Matthew Henry

and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“To go to Judea, which was so lately made too hot for them, was a saying that proved them. But Christ did not say, " Go you into Judea, and I will stay and take shelter here;" no, Let us go.”

“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

“Though it was at least two months ago, the remembrance of the fright was fresh in their minds. [2.] They marvel that he will go thither again. "Wilt thou favour those with thy presence that have expelled thee out of their coasts?"”

But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

“He has not a good principle within; he is not sincere; his eye is evil. Thus Christ not only justifies his purpose of going into Judea, but encourages his disciples to go along with him, and fear no evil.”

After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

“There is a covenant of friendship between Christ and believers, and a friendly affection and communion pursuant to it, which our Lord Jesus will own and not be ashamed of. His secret is with the righteous.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.” They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

“Sleep is often nature's physic, and reviving to its weak and weary powers. This is true of the sleep of death; if a good Christian so sleep, he shall do well, better than he did here. [2.]”

They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

“Let us not therefore condemn all those as heretics who mistake the sense of some of Christ's sayings. It is not good to aggravate our brethren's mistakes; yet this was a gross one, for it had easily been prevented if they had remembered how frequently…”

So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

“Christ takes cognizance of the death of his saints, for it is precious in his sight ( Ps. cxvi. 15 ), and he is not pleased if we do not consider it, and lay it to heart.”

When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.

“Promised salvations, though they always come surely, yet often come slowly. He found his friends that survived in grief.”

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,

“Notice is taken of this, that this miracle was in effect wrought in Jerusalem, and so was put to her score.”

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.

“She waived all ceremony and compliment to the Jews who came to visit her, and hastened to go and meet Jesus.”

“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

“As the soul at death is not lost, but gone before, so the body is not lost, but laid up. Think you hear Christ saying, "Thy parent, thy child, thy yoke-fellow, shall rise again; these dry bones shall live. " [3.]”

Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

“First, She accounts it a faithful saying that he shall rise again at the last day. Though the doctrine of the resurrection was to have its full proof from Christ's resurrection, yet, as it was already revealed, she firmly believed it, Acts xxiv.”

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

“Bethany is here described to be the town where Lazarus was, whom he raised from the dead. The miracle wrought here put a new honour upon the place, and made it remarkable.”

Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair.

“Considering what Christ has done and suffered for us, we are very ungrateful if we think any service too hard to do, or too mean to stoop to, whereby he may really be glorified. (3.)”

But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray Him, asked, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”

“It is possible for the worst of men to lurk under the disguise of the best profession; and there are many who pretend to stand in relation to Christ who really have no kindness for him.”

Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:

“His kingdom was not of this world, and therefore came not with outward pomp. He was now humbling himself, but in his exalted state John sees him in a vision on a white horse, with a bow and a crown.”

“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion. See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.”

“It was foretold that Zion's king should come, should come thus, sitting on an ass's colt; even this minute circumstance was foretold, and Christ took care it should be punctually fulfilled. Note, (1.)”

Meanwhile, many people continued to testify that they had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead.

“Note, The truth of Christ's miracles was evidenced by incontestable proofs. It is probable that those who had seen this miracle did not only assert it to those who asked them, but published it unasked, that this might add to the triumphs of this solemn…”

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.

“The forbidding of the priests to accept of any oblation or sacrifice from a Gentile (which was done by Eleazar the son of Ananias, the high priest), Josephus says, was one of those things that brought the Romans upon them, War 2.”

It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father.

“In these verses we have the story of Christ's washing his disciples' feet; it was an action of a singular nature; no miracle, unless we call it a miracle of humility.”

It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father.

“His own; where his own were spoken of that received him not, it is tous idious -- his own persons, as a man's wife and children are his own, to whom he stands in a constant relation. [2.]”

The evening meal was underway, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

“But there are some sins in their own nature so exceedingly sinful, and to which there is so little temptation from the world and the flesh, that it is plain Satan lays the egg of them in a heart disposed to be the nest to…”

Jesus knew that the Father had delivered all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God.

“Here is the rightful advancement of the Lord Jesus. Glorious things are here said of Christ as Mediator. (1.)”

“Never shall You wash my feet!” Peter told Him. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”

“It is that good part the having of which is the one thing needful. [2.] It is necessary to our having a part in Christ that he wash us.”

Jesus told him, “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”

“He washed them himself, and then said, You are clean; but he excepts Judas: not all; they were all baptized, even Judas, yet not all clean; many have the sign that have not the thing signified. Note, [1.]”