Jesus therefore again groaning in himself came to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
All Commentaries on John 11:38 Go To John 11
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
Here we understand the groaning as if it were the will struggling with a sort of movement according to its power, both because He rather sternly reproved His grief, and the tears which were about to be shed from His grief. For, as God, He in the way of a master reproves His Manhood, bidding it be manly in sorrowful circumstances; or by His God-befitting movement He distinctly lays it down that we must hence forward overthrow the powerful influence of death. And this He makes manifest by His very own Flesh, and signified by the movement of His Body that which was concealed within. And this is shown here by the expression: "He groaned," which means, that through the outward action of His Body He indicated His hidden commotion.
And He did not roll away the stone Himself for these two reasons: first, to teach that it was superfluous to work wonders when there was no necessity for them; and secondly, [to teach] that He Himself awakes the dead, but His angels will be at hand to minister in the event, whom indeed the Lord elsewhere in a parable calls reapers.
