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TOPIC: MacDuff, John - Memories Of Bethany (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 04 The Messenger
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THE MESSENGER
Is the absent Savior not to be sought? Martha and Mary knew the direction He had taken. The last time He had visited their home was at the Feast of Dedication, during the season of winter, when the palm-trees were bared of their leaves, and the voice of the turtle-dove was silent. Jesus, on that occasion, had to escape the vengeance of the Jews in Jerusalem by a temporary retirement to the place where John first baptized, near Aenon, on the wooded banks of the Jordan. It must have been to Him a spot and season of calm and grateful repose; a pleasing transition from the crude hatred and heartless formalism which met Him in the degenerate City. The savor of the Baptist's name and spirit seemed to linger around this sequestered region. John had evidently prepared, by his faithful ministry, the way for a mightier Preacher, for we read, as the result of the Savior's present sojourn, that "many believed on Him there."
If we visit with hallowed emotion the places where first we learned to love the Lord, to two at least of those who accompanied the Redeemer, the region He now traversed must have been full of fragrant memories; there it was that Jesus had been first pointed out to them as the "Lamb of God;" there they first "beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth."
On His way there, on the present occasion, He most probably passed through Bethany, and apprized His friends of His temporary absence. Lazarus was then in his customary vigor—no shadow of death had yet passed over his brow; he doubtless parted with the Lord he loved happy at the thought of before long meeting again. But soon all is changed. The hand of sickness unexpectedly lays him low. At first there is no cause for anxiety. But soon the herald-symptoms of danger and death gather fast and thick around his pillow; "his beauty consumes away like a moth." The terrible possibility for the first time flashes across the minds of the sisters, of a desolate home, and of themselves being the desolate survivors of a loved brother. The joyous dream of restoration becomes fainter and fainter. Human remedies are hopeless.
There was One, and only ONE, in the wide world who could save from impending death. His word, they knew, could alone summon luster to that eye, and bloom to that wan and fading cheek. Fifty long miles intervene between the great Physician and their cottage home. But they cannot hesitate. Some kind and compassionate neighbor is soon found ready to hasten along the Jericho road with the brief but urgent message, "Lord! behold he whom You love is sick." If it only reaches Him in time, they know that no more is needed. They even indulge the expectation that their messenger may be anticipated by the Lord Himself appearing. Others might doubt His omniscience, but they knew its reality. They had the blessed conviction, that while they were seated in burning tears by that couch of sickness, there was a sympathizing Being far away marking every heart-throb of His suffering friend. Even when the stern human conviction of "no hope" was pressing upon them, "hoping against hope," they must have felt confident that He would not allow His faithfulness now to fail. He had often proved Himself a Brother and Friend in the hour of joy. Could He fail—can He fail to prove Himself now a "Brother born for adversity?"
Although, however, thus convinced that the tale of their sorrows was known to Jesus, a messenger is sent; the means are employed! They act as though He knew it not; as if that omniscient Savior had been all unconscious of these hours of prolonged and anxious agony! What a lesson is there here for us! God is acquainted with our every trouble; He knows (far better than we know ourselves) every pang we heave, every tear we weep, every perplexing path we tread; but the knee must be bent, the message must be taken, the prayer must ascend!
It is His own appointed method—His own consecrated medium for obtaining blessings. Jesus may have gone, and probably would have gone to restore His friend, even though no such messenger had reached Him—we dare not limit the grace and dealings of God. He is often (blessed be His name for it!) "found by those who sought Him not." But He loves such messages as this. He loves the confiding, childlike trust of His own people, who delight in the hour of their extremity to cast their burdens upon Him, and send the winged herald of prayer to the throne of grace on which He sits.
Would that we valued, more than we do, this blessed link of communication between our souls and Heaven! More especially in our seasons of trouble, (when "vain is the help of man,") happy for us to be able implicitly to rest in the ability and willingness of a gracious Redeemer. Prayer brings the soul near to Jesus, and fetches Jesus near to the soul. He may linger, as He did now at the Jordan, before the answer be granted, but it is for some wise reason; and even if the answer given is not in accordance with our pre-conceived wishes or anxious desires, yet how comforting to have put our case and all its perplexities—in His hand, saying, "I am oppressed; undertake for me! To You I unburden and unbosom my sorrows. I shall be satisfied whether my cup be filled or emptied. Do to me as seems good in Your sight. He whom I love and whom YOU love is sick; the Lazarus of my earthly hopes and affections is hovering on the brink of death. That leveling blow, if consummated, will sweep down in a moment all my hopes of earthly happiness and joy. But it is my privilege to confide my trouble to You; to know that I have surrendered myself and all that concerns me into the hand of Him who 'considers my soul in adversity.' Yes; and should my schemes be crossed, and my fondest hopes baffled, I will feel, even in apparently unanswered prayers, that the Judge of all the earth has done right!"
"It is said," says Rutherford, speaking of the Savior's delay in responding to the request of the Syrophenician woman; "It is said He answered not a word, but it is not said He heard not a word. These two differ much. Christ often hears when He does not answer. His not answering is an answer, and speaks thus: 'Pray on, go on and cry, for the Lord holds His door fast bolted—not to keep you out, but that you may knock and knock."
"God delays to answer prayer," says Usher, "because he would have more of it. If the musicians come to play at our doors or our windows, if we delight not in their music, we throw them out money presently that they may be gone. But if the music please us, we forbear to give them money, because we would keep them longer to enjoy their music. So the Lord loves and delights in the sweet words of His children, and therefore puts them off and answers them not presently."
Observe still further, in the case of these sorrowing sisters of Bethany, while in all haste and urgency they send their messenger, they do not ask Jesus to come—they dictate no procedure—they venture on no positive request—all is left to Himself. What a lesson also is there here to confide in His wisdom, to feel that His way and His will must be the best—that our befitting attitude is to lie passive at His feet—to wait His righteous disposal of us and ours—to make this the burden of our petition, "Lord, what would You have me to do?" "If it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
Reader! invite to your gates this celestial messenger. Make prayer a holy habit—a cherished privilege. Seek to be ever maintaining inter-communion with Jesus; consecrating life's common duties with His favor and love. Day by day before you take your flight into the world, night by night when you return from its soiling contacts, bathe your drooping plumes in this refreshing fountain. Let prayer sweeten prosperity and hallow adversity. Seek to know the unutterable blessedness of habitual filial nearness to your Father in heaven—in childlike confidence unbosoming to Him those heart-sorrows with which no earthly friend can sympathize, and with which a stranger cannot intermeddle. No trouble is too trifling to confide to His ear—no need too trivial to bear to His mercy-seat.
"Prayer is appointed to convey
The blessings He designs to give;
Long as they live should Christians pray,
For only while they pray, they live."