<p>11:4- see on Jn. 1:14; 13:32.</p><p><i>But when Jesus heard it, he said: This sickness is not to death</i>- But it obviously was, humanly speaking. Again we see how the Lord is using language and seeing things differently to those around Him. He was trying to get the disciples to perceive a difference between the death of a believer in hope of resurrection, and &quot;death&quot; in the sense of total, permanent loss of existence. For He goes on to say plainly that &quot;Lazarus is dead&quot;. Through this apparent contradiction, the Lord was seeking to help them develop a realization that death is not ultimately death for those associated with Him. But as so often, the disciples failed to catch on. Yet later in the discourse, He again seeks to encourage Martha to believe that His promises of life beyond death actually have application in this life too.</p><p><i>But for the glory of God</i>- The glory of the Son of God was and is the glory of God. The Lord stated that the sickness of Lazarus &ldquo;is not unto death, but for the glory of God&rdquo;. That sounds like a predictive statement. But it seems to have been conditional. For one thing, that sickness did lead to the death of Lazarus. But notice the Lord&rsquo;s later comment to Martha when her faith wavered in the possibility of immediate resurrection for Lazarus: &ldquo;Said I not unto you, that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?&rdquo; (Jn. 11:40). But the Lord isn&rsquo;t recorded as actually having said that. What He had said was that the sickness of Lazarus would reveal the glory of God, in a way as dramatic as an Old Testament theophany, when God's glory was literally revealed in visible terms. But He had intended Martha to understand the conditionality of that statement- i.e. &lsquo;If you can believe Martha, Lazarus can be saved from that sickness and its effects, and thus glory will be given to God&rsquo;. But again, we see the Lord&rsquo;s grace. She didn&rsquo;t have that faith. She was concerned that even the taking away of the grave stone would release the odour of her brother&rsquo;s dead body. But Jesus didn&rsquo;t say &lsquo;Well Martha, no faith on your part, no resurrection of Lazarus, no glory to God this time&rsquo;. By grace alone, He raised Lazarus. He overrode the conditionality. And so it must happen so often, and so tragically unperceived, in our lives.</p><p><i>That thereby the Son of God may be glorified</i>- This is very much the language of the glorification of God's Son through His death and resurrection (Jn. 12:23; 13:31; 17:1). But the essence of His experience on the cross was worked out in His life before that time came. Perhaps this was why the Lord specifically waited two days where He was, knowing that the time it took to get to Bethany would occupy another day, so that Lazarus would be resurrected after three days in the grave wrapped in graveclothes, as He was to be. Perhaps His reference to &quot;twelve hours&quot; and walking through a day or night is to be understood as alluding to how far away they literally were from Bethany (:9). The &quot;four days&quot; in the grave of :17 could refer to two full days and two partial days. The Lord wanted to see Himself in Lazarus, and He arranged situations to that end; just as He desires to see Himself in us all, and allows suffering and delays His responses to that end. This is the essence of Christianity- being made into the <i>morphe</i> or form / image of the crucified, resurrected and victorious Christ; being made conformable unto His death, that the power of His new life might be seen in us (Phil. 3:10).</p>