John 11:36-38 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then said the Jews, Behold, &c.— Our Lord's tears had also another use; they caused those who saw them to wonder the more at the death of Lazarus, and consequently to doubt of his divine power, who prevented it not; whence the subsequent miracle, as less expected by them, became the more wonderful. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! They perceived that his was no affected grief, but the real testimony of a sincere regard; and they could not but conclude that this regard for Lazarus was great indeed, when no ties of blood, relationship, or necessity, but undissembled friendship only, caused the generous woe: others, however, of a more malevolent and envious turn of mind, interpreted this circumstance to our Lord's disadvantage. For, according to their mean way of judging, they fancied that he had suffered Lazarus to fall under the stroke of death, for no other reason but want of power to rescue him; and thinking the miracle, said to have been wrought on the blind man at the feast of tabernacles, at least as difficult as the curing of an acute distemper, they called the former in question, because the latter had been neglected: "If," say they, "he hasreally opened the eyes of the blind, might he not have preserved this man from death?" These perverse and obstinate people were not persuaded by all the wonderful works which Jesus had done; neither would they be convinced by the great miracle that he was about to perform. They were to see him raise one to life and health again, who had been four days in the grave; yet so hard were their hearts, that many of them would persist in their infidelity still. Jesus, who knew the discourses which they now held among themselves in private concerning him, was likewise fully acquainted with the hardness of their hearts, and, at the same time, foresaw the miseries in which their unbelief would involve them; thatunbelief which yields not to his power, so soon as death itself. The thought of all these things afflicted him, and made him groan deeply within himself as he went to the sepulchre; which, according to the usual manner of burying with the Jews, was hewn out in a cave, and a stone was placed at it; that is, at the door of the cave, as was the case in our Lord's sepulchre. See on Luke 24:4.