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.

"Where have you laid him?" – asks the Lord, not because He does not know (for, having been in another place and far away, He knew that Lazarus had died), but so that they would not think that He was summoned by Himself to a miracle; He wishes to learn everything from them and to perform a miracle at their request, in order to free it from all suspicion. And since there was no hint of the resurrection of Lazarus, and it did not occur to anyone that He was coming to raise him up, and not only to weep, so they said to Him: Lord! Go and see. And the wicked Jews, in spite of the fact that great misfortune is before their eyes, and yet they do not abandon their malice, they say, "Could this one, who opened the eyes of the blind man, not be able to cause this one not to die?" This is said in humiliation of the miracle performed on the blind man (John 9). They should have been amazed at this miracle, but they cast doubt on the reality of Lazarus' death and, without waiting for the end of the matter, pronounce an insulting sentence in advance. Thus envy corrupted their minds.

Jesus, again grieving inwardly, comes to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay on it. Jesus says, "Take away the stone." The sister of the deceased, Martha, said to Him: "Lord! already stinks; for four days he was in the tomb. Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" So, they took away the stone from the cave where the deceased lay. And Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, forgive them! thank you for hearing me. I knew that You would always hear Me; but I have said these things for the people standing here, that they may believe that you have sent me.

Why does the evangelist again note that Jesus wept and grieved out of sympathy? In order that we may know that He has truly clothed Himself with our nature. John, in comparison with the other Evangelists, proclaims a higher teaching about the Lord and theologizes something great; wherefore also of His bodily works He tells of those who are more humble. Wherefore also in the sorrow of the Lord he finds much that is human, and thus proves the truth of His flesh, so that thou mayest know that the Lord was God and at the same time Man. For just as Luke by the Lord's struggle, sorrow, and sweat (ch. 22), so John proves by His tears that He bore true flesh. Why did the Lord not resurrect Lazarus when the stone was still lying on the tomb? For He Who raised up a dead body with one word and animated one that had already begun to decay, He could have rolled away the stone with a word much more conveniently. "Take away the stone," says the Lord, in order to make them witnesses of the miracle, so that they may not, as before say of the man born blind: "This is he; it is not he" (John 9:9). For being present in the very place and taking away the stone with their own hands should have stopped the mouths of the ill-intentioned witnesses of the miracle.

"It stinks already; for four days since he was in the tomb," said Martha out of unbelief, because she considered it impossible for her brother to be resurrected after so many days after his death. So she was still low in faith! Christ, reminding her of His conversation with her and as if reproaching her for forgetfulness, says: "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" The Lord says to His disciples that Lazarus died in order that "the Son of God" might be glorified through this (v. 4 above), and He says to Martha: "You will see the glory of God," meaning the Father. He uses different expressions about the same thing – because of the weakness of his listeners. There were Jews here. The Lord found it inappropriate to tell Martha that you would see the glory of the "Son of God", because He would be considered vain. And now, having spoken of the glory of the Father, He made the speech moderate and acceptable.

Why does the Lord pray, or rather, does He take the form of prayer? Listen to how He Himself says: "For the people standing here, I have said this, so that they may believe that You have sent Me, that is, so that they may not consider Me an adversary of God, so that they may not say that I am not of God, in order to prove to them that this deed was done by Me according to Your will. And what for this reason, and not for another, is presented to the worshippers, that is, for those who are coming, pay attention to the prayer itself. "Thank Thee" (Father!) that "Thou hast heard Me." It is clear that this is not a prayer, but only the position and type of prayer. And that He does not need prayer is evident from the fact that He did many other things without prayer. For example: "I tell you, demon! come out of it" (Luke 4:35); again, "I will, be cleansed" (Matt. 8:3); again: "Thy sins are forgiven" (Matt. 9:2), and this is the most important thing; and to the sea: "Be still, be still" (Mark 4:39). So, in order for those present here to believe that He is from heaven, and not an adversary of God, the Lord prays. For if, in such works of His, with all the proofs of His oneness of mind with the Father, it was said that He was not of God, what would not have been said if He had done nothing of the kind?

Having said this, He cried out with a loud voice: Lazarus! Go away. And the dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in funeral clothes, and his face was bound with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, let him go." Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus had done, believed in Him. And some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

The Lord, giving thanks to the Father more than asking (for, as it is said, He had no need of prayer and help from it, because He is equal to the Father), called out with a loud voice, autocratic and sovereign. For He did not say, In the name of My Father, Lazarus, go away; nor thus: Father! resurrect him; but, as it is said, autocratically, stopping the mouths of all who say that He is less than the Father. For what could be found equal to such power, that He said to the dead as to the living: "Lazarus, go away"? And now the words have been fulfilled in deed: "The time is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they have heard, they shall live" (John 5:25). Lest anyone think that Christ received such power from another, He foretells in advance what He had to prove by His very deed. The loud voice of the Saviour, which resurrected Lazarus, serves as an image of the great trumpet that will sound in the general resurrection (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Lord cried out loudly in order to stop the mouths of the Greeks, who talk idly that the soul dwells in the tomb (together with the body), for He calls it loudly, as if far away. As this particular resurrection was, so will the general resurrection be suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52).