(41) Then they took away the stone.—This could be done without difficulty, for it would be nothing more than a rough slab placed at the entrance of the cave, to prevent the approach of jackals or other beasts of prey.

From the place where the dead was laid is omitted by all the better MSS. It is an unnecessary gloss, to explain what stone is meant.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said . . .—His attitude, as well as His words, is meant to express that the work which He is about to do, is one of the works from His Father.

I thank thee that thou hast heard me.—Better, I thank Thee that Thou didst hear Me; the time referred to being that of the offering of the prayer. Of this we have no notice. It was the will of the Son expressing itself in moral harmony with the will of the Father. “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me” (John 5:30; comp. John 12:27-28), and therefore in the expression receiving the answer. The promise of John 11:4 was the utterance of the divine will to the disciples and the messengers, and we are, it may be, to think of that moment as the time of its realisation by the Son.

This thanksgiving for the answer to His prayer has been uttered aloud in the presence of the multitude. The verse which follows was spoken to prevent a misunderstanding on the part of the disciples and in all times.

John 11:41-43. Then they took away the stone — As Jesus had directed; from the place where the dead was laid — From the mouth of the tomb. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, &c. — To show them who stood by, and viewed him as a mere man, from whence he derived his power; and that he did not do his miracles by any ability in his mere human nature. Thus he says, Matthew 12:28, that he cast out devils by the Spirit of God; and, Luke 12:20, by the finger, or power, of God; and, John 14:10, that the Father, who dwelt in him, namely, the eternal Word and Spirit of the Father, did the works. And said, Father, I thank thee — “On many occasions Jesus had publicly appealed to his own miracles, as the proofs of his mission; but he did not ordinarily make a formal address to his Father before he wrought them; though to have done so, would have showed from whence he derived his authority. Nevertheless, being about to raise Lazarus from the dead, he prayed for his resurrection, to make the persons present sensible that in working his miracles, he [as man] acted by the assistance, not of devils, as his enemies maliciously affirmed, but of God; and that this miracle, in particular, could not be effected without an immediate interposition of the divine power. The evangelist, it is true, does not say directly, either that Jesus prayed, or that he prayed for this end. But the thanksgiving, which he tells us he offered up, implies both.” — Macknight. I know that thou hearest me always — And art most ready to answer all my petitions. Jesus had access to his Father on every occasion, and success with him in every errand. And we may be sure his interest with God is not the less for his going to heaven; which may encourage us to depend on his intercession for us, and to put all our petitions into his hand, for we are sure that the Father hears him always. Because of the people which stand by I said it, &c. — I did not pray for my own sake, as if I had entertained any doubt of having power to do this miracle; (see John 5:19-26;) but I prayed for the people’s sake, to make them sensible that thou lovest me, hast sent me, and art continually with me; and that I do all in union with thee, and nothing of myself, without, or separate from thee. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice — Suitable to the majestic part which he was now acting, and the dominion he had, even in the empire of death itself, as well as that it might appear to all present, that even the dead were subject to his voice; Lazarus, come forth — He could have raised Lazarus by a silent exertion of his will and power, and the undiscernible operation of the Spirit of life; but he did it by a call, a loud call, to signify the power then put forth for the raising of Lazarus, and the greatness of the work.

11:33-46 Christ's tender sympathy with these afflicted friends, appeared by the troubles of his spirit. In all the afflictions of believers he is afflicted. His concern for them was shown by his kind inquiry after the remains of his deceased friend. Being found in fashion as a man, he acts in the way and manner of the sons of men. It was shown by his tears. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Tears of compassion resemble those of Christ. But Christ never approved that sensibility of which many are proud, while they weep at mere tales of distress, but are hardened to real woe. He sets us an example to withdraw from scenes of giddy mirth, that we may comfort the afflicted. And we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. It is a good step toward raising a soul to spiritual life, when the stone is taken away, when prejudices are removed, and got over, and way is made for the word to enter the heart. If we take Christ's word, and rely on his power and faithfulness, we shall see the glory of God, and be happy in the sight. Our Lord Jesus has taught us, by his own example, to call God Father, in prayer, and to draw nigh to him as children to a father, with humble reverence, yet with holy boldness. He openly made this address to God, with uplifted eyes and loud voice, that they might be convinced the Father had sent him as his beloved Son into the world. He could have raised Lazarus by the silent exertion of his power and will, and the unseen working of the Spirit of life; but he did it by a loud call. This was a figure of the gospel call, by which dead souls are brought out of the grave of sin: and of the sound of the archangel's trumpet at the last day, with which all that sleep in the dust shall be awakened, and summoned before the great tribunal. The grave of sin and this world, is no place for those whom Christ has quickened; they must come forth. Lazarus was thoroughly revived, and returned not only to life, but to health. The sinner cannot quicken his own soul, but he is to use the means of grace; the believer cannot sanctify himself, but he is to lay aside every weight and hinderance. We cannot convert our relatives and friends, but we should instruct, warn, and invite them.Lifted up his eyes - In an attitude of prayer. See Luke 18:13; Matthew 14:19.

I thank thee that thou hast heard me - It is possible that John has recorded only the sum or substance of the prayer on this occasion. The thanks which Jesus renders here are evidently in view of the fact that power had been committed to him to raise up Lazarus. On account of the people, and the signal proof which would be furnished of the truth of his mission, he expressed his thanks to God. In all his actions, he recognized his union to the Father, and his dependence upon him as Mediator.

41. Jesus lifted up his eyes—an expression marking His calm solemnity. (Compare Joh 17:1).

Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me—rather, "heardest Me," referring to a specific prayer offered by Him, probably on intelligence of the case reaching Him (Joh 11:3, 4); for His living and loving oneness with the Father was maintained and manifested in the flesh, not merely by the spontaneous and uninterrupted outgoing of Each to Each in spirit, but by specific actings of faith and exercises of prayer about each successive case as it emerged. He prayed (says Luthardt well) not for what He wanted, but for the manifestation of what He had; and having the bright consciousness of the answer in the felt liberty to ask it, and the assurance that it was at hand, He gives thanks for this with a grand simplicity before performing the act.

The servants, or friends, about the grave, removeth the stone from the mouth of the cave, within which the dead corpse of Lazarus lay. Christ, before his thanksgiving to his Father, is said to have

lifted up his eyes; a posture often used in men’s addresses to God, Psalm 121:1, and Psalm 123:1, as an indication of their belief that heaven is God’s throne: though he filleth heaven and earth, yet heaven is his court, where he most gloriously showeth himself, the earth but his footstool. We read here of nothing that Christ had said before, yet he giveth thanks here to his Father that he had heard him. The meaning is, thou hast willed, or pleased to grant, those things which I desired. It is very hard to determine, whether Christ had used some audible words before this, upon this occasion, in prayer to his Father, which the evangelist could not or did not set down; or whether he only groaned in his spirit, as was said before, by those groans not only expressing his sorrow for Lazarus’s death, or rather sympathy with the afflictions of Mary and Martha, but also his desires to his Father, that he might be again restored to life; and his second groaning, John 11:38, was of that nature: which groanings in the saints God understandeth, knowing the mind of the Spirit, making intercession for the saints according to the will of God (as the apostle teacheth us, Romans 8:27); much more did the Father, who was one in nature, essence, and will with the Son, understand them in him. Nothing in these cases can be determined, much less can any conclude from hence, that there is no need of our using any words in our prayers; for although there be no simple, absolute necessity that we should use them in order to God’s knowledge of what we need, and would have; for he that searcheth the heart, knows what we need, and what we desire, Matthew 6:8; yet there is a necessity for our words, in order to our obeying God’s command, Hosea 14:2 Luke 11:2. There is a great deal of difference between God’s hearing of Christ, and hearing us: Christ and his Father have one essence, one nature, and will.

Then they took away the stone,.... "From the door of the sepulchre", as the Arabic version adds;

from the place where the dead was laid: this clause is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions:

and Jesus lift up his eyes; to heaven; this is a praying gesture, as in John 17:1,

and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; which cannot refer to the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, or to any assistance given him in performing that miracle, because that as yet was not done; and when it was done, was done by his own power, as all the circumstances of it show; but it relates to everything in which he had before heard him, and was a foundation for him, as man, to believe he still would, in whatever was to come; and particularly to the present opportunity of showing his power in so remarkable a manner, and before so many witnesses.

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.