also through bad men the Spirit of prophecy predicts future things; which nevertheless the Evangelist attributes to the divine sacrament, because he was high priest—that is, chief priest. But it can move [one] how he is said [to be] high priest of that year, since the Lord established one chief priest, to whom when dead one should succeed. But it is to be understood that through ambitions and contentions among the Jews afterwards it was constituted that there be more, and by single years they minister in turns. For concerning Zachary this is said: "And it came to pass, when he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priesthood, the lot fell upon him that he should burn incense, going into the temple of the Lord" (Luke 1:8-9). Hence it appears that they were more and had their turns. For it was not licit to place incense except for the chief priest; and by lot also more administered one year, to whom others succeeded in another year, from whom by lot he went forth who should place the incense. What therefore did Caiaphas prophesy? "That Jesus was about to die for the nation, not only for the nation, but that He might gather together in one the children of God who were dispersed." The Evangelist added this. For Caiaphas prophesied concerning only the nation of the Jews, in which were the sheep concerning which the Lord Himself says: "I was not sent except to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel" (Matt 15:24). But the Evangelist knew that there were other sheep who were not of this fold, whom it was necessary to bring, that there might be one fold and one shepherd (John 10:16). But these things were said according to predestination, because neither were His sheep nor the children of God yet they who had not yet believed.

Jn 11:54: "From that day therefore they devised to put Him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went away into the region near the desert, into a city which is called Ephrem, and there He abode with His disciples." Not because His power had failed, in which certainly, if He willed, He could both converse openly with the Jews and they could do nothing to Him. But in the infirmity of man He was demonstrating an example of living to the disciples, in which it appears that it is not a sin if His faithful ones, who are His members, withdraw themselves from the eyes of persecutors and rather avoid the fury of criminals by hiding. Jesus knew that the time of His passion and of our redemption was approaching. With the time approaching in which He disposed to suffer, He Himself also approached in place, in which He willed to complete the dispensation of that same passion. For He says:

Jn 11;55: "Many therefore went up to Jerusalem from the region before the Passover, that they might sanctify themselves." The Jews were doing this according to the precept of the Lord given through holy Moses in the law, that on the festal day, which was the Passover, all might come together from everywhere and be sanctified by the celebration of that day. But that celebration was a shadow of the future. What is "a shadow of the future"? The prophecy of Christ about to come; the prophecy that on that day He would suffer for us, that the shadow might pass and the light come; that the signification might pass and the truth be held. Therefore the Jews had the Passover in shadow, we in light. For what need was there that the Lord command them through that festal day to kill a sheep (Exod 12), except because He was [the one] concerning whom it was prophesied: "As a sheep to the slaughter He was led" (Isa 53:7)? By the blood of the slain sheep the doorposts of the Jews were signed; by the blood of Christ our foreheads are signed. And that signification which was the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb, prohibiting the destroyer from all the signed, was exhibited in truth when Christ was slain for us, that we might not fear the devil the destroyer, if our heart receive the Savior.

Jn 11:56: "They were seeking therefore Jesus, and they discoursed with one another, standing in the temple: What do you think, that He has not come to the festal day?" Therefore the Jews were seeking Jesus, but evilly. For they were seeking that coming to the festal day they might kill [Him]. But let us seek Him, standing in the temple of God and persevering unanimously in prayer, and let us discourse with one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, asking in grace that He deign to come to our festal day, that by His presence He illuminate us, that by Himself He sanctify His gifts for us.

Jn 11:57: "But the chief priests and Pharisees had given a commandment, that if anyone know where He is, he indicate it, that they may seize Him." Therefore the commandment of the Jews is sin. They were seeking to kill Christ, not to live in Christ. Let us seek to live in Christ, whom they were seeking to kill. They were seeking evilly; let us seek well. For now is the time of seeking the Lord, as the prophet says: "Seek the Lord while He may be found" (Isa 55:6). Who wishes to find Him merciful in judgment, let him seek Him now in the office of humility and charity.

CONTINUE