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 you that you have heard me.
All Commentaries on John 11:41 Go To John 11
John Chrysostom
AD 407
1. What I have often said, I will now say, that Christ looks not so much to His own honor as to our salvation; not how He may utter some sublime saying, but how something able to draw us to Him. On which account His sublime and mighty sayings are few, and those also hidden, but the humble and lowly are many, and abound through His discourses. For since by these men were the rather brought over, in these He continues; and He does not on the one hand utter these universally, lest the men that should come after should receive damage, nor, on the other hand, does He entirely withhold those, lest the men of that time should be offended. Since they who have passed from lowmindedness unto perfection, will be able from even a single sublime doctrine to discern the whole, but those who were ever lowminded, unless they had often heard these lowly sayings, would not have come to Him at all. In fact, even after so many such sayings they do not remain firm, but even stone and persecute Him, and try to kill Him, and call Him blasphemer. And when He makes Himself equal with God, they say, This man blasphemes Matthew 9:3; and when He says, Your sins be forgiven you John 10:20, they moreover call Him a demoniac. So when He says that the man who hears His words is stronger than death, or, I am in the Father and the Father in Me John 8:51, they leave Him; and again, they are offended when He says that He came down from heaven. c. vi. 33, 60 If now they could not bear these sayings, though seldom uttered, scarcely, had His discourse been always sublime, had it been of this texture, would they have given heed to Him? When therefore He says, As the Father commanded Me, so I speak John 14:31; and, I am not come of Myself John 7:28, then they believe. That they did believe then is clear, from the Evangelist signifying this besides, and saying, As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. John 5:30 If then lowly speaking drew men to faith, and high speaking scared them away, must it not be a mark of extreme folly not to see at a glance how to reckon the sole reason of those lowly sayings, namely, that they were uttered because of the hearers. Since in another place when He had desired to say some high thing, He withheld it, adding this reason, and saying, Lest we should offend them, cast a hook into the sea. Matthew 17:27 Which also He does here; for after saying, I know that You hear Me always, He adds, but because of the multitude which stands around I said it, that they might believe. Are these words ours? Is this a human conjecture? When then a man will not endure to be persuaded by what is written, that they were offended at sublime things, how, when he hears Christ saying that He spoke in a lowly manner that they might not be offended, how, after that, shall he suspect that the mean sayings belonged to His nature, not to His condescension? So in another place, when a voice came down from heaven, He said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. John 12:30 He who is exalted may be allowed to speak lowly things of himself, but it is not lawful for the humble to utter concerning himself anything grand or sublime. For the former arises from condescension, and has for its cause the weakness of the hearers; or rather (it has for its cause) the leading them to humblemindedness, and His being clothed in flesh, and the teaching the hearers to say nothing great concerning themselves, and His being deemed an enemy of God, and not being believed to have come from God, His being suspected of breaking the Law, and the fact that the hearers looked on Him with an evil eye, and were ill disposed towards Him, because He said that He was equal to God. But that a lowly man should say any great thing of Himself, has no cause either reasonable or unreasonable; it can only be folly, impudence, and unpardonable boldness. Wherefore then does Christ speak humbly, being of that ineffable and great Substance? For the reasons mentioned, and that He might not be deemed unbegotten; for Paul seems to have feared some such thing as this; wherefore he says, Except Him who did put all things under Him. 1 Corinthians 15:27 This it is impious even to think of. Since if being less than Him who begot Him, and of a different Substance, He had been deemed equal, would He not have used every means that this might not be thought? But now He does the contrary, saying, If I do not the works of Him that sent Me, believe Me not. John 10:37 Indeed His saying, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me John 14:10, intimates to us the equality. It would have behooved, if He had been inferior, to refute this opinion with much vehemence, and not at all to have said, I am in the Father and the Father in me John 10:30, or that, We are One, or that, He that has seen Me, has seen the Father. John 14:9 Thus also, when His discourse was concerning power, He said, I and the Father are One; and when His discourse was concerning authority, He said again, For as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He wilt John 5:21; which it would be impossible that He should do were He of a different substance; or even allowing that it were possible, yet it would not have behooved to say this, lest they should suspect that the substance was one and the same. Since if in order that they may not suppose Him to be an enemy of God, He often even utters words unsuited to Him, much more should He then have done so; but now, His saying, That they should honor the Son even as they honor the Father John 5:23; His saying, The works which He does, I do also John 5:19; His saying that He is the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Light of the world c. xi. 25; 100:viii. 12, are the expressions of One making Himself equal to Him who begot Him, and confirming the suspicion which they entertained. Do you see how He makes this speech and defense, to show that He broke not the Law, and that He not only does not remove, but even confirms the opinion of His equality with the Father? So also when they said, Thou blaspheme, because you make yourself God John 10:33, from equality of works He established this thing.
2. And why say I that the Son did this, when the Father also who took not the flesh does the same thing? For He also endured that many lowly things should be said concerning Him for the salvation of the hearers. For the, Adam, where are you? Genesis 3:9, and, That I may know whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it Genesis 18:21; and, Now I know that you fear God Genesis 22:12; and, If they will hear Ezekiel 3:11; and, If they will understand Deuteronomy 5:29; and, Who shall give the heart of this people to be so? and the expression, There is none like You among the gods, O Lord Psalm 80:29; these and many other like sentences in the Old Testament, if a man should pick them out, he will find to be unworthy of the dignity of God. In the case of Ahab it is said, Who shall entice Ahab for Me? 2 Chronicles 18:19 And the continually preferring Himself to the gods of the heathen in the way of comparison, all these things are unworthy of God. Yet in another way they are made worthy of Him, for He is so kind, that for our salvation He cares not for expressions which become His dignity. Indeed, the becoming man is unworthy of Him, and the taking the form of a servant, and the speaking humble words, and the being clothed in humble (garments), unworthy if one looks to His dignity, but worthy if one consider the unspeakable riches of His lovingkindness. And there is another cause of the humility of His words. What is that? It is that they knew and confessed the Father, but Him they knew not. Wherefore He continually betakes Himself to the Father as being confessed by them, because He Himself was not as yet deemed worthy of credit; not on account of any inferiority of His own, but because of the folly and infirmity of the hearers. On this account He prays, and says, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. For if He quickens whom He will, and quickens in like manner as does the Father, wherefore does He call upon Him?
But it is time now to go through the passage from the beginning. Then they took up the stone where the dead man lay. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I knew that You hear Me always, but because of the people that stand by I said it, that they might believe that You have sent Me. Let us then ask the heretic, Did He receive an impulse from the prayer, and so raise the dead man? How then did He work other miracles without prayer? Saying, Thou evil spirit, I charge you, come out of him Mark 9:25; and, I will, be thou clean Mark 1:41; and, Arise, take up your bed John 5:8; and, Your sins be forgiven you Matthew 9:2; and to the sea, Peace, be still. Mark 4:39 In short, what has He more than the Apostles, if so be that He also works by prayer? Or rather I should say, that neither did they work all with prayer, but often they wrought without prayer, calling upon the Name of Jesus. Now, if His Name had such great power, how could He have needed prayer? Had He needed prayer, His Name would not have availed. When He wholly made man, what manner of prayer did He need? Was there not then great equality of honor? Let Us make, It says, man. Genesis 1:26 What could be greater sign of weakness, if He needed prayer? But let us see what the prayer was; I thank You that You have heard Me. Who now ever prayed in this manner? Before uttering any prayer, He says, I thank You, showing that He needed not prayer. And I knew that You hear Me always. This He said not as though He Himself were powerless, but to show that His will and the Father's is one. But why did He assume the form of prayer? Hear, not me, but Himself, saying, For the sake of the people which stand by, that they may believe that You have sent Me. He said not, "That they may believe that I am inferior, that I have need of an impulse from above, that without prayer I cannot do anything; but, That You have sent Me. For all these things the prayer declares, if we take it simply. He said not, You have sent me weak, acknowledging servitude, and doing nothing of Myself; but dismissing all these things, that you may have no such suspicions, He puts the real cause of the prayer, That they may not deem Me an enemy of God; that they may not say, He is not of God, that I may show them that the work has been done according to Your will. All but saying, Had I been an enemy of God, what is done would not have succeeded, but the, You heard Me, is said in the case of friends and equals. And I knew that You hear Me always, that is, in order that My will be done I need no prayer, except to persuade men that to You and Me belongs one will. Why then prayest Thou? For the sake of the weak and grosser sort.
