John 13

John 13:3

l am the resurrection - Of the dead. And the life - Of the living. He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live - In life everlasting.

John 13:10

She fell at his feet - This Martha had not done. So she makes amends for her slowness in coming.

John 13:11

He groaned - So he restrained his tears. So he stopped them soon after, John 11:38. He troubled himself - An expression amazingly elegant, and full of the highest propriety. For the affections of Jesus were not properly passions, but voluntary emotions, which were wholly in his own power. And this tender trouble which he now voluntarily sustained, was full of the highest order and reason.

John 13:13

Jesus wept - Out of sympathy with those who were in tears all around him, as well as from a deep sense of the misery sin had brought upon human nature.

John 13:15

Could not this person have even caused, that this man should not have died? - Yet they never dreamed that he could raise him again! What a strange mixture of faith and unbelief.

John 13:16

It was a cave - So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, except Rachel, were buried in the cave of Machpelah, Genesis 49:29 - 31. These caves were commonly in rocks, which abounded in that country, either hollowed by nature or hewn by art. And the entrance was shut up with a great stone, which sometimes had a monumental inscription.

John 13:17

Lord, by this time he stinketh - Thus did reason and faith struggle together.

John 13:18

Said I not - It appears by this, that Christ had said more to Martha than is before recorded.

John 13:19

Jesus lifted up his eyes - Not as if he applied to his Father for assistance. There is not the least show of this. He wrought the miracle with an air of absolute sovereignty, as the Lord of life and death. But it was as if he had said, I thank thee, that by the disposal of thy providence, thou hast granted my desire, in this remarkable opportunity of exerting my power, and showing forth thy praise.

John 13:21

He cried with a loud voice - That all who were present might hear. Lazarus, come forth - Jesus called him out of the tomb as easily as if he had been not only alive, but awake also.

John 13:22

And he came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes - Which were wrapt round each hand and each foot, and his face was wrapt about with a napkin - If the Jews buried as the Egyptians did, the face was not covered with it, but it only went round the forehead, and under the chin; so that he might easily see his way.

John 13:23

Many believed on Him - And so the Son of God was glorified, according to what our Lord had said, John 11:4.

John 13:24

But some of them went to the Pharisees - What a dreadful confirmation of that weighty truth, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead!

John 13:25

What do we? - What? Believe. Yea, but death yields to the power of Christ sooner than infidelity.

John 13:26

All men will believe - And receive him as the Messiah. And this will give such umbrage to the Romans that they will come and subvert both our place - Temple; and nation - Both our Church and state. Were they really afraid of this? Or was it a fair colour only? Certainly it was no more. For they could not but know, that he that raised the dead was able to conquer the Romans.

John 13:27

That year - That memorable year, in which Christ was to die. It was the last and chief of Daniel’s seventy weeks, the fortieth year before the destruction of Jerusalem, and was celebrated for various causes, in the Jewish history. Therefore that year is so peculiarly mentioned: Caiaphas was the high priest both before and after it. Ye know nothing - He reproves their slow deliberations in so clear a case.

John 13:28

It is expedient that one man should die for the people - So God overruled his tongue, for he spake not of himself, by his own spirit only, but by the spirit of prophecy. And thus he gave unawares as clear a testimony to the priestly, as Pilate did to the kingly office of Christ.

John 13:30

But that, he might gather into one - Church, all the children of God that were scattered abroad - Through all ages and nations.

John 13:33

Many went up to purify themselves - That they might remove all hinderances to their eating the passover.

John 13:37

Six days before the passover - Namely, on the Sabbath: that which was called by the Jews, “The Great Sabbath.” This whole week was anciently termed “The great and holy week.” Jesus came - From Ephraim, John 11:54.

John 13:38

It seems Martha was a person of some figure, from the great respect which was paid to her and her sister, in visits and condolences on Lazarus’s death, as well as from the costly ointment mentioned in the next verse. And probably it was at their house our Lord and his disciples lodged, when he returned from Jerusalem to Bethany, every evening of the last week of his life, upon which he was now entered.