John 11:4 - Exposition

When Jesus heard (it), he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. What message Jesus gave to these who brought him these tidings we know not; the evangelist records what he said to the bystanders. Our Lord did not mean to say that the sickness would not terminate in what men ordinarily call "death," nor that it was not a deadly disease, but that it was not πρὸς θάνατον . "He shall not fall a prey to death" (Meyer), The sickness is so timed that it shall conduce to the ( δόξα θεοῦ ) glory of God, i . e . to the majestic appreciation of the sublime perfections of God, and that by or in it the Son of God may be glorified. υπὲρ elsewhere in the Gospel means "sacrifice on behalf of;" so here the very suffering of Lazarus and of the sisters, and the tears of Jesus over the grave, are part of the sacrificial ministry by which the glory of God or of the Sun of God may be advanced.