Therefore the sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick ( ὃν φιλεῖς nominative to ἀσθενεῖ). The sisters knew well what peril Jesus and his disciples would encounter by coming to Bethany, and they must have known that he could have healed him by a word; so they simply state the case.
(On the difference between φιλεῖν and ἀγάπαν, see notes on John 5:20; John 21:15, John 21:17. Trench, 'New Test. Syn.,' § 12. The former word is that of personal affection and fondness, though occasion ally having grander associations and equivalent to amo, while ἀγαπάω is equivalent to diligo, and means the love of choice, of sentiment, of confidence and esteem.
) There is delicate tact and beauty in the use of the two words, one by the sisters, the other by the evangelist. The statement of needs, the simple voice of our weakness, the infant's cry, goes up to heaven.
The bleat of the lost lamb is enough for the good Shepherd.