These things said he: and after that he said unto them,
Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
All Commentaries on John 11:11 Go To John 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It was really true that He was sleeping. To our Lord, he was sleeping; to men who could not raise him again, hewas dead. Our Lord awoke him with as much ease from his grave, as you awake a sleeper from his bed. He calls him then asleep, with reference to His own power, as the Apostle says, But 1 would not have you to be ignorant, concerning them which are asleep. Asleep, He says, because He is speaking of their resurrection which was to be. But as it matters to those who sleep and wake again daily, what they see in their sleep, some having pleasant dreams, others painful ones, so it is in death; every one sleeps and rises again with his own account.
The disciples replied, as they understood Him: Although Jesus spoke of his death; but they thought that He had spoken of taking rest in sleep.
He then declares His meaning openly: Then said Jesus to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
He had been sent for to restore Lazarus from sickness, not from death. But how could the death be hid from Him, into whose hands the soul of the dead had flown?
