Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of an oil lamp and an open scroll on a table, disciples talking by the sea of Galilee

John 11:1 · World English Bible

John 11:1 Meaning Now a Certain Man Was Sick

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

Read it in the app

What does John 11:1 mean?

Sickness reaches the houses closest to Jesus on the same footing it reaches any other, and health is no measure of where a person stands before Him. Lazarus is the Greek form of Eleazar, a name that means God has helped, and carrying it spared him nothing.

From the Protestant reading below.

John 11:1 through 2 lenses

The same verse, read by 2 traditions.

PROTESTANT

Protestant

Sickness reaches the houses closest to Jesus on the same footing it reaches any other, and health is no measure of where a person stands before Him. Lazarus is the Greek form of Eleazar, a name that means God has helped, and carrying it spared him nothing.

The town itself is identified by Mary and Martha rather than by any man in it, so Bethany comes down to us known by two women Jesus loved. Their trouble is not evidence He has turned away.

Protestant lensGo deeper in the app

CATHOLIC

Catholic

God's friends get sick. Being loved by Christ buys no exemption from illness, and this household was close to him in a way few were.

The naming matters because it makes the coming miracle particular rather than general. A real man with a home and sisters is about to die, and the grief will be an actual family's grief. Christian hope has always attached itself to persons with names, which is why the Church prays for the dead one by one and keeps their names in its memory instead of speaking of the dead as a crowd.

Catholic lensGo deeper in the app

Protestant lens

Live John 11:1 today

  1. If you got a hard result back this week, a test, a scan, a diagnosis, let it be a fact about your body and not a report card on your life. Say it plainly to yourself once, without the sentence that usually follows it.
  2. Text the person you keep meaning to text, the one whose illness has gone on long enough that people stopped asking. Skip the advice and the bright side, just ask how today actually went.
  3. When someone's trouble makes you quietly wonder what they did to deserve it, catch that thought before it reaches your face. Hand them something ordinary instead, a ride, a grocery run, a seat in the waiting room.

Whose love do you doubt when things go badly for you?

The same truth in other traditions

Zhuangzi

The sage does not read fortune or illness as a verdict on a person's worth. Things come and go like weather, and the one who stops treating them as judgments can finally rest.

Stoicism · Epictetus

Sickness belongs to the body, not to the part of you that chooses and loves. Epictetus, who was lame his whole life, taught that a limp interrupts the leg and nothing else.

Buddhism · the Four Sights

The young Siddhartha learns that aging, illness and death reach every house without exception, including his own guarded palace. This is not a punishment aimed at anyone. It is simply what bodies do.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of John 11 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store