John 11 - NIV Quest Study Bible

Sickness glorifies God by its end result, not by the ordeal itself. There was no glory merely in Lazarus being sick. But when he was raised from the dead, God’s glory and power were revealed (v. 45). God receives glory when sickness is conquered — literally, as in this case (v. 44), or figuratively, as in the case of those who, with God’s help, transcend their physical limitations. See the article Does God allow pain in order to display his power? (9:3).Jesus’ disciples were concerned that he might be killed if he went back to Judea. He calmed their fears and illustrated his point by using an analogy: The day is divided into two 12-hour periods — daylight and darkness. Just as the hours of daylight and darkness are fixed, so the length of Jesus’ earthly ministry was also preordained.Thomas, whom we usually remember as the doubter (20:24 – 28), made a brave statement here. His willingness to follow Jesus back toward Jerusalem, where hostile opponents of Jesus would try to kill Jesus, shows another side of Thomas’s character. Thomas was clearly capable of devotion and courage.According to Jewish custom, friends and sympathizers were expected to make extended visits to a grieving family. For the Jews, comforting the bereaved involved more than paying one’s respects to the deceased. It meant spending a period of mourning (sometimes up to 90 days) offering support and sympathy to the family.Martha may have known the Old Testament allusions to the resurrection (e.g., Ps 16:10 – 11). One of the clearest Old Testament statements is in Job 19:25 – 27:I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. Martha may have also held to the belief of the majority of Jews at that time that there would be a collective resurrection at the end of time. When Jesus promised that her brother would rise, she misunderstood his promise, assuming he was referring to this far-off event.We don’t know the full extent of Martha’s concept of the Messiah. After Jesus’ resurrection, even Jesus’ disciples expected him to replace Rome’s domination with a physical, earthly kingdom (Ac 1:6). It’s doubtful that Martha grasped all the spiritual and eternal dimensions of Jesus’ kingdom. Still, when Jesus said he was the resurrection and spoke of everlasting life (Jn 11:25), Martha linked those truths to her belief that he was the Messiah.The Jews who had come to comfort Mary and Martha wailed loudly, expressing their grief according to the custom of first-century Jewish mourners. The term weeping (v. 33) conveys this loud expression of grief, while wept (v. 35) in the original language is a different word that expresses the idea of quiet weeping (as in shedding tears). Even so, it seems strange that Jesus wept when he knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Perhaps Jesus wept sympathetically because he deeply identified with his friends who mourned Lazarus’s death. The fullness of the Lord’s humanity is especially evident in the fact that Jesus wept (Lk 19:41; Heb 5:7 – 8).With each miracle, more people became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Ironically, the leaders had previously asked Jesus for a miraculous sign because of their own skepticism (Mt 12:38; 16:1). Now, confronted with the evidence, they wanted to stop the signs so people would stop following Jesus. Any kind of uprising would have drawn the ire of the Romans, who would have held the Jewish leaders accountable for public unrest and disturbance.The leaders were more concerned about themselves than they were about the people. They feared Jesus might incite a rebellion, which would result in harsh reprisals from the Romans. They feared that the Romans would destroy the temple — which they called “their temple” — and dismantle the nation by deporting the population. If that happened, the religious leaders would lose their power and prestige.According to the Law of Moses, ceremonial uncleanness disqualified a person from celebrating the Passover (Nu 9:6). The ritual of purification depended on the type of defilement. Some procedures lasted as long as a week and required that the rituals be carried out at the temple. Large numbers of Jewish pilgrims arrived early to Jerusalem to purify themselves in preparation for Passover.