John 11

John 11:1

The Man Born Blind SUMMARY OF JOHN 9: Are Physical Misfortunes Judgments?. Sometimes for the Glory of God. The Blind Man Healed. The Pharisees Examine Him. They Excommunicate Him for Honoring Christ. He Confesseth Christ. He saw a man who was blind from [his] birth. Like most such unfortunates in the East, he was a beggar (John 9:8).

John 11:2

Master, who did sin? Many of our misfortunes and physical ills are brought on us either by our own sins, or are inherited from parents and caused by their sins. The disciples ask if the blindness is a judgment, and who caused it? They were, perhaps, not aware that he was blind from birth.

John 11:3

Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. Jesus does not affirm that they were sinless, but that their sins were not the cause of the calamity. We are not justified in asserting that the sufferer is a sinner. Job, Christ, Paul, and the whole army of martyrs disprove it. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. By his miraculous cure the work of God shall be made manifest. It is the work of God to believe on Christ (John 6:29), and the blindness of this man was the occasion of faith being produced, not only in him, but others. Thus Christ shows a nobler use of suffering. “The Father chasteneth every son whom he loveth” (Hebrews 12:6).

John 11:4

The night cometh, when no man can work. The works of God are to be made manifest in the blind man; Christ must work those works while the short day of life lasteth. His night of death was near. Nor is ours far off.

John 11:5

I am the light of the world. He opens the blind eyes of both the body and the soul. We see morally, because he has given us light.

John 11:7

Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. It was Christ’s rule to require an act of faith. Hence, instead of bidding him to see, he sent him to Siloam to wash the clay from his eyes. Siloam is a rock-hewn basin fifty-three feet long, eighteen wide, and nineteen deep, fed by a spring. It is named in Isaiah 8:6 Ne 3:15, and can still be seen in Jerusalem.

John 11:13

They brought to the Pharisees him. It was a notable event that demanded investigation. Hence they brought him to religious men of great influence.

John 11:14

It was the sabbath. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. We have found in the case of the miracle at the pool of Bethesda how they were angered by his apparent violation of the day.

John 11:16

This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath. The Pharisees questioned the man, learned that his eyes had been smeared with spittle, and then declared that Jesus had broken the Sabbath. Even this was a violation, not of the law, but of their tradition. See PNT Matthew 15:2.

John 11:17

He said, He is a prophet. A little while before he had said that “a man called Jesus” (John 9:11) healed him; now he declares that “he is a prophet”; a little later he is prepared to receive him as the Son of God (John 9:38). His convictions constantly deepened.

John 11:22

Because they feared the Jews. The rulers. They knew that it was agreed to excommunicate any one who confessed Christ. Hence they said, He was born blind, he now sees, you must ask him how he was cured. He is of age. To be cast out of the synagogue was an awful punishment to a Jew. It put him on a level with the heathen.

John 11:24

We know that this man is a sinner. Because he healed on the Sabbath.

John 11:30

Why herein is a marvellous thing. It was also a “marvellous thing” that one who was a blind beggar a few hours before should now expound theology to the very men that “sat in Moses’ seat” (Matthew 23:2) and show a better knowledge of the spirit of the Scriptures than the great ecclesiastics. Without the power of God no man could open the eyes of one born blind.

John 11:34

They cast him out. If they could not answer his arguments they could excommunicate him. This they did. Observe that this miracle was officially investigated by the enemies of Christ, and they were compelled to admit it. The judicial investigation showed that he was born blind, that he was cured, and that Jesus gave him sight.

John 11:35

Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Jesus sought the poor excommunicated man, revealed himself to him and was confessed. The man had lost the world, but found Christ. Observe that he believes with the heart, confesses with the mouth, and shows his faith by his homage.

John 11:39

For judgment I am come into this world. The coming of Christ, the Light, reveals human hearts. Publicans and sinners were made to see, while “Jews” and Pharisees, who claimed to be enlightened, were left in darkness, because they closed their eyes. Those blinded are those who would not see.

John 11:40

Are we blind also? The Pharisees ask this. They were not blind by necessity. They could see if they would. Hence they were responsible. Had they been without opportunity they would have no moral responsibility, but as they had opportunity to see and claimed to see, their “sin remaineth”.

John 11:43

The Good Shepherd SUMMARY OF JOHN 10: The Sheepfold. The Shepherd of the Sheep. The Hireling. The Feast of Dedication. The Jews Seek to Stone Jesus. He Teaches Beyond Jordan. He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold. The sheepfold is a figure of the church, the door into which is Christ. The sheepfolds of the East are large enclosures, open to the sky, but walled around with reeds or stones or brick in order to afford a protection against robbers, wolves, and other beasts of prey. There is a large door in which the shepherd enters with the sheep.

John 11:44

He that entereth by the door. The one who comes in by the door is the shepherd. The figure is very plain to those familiar with Eastern sheepfolds. The door is for the shepherd and the sheep, while those who get in otherwise are robbers who seek to prey upon the sheep.

John 11:45

To him the porter openeth. The gatekeeper whose business is to guard the entrance. This servant was furnished with arms to fight off intruders, but the shepherd he would let in. It is not certain that Christ intended to make the porter a figure of any spiritual thing, but if so, he would represent God, who has decided who shall enter through the door. And the sheep hear his voice. This is true to the letter. The sheep in the East are so tame and so trained that they follow their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from the fold just where he pleases. The Eastern shepherds lead their sheep, while in our country we drive them. He calleth his own sheep by name. This corresponds exactly with the facts of Eastern shepherd life. They give names to sheep as we do to horses, cows, and dogs. “Passing by a flock of sheep”, says Mr. Hartley, “I asked the shepherd to call one of his sheep. He instantly did so, and it left its pasturage and its companions, and ran to the shepherd with a promptitude and signs of pleasure that I never witnessed before”.

John 11:46

The sheep follow him: for they know his voice. Also literally true in the East as all travelers testify, but a stranger they will not follow, because his voice is strange. So true is it that when a traveler has changed dress with the shepherd for an experiment, they still have followed the disguised shepherd’s voice and refused to listen to the voice of a stranger in the garb of their own shepherd.

John 11:48

This parable spoke Jesus to them. The Greek word “paroimia” rendered here “parable” is not so rendered elsewhere. It is rather a simile.

John 11:49

I am the door of the sheep. John 10:1-5 speak of shepherds in general. These shepherds enter into the fold and go out by the same door as the sheep. Christ is that door; “the door of the sheep”, the one door for all, both sheep and shepherds. There is no other way in, for “there is no other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

John 11:50

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. Abbott holds that the idea is “All who came, not entering through the door, but claiming to be before me, having the precedence, independent of me, are thieves and robbers”. This seems to harmonize with the context, and is probably the Savior’s meaning. He included the Jewish rabbis, the Greek philosophers, the pretended prophets, and the “Infallible Pope”. These all refuse to bow to his authority. But the sheep did not hear them. The true sheep.

John 11:51

By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Christ is at once the door, the shepherd and the pasture. His pasture is the bread of life (John 6:35,48) and the water of life (John 4:14).

John 11:52

The thief cometh not, but to steal. All those who enter otherwise than by the door wish to prey upon the flock.

John 11:53

I am the good shepherd. This title, applied to Jehovah in Psalms 23:1-6 Ezekiel 34:12, Christ here applies to himself. The mark of the good shepherd is “that he giveth his life for his sheep”. In that unsettled country the shepherd had often to defend his flock.

John 11:54

But he that is an hireling . . . leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. It is not the bare fact of a man receiving pay that makes him a hireling. “The laborer is worthy of his hire” (Lu 10:7). He is a hireling who would not work were it not for this hire, and who works where the hire is highest rather than were he can do the most good.