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We know the value of time to a sick man (we say) when the disease is growing and the vital energies are failing. "Too late," the physician tells you: "if you had called me just two days ago, I might have done something; but now the case is past my skill." But Jesus (and His heart was love itself) "abode two days still in the same place where He was." The abiding on this occasion reminds us of that which took place when He was on the way to the house of Jairus, whose little daughter lay a-dying. Human love, impatient of delay, would have urged Him to make haste; yet He tarries, during the last precious moments, over the case of the woman who had touched the hem of His garment and been healed of her issue of blood. It is a most noticeable feature of all His works that they were done without hurry; with the calmness of one who stays on God; with the calmness of conscious omnipotence that can afford to wait; with the calmness of strong-hearted love that will not forego its mighty purpose of blessing by taking premature action. In this case the delay was in His plan of loving kindness, and essential, as we shall see by and by, to its full development. It was not merely that He knew what He would do, how He would "take off their sackcloth, and gird them with gladness;" but the delay, strange and painful as it was, and inexplicable to the sisters, formed part of the preparation He was making to give them a blessing according to His own heart, who cares more for our being rooted in God than for our present happiness. He was letting them cry out of the depths, that they might afterward cry, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption."

(J. Culross, D. D.)

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KJV: Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

WEB: Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.