Having said this, he said to them afterwards: Lazarus, our friend has fallen asleep; but I am going to wake him up. His disciples said, "Lord! if he fell asleep, he will recover. Jesus spoke of his death; but they thought that He was speaking of ordinary sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead: and I rejoice for you that I was not there, that you might believe; but let us go to him. Then Thomas, otherwise called the Twin, said to the disciples, "Let us go and die with Him."

Since the disciples of the Lord were afraid to go into Judea, He said to them, "The Jews sought to stone Me because I refuted them and rebuked them." But now I do not go to rebuke them, but to visit my friend. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid. I am not going after what I went for before, to expect danger from the Jews, but I am going to wake up a friend. The disciples, wishing to keep Him from going there, say: It is enough if He has fallen asleep; if he has fallen asleep, he will recover; therefore we do not need to walk, for there is no need. Although the Lord, speaking of Lazarus, added "My friend" to show the necessity of being there, the disciples assert that His visit is not necessary, since he can recover from falling asleep. Still more, they say, Thy coming is not only unnecessary, but also harmful to a friend. For if sleep, as we think, serves for his recovery, and You go and wake him, then You will prevent him from recovering. Therefore, there is no need to go and wake up, for this is harmful. The Lord, seeing that His disciples still do not understand Him, directly says that Lazarus "died." Why did He first express Himself not directly, but covertly, calling death "sleep"? For many reasons. First, out of humility, for he did not want to appear boastful, but secretly called the resurrection a wake-up from sleep. How would He have used this expression if He had not called death a dream? And that this is just, that is, that He expressed Himself secretly out of humility, is evident from what follows. For having said that Lazarus "died," the Lord did not add: "I will go and raise him up." Do you see how He did not want to boast in words of what He intended to confirm by His very deeds? At the same time, the Lord teaches us not to be hasty in our promises. For if, at the request of the centurion (for the healing of his servant), the Lord made a promise, saying: "I will come and heal him" (Matt. 8:5-6), He said this in order to reveal his faith. So, this is the first reason why the Lord called death sleep. The other is to show us that all death is sleep and rest. The third is that although the death of Lazarus was death for others, it was no more than a dream for Jesus Himself, since He intended to resurrect him. As it is easy for us to awaken a sleeping man, so, and a thousand times more, it is convenient for Him to raise up the dead.

"I rejoice," he says, "for you," that you can henceforth be more convinced of My divine dignity from the fact that I have not been there and am far away from there, but I tell you in advance that death followed in Bethany, and I say this, not basing myself on hearing, but as God, Himself seeing what happened at a great distance. Some of the Lord's words: "I rejoice for you" were understood to mean that I was not there, this will serve to confirm you in the faith. For if I had been there, I would have healed the sick. That would be a miracle, but it would show little of My power. And now that I was not there, and the death of Lazarus followed, and I will go and raise him up, you must be strengthened in your faith in Me. For you will see that I am able to do what I have not yet revealed, namely, to recreate and raise up the dead, who are already decomposed and give off a rotten smell.

When the Lord said this and proved to His disciples the necessity of His march into Judea, then Thomas, fearing more than others, said: "Let us go and die with Him." For these words do not express cheerfulness, but fear and faint-heartedness. In order to stop the rest of his fellow disciples, he reminds them of death and deliberately adds: "Let us die," saying, as it were: "And we, fools, fools, and not caring about our salvation and life, let us go to die with Him." Let Him value His life dearly; Therefore must we also be imprudent? Such speeches are befitting a fearful person. But look at him afterwards. He, like an apostle, was slain for the truth. The grace of God has so "strengthened" him that the words of the Apostle Paul can be applied to him: "Our ability is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5), and "not I, but grace" (1 Corinthians 15:10). And Origen speaks of Thomas as something like a dream, Thomas, he says, having learned the prophecies about Christ and having understood that He would descend with the soul into hell for the liberation of souls, when he heard that the Lord was coming to wake Lazarus, he thought that He could awaken him, that is, free his soul, only if He Himself laid down the body and descended into hell. Therefore, as a sincere disciple of Christ, who does not wish to lag behind his Teacher in this as well, he advises his fellow disciples and himself volunteers to lay down their bodies in order to descend into hell together with Jesus, who, according to his understanding, will lay down His soul in order to free the soul of a friend from hell. Such a ridiculous explanation I have applied to shame those who extol all that is Origen's. For such an explanation of the sage is not manifest idle talk and a real dream? And I ask you to note that although Lazarus died, the Lord nevertheless said: "Let us go to him," as if to a living one. For for Christ, as God, Lazarus himself was alive.

When Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, fifteen stades; and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them in their sorrow for their brother. And when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; Maria was sitting at home.

The Lord deliberately delayed so that Lazarus would be four days old, then went to make the miracle free from slander on all sides. Why does the Evangelist add that Bethany was fifteen stades from Jerusalem? In order to show that indeed many of the Jerusalemites came, for Bethany was not far away. The Jews comforted these women not because Christ loved them (for the Jews had already conspired to excommunicate from the synagogue the one who acknowledged Him to be Christ – John 9:22), but either because of the severity of the calamity, or because those who came were not of the wicked, from which many of them believed.

Martha only goes forward to meet her, and does not take her sister with her, because she wanted to see Him alone and tell Him about what had happened. When the Lord aroused good hope in her, then she left and called her sister. Before, she had not told Sister Mary about the coming of the Lord, in order to conceal it from those who were with her. For if Mary had heard that Jesus was coming, she would have gone immediately to meet Him, and the Jews who had come would have followed her: but Martha did not want them to know of the coming of Jesus.

Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord! if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that He will rise again in the resurrection, on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to Him, "Yes, Lord! I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, coming into the world. Having said this, she went and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Master is here and calling you."

Martha had faith in Christ, but it was not complete, not proper. For this reason He says: Lord! if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She said this, no doubt, because she did not believe that, if He had willed, He could have prevented her brother's death without being present in person. And then he reveals an even greater weakness of faith. For He says: "Whatsoever Thou askest of God, He will give Thee." You see, she considers Him to be some kind of person, virtuous and pleasing to God. For she did not say, "Whatsoever thou wilt, thou shalt do all"; but, whatsoever thou askest, he shall give thee all. The Lord, refuting this understanding of it, says: "Your brother will rise." He did not say to her, "Yes, I will ask God, and He will give Me," nor did he agree with her speech, but used a moderate expression. And then He expounds His power and authority much more clearly; I, he says, am the resurrection and the life. Since Martha did not yet believe and did not understand the meaning of the words: "Thy brother shall rise," but thought that he would rise again in the last resurrection (and that there would be a last resurrection, Martha knew in part from the Divine Scriptures, and still more from Christ's frequent discourses on the resurrection), therefore, since the woman was still a woman, the Lord raised her up and stirred up her faith, as if dead, To put it more plainly: You tell Me that God will give Me whatever I ask of Him. But I tell you plainly that I am the resurrection and the life, so that My power is not limited to the place, but I can equally heal by being present in the place and in absentia. For I distribute good things, and not on behalf of anyone else, but I Myself am the resurrection and the life, and I Myself have the power to raise up and to give life. He who believes in Me, even if he dies this bodily death, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will not die a spiritual death. Therefore, do not be dismayed. For though your brother is dead, he will live. And what do I say about your brother? And you, if you believe in Me, will not die, but will be above spiritual death, which is much more terrible. And He who delivers from the most terrible death, the more easily will deliver your dead brother from a less terrible death. Do you believe this? – the Lord asks Martha. And she, although she had listened to such lofty speeches, did not understand what the Lord had said to her. I think that she suffered from grief and lack of understanding. For the Lord asks one thing, she answers another. The Lord asks whether she believes that He is resurrection and life, and that he who believes in Him will never die, whether you mean spiritual or bodily death. For it is rightly said of the faithful, because of their hope of the resurrection, that they do not die. And what does Martha answer? – I am sure that You are the Christ, the Son of God, coming into the world. Her answer is good and fair, but the answer is not to the question. However, she received this benefit from this, that the power of her sorrow was tamed and her sorrow was lessened.

Martha "secretly" calls her sister; and she did it very wisely. For if the Jews who came to them had known that Mary was coming to meet Christ, they would have left them, and the miracle would have been left without witnesses. And now the Jews thought that Mary was going to the tomb to weep, and they went with her, and of necessity became obvious witnesses of the miracle. Martha says to Mary: The Master is calling you. And the Evangelist does not notice that the Lord called her. This can be explained in the following way: the Evangelist kept silent, that the Lord commanded Martha to call her sister, or she considered the very coming of the Lord as an invitation and said that the Teacher was calling you. For when the Lord came, should she not have gone to Him? Thus, the coming of the Lord, which necessarily requires (from Mary) to meet Him, the Evangelist called an invitation. For the Master speaks, He has come, and calls thee; and since He came, His very coming is a call to you. For as soon as He has come, it is necessary for you to go to meet Him.

As soon as she heard, she hurriedly got up and went to Him. Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was at the place where Martha met Him. The Jews, who were with her in the house and comforted her, seeing that Mary had hurriedly stood up and went out, followed her, supposing that she had gone to the tomb to weep there. And Mary, having come to where Jesus was, and seeing him, fell down at his feet, and said to him, Lord! if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Mary, as soon as she learned that Jesus had come, did not hesitate, but hurriedly got up and went to Him. From this it can be seen that Martha had not warned her before, although she knew that Jesus was coming. But Jesus had not yet come to the village, for He walked slowly, so that they would not think that He Himself was asking for a miracle, but that He would perform it at their request. And since the miracle that is to be performed was great, not performed many times, and had to benefit many, the Lord arranges so that many will become witnesses of the miracle. For the Evangelist says that the Jews who were with her in the house followed her. Mary came to Christ with more fervor than her sister Martha. For when she saw Him, she fell at His feet, not being ashamed of the people, not paying any attention to the fact that some of those who were there were hostile to Christ. In the presence of the Master, she threw away all mankind and cared only to honor Him. She says: "Lord! if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Martha does nothing of the kind, for she does not fall down before Him, but, on the contrary, when Christ gives good hope for her brother, she turns out to be unbelieving. Though Mary is imperfect when she says, "If Thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died," yet Christ does not say to her anything that He said to her sister, because there were many people there, and it was not the time for such speeches. He condescends even more, clearly shows Human nature in Himself and reveals its properties. For listen to what the Evangelist says.

And when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her, weeping, he himself was grieved in spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? They said to him: Lord! Go and see. Jesus shed tears. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him." And some of them said, "Could not this one, who opened the eyes of the blind, make this one also die?

Since Mary and those who came with her wept, human nature was disposed to tears and was troubled. But the Lord suppresses the shock in the spirit, that is, by the Spirit He restrains confusion and restrains it, and He asks a question without showing any tears. But since the Lord grieved, for He was truly a Man and wished to prove the reality of His human nature, He allowed it to do its own. At the same time, He restricts the flesh, rebukes it by the power of the Holy Spirit; but the flesh, unable to endure the prohibition, is troubled, sighs, and gives itself over to sorrow. The Lord allows His humanity to experience all this, partly in order to affirm that He was Man in truth, and not by providence, and partly in order to teach us to set limits and measures to sorrow and without sorrow. For it is characteristic of beasts to have no sympathy and tears, but to shed many tears and to give way to much sorrow is characteristic of women. And since the Lord took upon Himself our flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), He takes part in that which is proper to man and nature, and shows us the measure in both.