When Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Read Chapter 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
When Jesus heard that He said, This sickness is not, &c. First, because this death of Lazarus shall not be so much death, as sleep; for he shall wake again and rise from it. Whence ( John 11:11) He saith: Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Secondly, as if He said: The end and object of the sickness of Lazarus is not death, but the glory of God; for God did not send it on him in order that it should deprive him of life by death, but rather that it should restore life to him in greater measure, and thus be to the greater glory of God. So S. Augustine: "It is not to death," he says, "because death itself is not to death, but rather to the giving occasion for a miracle, by the performing of which men may believe in Christ, and avoid the true death." Thirdly, it is not to death, that Isaiah , to such a death as is usually common to men, namely, that man should remain in it nor return any more to this life and this world: for although death might separat...
The Lord now says this, not that the men may go away and report it to the sisters of Lazarus, but as God foretelling what should come to pass, because He saw that the conclusion of the affair would be for the glory of God; not that the sickness came upon the man for this reason, that He should be glorified; for it would be silly to say this; but since it had come, He also saw that it would result in a wonderful end. And He says that Himself is in His Nature God, for that which is done, is done for His glory. For after saying that the sickness was for the glory of God, He added: That the Son of God may be glorified thereby, speaking concerning Himself.
And if He Himself said that the sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, and yet his death took place, there is nothing to marvel at. For looking on to the final result of the affair, and seeing that He was going to raise him up after a little time, we do not consider anything that took place in the interval, but only how the end would ...
This sickness is not unto death. That is, though he truly die, it is not designed that he remain dead. (Witham)
This sickness is not unto death; because his death itself was not unto death, but rather to the working of a great miracle, by which men were brought to the true faith, and thus avoided an eternal death. (St. Augustine, tract. 49. in Joan.)
Lazarus indeed died of this sickness, but he did not die as other men, to continue dead; for Jesus raised him again to the glory of God. (Sts. Cyril, Chrysostom)
Observe how He again asserts that His glory and the Father's is One; for after saying of God, He has added, that the Son of God might be glorified.
This sickness is not unto death. Since He intended to tarry two days where He was, He for the present sends away the messengers with this answer. Wherefore we must admire Lazarus' sisters, that after hearing that the sickness was not unto death, and yet seeing him dead, they were not offended, although the event had been directly contrary. But even so they came to Him, and did not think that He had spoken falsely.
The expression that in this passage denotes not cause, but consequence; the sickness happened from other causes, but He used it for the glory of God.
