John Wesley

Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.”

“This man is not of God - Not sent of God. How can a man that is a sinner - That is, one living in wilful sin, do such miracles?”

“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

“And with what strength and clearness of reason! So had God opened the eyes of his understanding, as well as his bodily eyes.”

“Who is He, Sir?” he replied. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”

“Who is he, that I may believe? - This implies some degree of faith already. He was ready to receive whatever Jesus said.”

“You have already seen Him,” Jesus answered. “He is the One speaking with you.”

“Lord, I believe - What an excellent spirit was this man of! Of so deep and strong an understanding; (as he had just shown to the confusion of the Pharisees,) and yet of so teachable a temper!”

Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”

“For judgment am I come into the world - That is, the consequence of my coming will be, that by the just judgment of God, while the blind in body and soul receive their sight, they who boast they see, will be given up to…”

“If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

“If ye had been blind - Invincibly ignorant; if ye had not had so many means of knowing: ye would have had no sin - Comparatively to what ye have now.”

All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

“Our Lord seems in particular to speak of those that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry, are thieves -Stealing temporal profit to themselves, and robbers - Plundering and murdering the sheep.”

The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.

“But the hireling - It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live…”

just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.

“As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father - With such a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a going unto death.”

I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice.

“I have also other sheep - Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles. I must bring them likewise - Into my Church, the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.”

The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.

“I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.”

No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

“He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life.”

But others replied, “These are not the words of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

“These are not the words - The word in the original takes in actions too.”

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,

“It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas Maccabeus, 1 Macc. iv, 59, when he purged and dedicated the altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our Lord observed festivals even of human appointment.”

and Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon’s Colonnade.

“In Solomon's portico - Josephus informs us, that when Solomon built the temple, he filled up a part of the adjacent valley, and built a portico over it toward the east.”

I and the Father are one.”

“I and the Father are one - Not by consent of will only, but by unity of power, and consequently of nature.”

Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?

“If he (God) called them gods unto whom the word of God came, (that is, to whom God was then speaking,) and the Scripture cannot be broken - That is, nothing which is written therein can be censured or rejected.”

then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world?

“Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world - This sanctification (whereby he is essentially the Holy One of God) is mentioned as prior to his mission, and together with it implies, Christ was God in the highest sense…”

But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me…

“That ye may know and believe - In some a more exact knowledge precedes, in others it follows faith. I am in the Father and the Father in me. I and the Father are one - These two sentences illustrate each other.”

(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)

“It was that Mary who afterward anointed, &c. She was more known than her elder sister Martha, and as such is named before her.”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death.

“This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God - The event of this sickness will not be death, in the usual sense of the word, a final separation of his soul and body; but a manifestation of the glorious power of…”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.

“If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not - As if he had said, So there is such a space, a determined time, which God has allotted me. During that time I stumble not, amidst all the snares that are laid for me.”

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

“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth - This he spoke, just when he died. Sleepeth - Such is the death of good men in the language of heaven. But the disciples did not yet understand this language.”

Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

“Thomas in Hebrew, as Didymus in Greek, signifies a twin. With him - With Jesus, whom he supposed the Jews would kill. It seems to be the language of despair.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

“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.”