Jesus said unto her,
Said I not unto you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?
All Commentaries on John 11:40 Go To John 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Jesus said unto her, &c. This is the same as "Thou shalt see My glory, I who am God and the Son of God." So Leontius and Euthymius.
But where did Christ say this to Martha? We answer, Christ said that not in precise words, but virtually and in effect He said it when the messengers were sent by Martha (ver4), when He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." So S. Chrysostom. Again, and more clearly, to Martha herself, in verses23,25.
If thou wouldest believe. Christ arouses the wavering faith and hope of Martha; for although she when she met Christ before had said, "I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God" (vers22,27), yet when it came to the point, when I say, Christ, just about to raise up Lazarus, ordered the sepulchre to be opened, Martha began to totter; wherefore she said, "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." She had therefore alternate impulses of grace and nature, of faith and distrust, of hope and despair, concerning the resurrection of Lazarus, such as we experience in ourselves: when looking to God we hope that we shall overcome all things, however difficult; but when looking to our own infirmity, when we ought to advance against some difficulty, we hesitate, we tremble, and almost disbelieve that it can be accomplished by us. So recruits before a battle show great boldness, but when the battle commences, at the first onset of the enemy they fear and fly. Whence it is said: "In peace lions, in battle stags." But veteran soldiers before the battle tremble as stags, but in the battle they stand and fight as lions. By this difference you may distinguish the veteran from the tyro.
