John 11:19 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And many of the Jews’ – and remember when John speaks of the Jews, generally, he means particularly the hostile Jews and the Jewish leaders – ‘many of the Jews’ – from 2 miles away in Jerusalem, and the countryside round about – ‘came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.’ Now, although this was a believing family, yet it was a significant family, perhaps a wealthy family, a well-known family, and very many Jewish leaders came with their sympathies. Christ was clearly waiting for this - a number of reasons why he waited; to demonstrate his power all the more. Somebody who had been four days in the grave, there is absolutely no question that if that person was raised, well, Christ was God, and this was divine power. But particularly to wait for the crowd to build up, that many, many mourners who would come, and many hostile minds, so that it would be witnessed by a great many people. Remember that Jews in the Gospel of John most of the time mean the hostile Jewish leaders. The chief priests, no chief priests in this party, but certainly other priests and the scribes and the Pharisees. But these people who were hostile to Christ came to Martha and Mary, they did not know Christ would be there. So it seems that although they would have little in common with Lazarus, Martha and Mary, who were believers, yet Lazarus’ family must have had some distinction. They must have been either great benefactors in Jerusalem or whatever. Certainly the family was known and esteemed by the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, and they sent some sort of a party to comfort and to mourn with them. And let us hope they would have been genuine in that. So there were significant Jewish leaders now present in Bethany.