When our faith begins to flag, and hang the wing when our strength is gone, and we have given up all for lost, “Now will I arise,” saith the Lord, “now will I be exalted, now will I lift up Myself” (Isa_33:10). (J. Trapp.)
The journey
Leaving His retreat beyond Jordan, Jesus calmly makes His way to the village of Bethany. We shall find it shown in the issue that, as regards the manifestation of the glory of God, the leading of the disciples into higher faith, and the discipline and blessing of the sisters, the Lord’s arrival is neither too early nor too late; but that it is as when separate trains move along separate lines of railway, “timed” to meet by a certain hour, at a certain junction, there to be combined. The distance to Bethany was a long day’s journey. Whether He made the journey in a single day we have no means of knowing. The earliest part of it would lie along some fertile glen of Gilead, and would be pursued amid “morning songs” from every side. Crossing the Jordan at a neighbouring ford, the next part of the journey would lie in the rich plain of Jericho, beautiful as a great pleasure ground, with bosks and groves of aromatic shrubs. Then He would pursue the wild dreary road that goes up from Jericho to Jerusalem, lying through a desolate rocky district, often winding along the edge of cliffs and frightful precipices, one of the wildest and gloomiest roads in the land. As He approaches Bethany, the dust of travel whitening His sandals, and as weary, it may be, as when He came to Jacob’s well at noon, He is told that Lazarus has already been four days in the grave. (J. Culross.)
Many of the Jews had come … to console them
Oriental consolers
According to the ancient Jewish ritual, those who came to condole with the mourners had to return with them from the grave to the house, there to station themselves in a circle around the mourners, repeating prayers, and offering consolation. The rule was that this circle of consolers should consist of not less than ten persons; but it usually consisted of many more. In token of grief, the couches upon which the mourners and the consolers sat were lowered so as to come nearer to the ground, or else all sat upon the ground. The consolers remained with the mourners during the days of mourning; but there was a certain defence from this publicity in the fact that the consoler had no right to speak until the mourner spoke; and the mourner had the privilege further of indicating, by nodding, that he was now comforted and that the consolers need not continue to sit around him any longer. (S. S. Times.)
The interview with Martha
I. MARTHA’S REGRETFUL LAMENTATION; or faith struggling with imperfect knowledge (Joh_11:21). The language neither of reproach nor complaint, but.
1. Of deep sorrow that Christ had not been present, at least, before the end came.
2. Of sincere faith, since she believed that had He been present, He would have healed him, or entreated God on his behalf.
3. Of imperfect knowledge
(1) Allied to superstition in thinking Christ’s presence needful (cf. chap. 4:47)
.
(2) Akin to over confidence in asserting that Lazarus would have lived had Christ not been absent.
II. MARTHA’S CONFIDENT PERSUASION; or faith rising into ardent hope (Joh_11:22).
1. Faith’s firm assurance. That Christ’s access to the Father on behalf of men is
(1) Immediate, at any moment.
(2) Direct, by simply asking.
(3) Unlimited, “all things.”
(4) Efficacious, certain to prevail.
2. Faith’s joyous expectation. That nothing will prove too great.
(1) For Christ’s love to devise, or
(2) Christ’s power to execute on behalf of His people Eph_3:20-21)--hence that a resurrection is neither impossible nor absurd.
III. MARTHA’S DESPONDING ADMISSION; or faith relapsing into doubt (verse 24).
1. Her disappointment. She had expected Christ to speak about an immediate restoration of her dead brother, whereas He only seemed to hint at a far away resurrection (verse 23).
2. Her concession. She acknowledges, notwithstanding, such a resurrection, and consequently Lazarus’s continued existence.
IV. MARTHA’S SUBLIME CONFESSION; or faith soaring into lofty adoration (verse 27). That which lifted her beyond the atmosphere of doubt was Christ’s exposition of the doctrine (verses 25, 26), in which were set forth
1. That the resurrection was not an event to be thought of as distinct from the life, but as a manifestation of the life.
2. That the resurrection and the life, as thus explained, have their primal source in Himself, in whom is life (chap. 1:4), and from whom all true life in the soul proceeds.
3. That the resurrection, and the life from which it springs, are secured to men by their union to Him through faith.
4. That in the experience of the believer there is
(1) A resurrection of the soul from sin.
(2) A living in the Spirit.
(3) A transformation of death so that the believer may be said to “never die.”
(4) A complete abolition of death by the resurrection of the body.
Lessons
1. Christ’s presence with the soul is the certain destruction of death.
2. Christ’s intercession for His people is better understood now than it was Heb_7:25).
3. The resurrection, as explained by Christ, a perennial source of comfort for the bereaved and dying.
4. The only just verdict that can be pronounced on Jesus is that of “Son of God.” (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Jesus and Martha
I. THE SOCIAL SADNESS OF DEATH. The death of Lazarus had spread a dark shadow over the hearts of not a few. Besides the sisters the neighbours were affected (Joh_11:19). The God of Love has implanted in human hearts a mighty tie of sympathy, and the groan of one will vibrate on the heart chords of many. The more love a man has in him the larger the amount of vicarious suffering that he will endure in this world of grief. Hence He who had more love in Him than all the race besides became a “man of sorrows” to carry ours. To suffer for others by sympathy is not only natural, but Christly. We are commanded to “bear one another’s burdens.”
II. THE EXTRAORDINARY CLAIM OF CHRIST (Joh_11:25-26). These words, which flow so naturally from Christ, would have been blasphemy from any other. They imply
1. That death is a great evil--not as a mere dissolution of soul and body, which is natural, but as the consequence of sin, and so having a dreadful moral significance and terror--a “sting,” giving it virus and agony. There are
(1) Its physical sufferings. Had there been no sin there would have been no pain.
(2) Its grievous disappointments. Rut for sin man would have had no broken purposes.
(3) Its social disruptions.
(4) Its moral forebodings. Without these death might be hailed as a blessing--these make it a curse.
2. That from this evil Christ is the great Deliverer.
(1) Christ is life--original, absolute, “I am He that liveth,” etc.
(2) He is resuscitating life--not only creating the new, but raising the old. Understanding death as the curse of sin, Christ is the Resurrection in that
(a) He delivers men from sin.
(b) He has abolished death.
3. That from this evil He delivers on the condition of trust in Him, not in doctrines about Him, etc.
III. THE NOBLE CONFESSION OF FAITH (Joh_11:27). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Martha and Jesus
I. MARTHA IS A TYPE OF ANXIOUS BELIEVERS. They believe truly, but not with such confidence as to lay aside their care.
1. She set a practical bound to the Saviour’s words: “Of course there will be a resurrection, and Lazarus will rise with the rest.” We limit the words of the Holy One. Of course they mean so much, but we cannot allow that they mean more.
2. She laid the words of Jesus on the shelf, as things so trite and sure that they were of small practical importance. When you believe a truth, but neglect it, it is the same as not believing. Some never question a doctrine, that is not their temptation; they accept the gospel as true, but never expect to see its promises carried out.
3. She set the promise in the remote distance. This is a common folly. Telescopes are meant to bring objects near to the eye, but some look through the mental telescope at the wrong end. Do not refuse the present blessing and say, “My Lord delayeth His coming.”
4. She made the promise unreal and impersonal, mixing Lazarus with the rest of the dead. We take the promises and say, “That is true to all God’s people.” If so, it is true to us; but we miss that point. There is such a thing as speaking of the promises in a magnificent style, and yet being in deep spiritual poverty: as if a man should boast of the wealth of England while he has not a penny. If you are a child of God, all things are yours and you may help yourself.
II. HOW JESUS DEALT WITH MARTHA.
1. He did not grow angry with her and say, “I am ashamed of you that you should have such low thoughts of Me.” She thought that she was honouring Jesus by her acknowledgment of His special power with God. And in similar cases it ill becomes a servant to lose patience where the Master shows so much.
2. With gentle spirit Jesus proceeds to teach her more of the things concerning Himself. This is the true way to cure despondency. “I am,” not “I can get the Resurrection.” God’s people want to know more of Jesus. Some of them know more than enough of themselves, and they will break their hearts if they go on reading much longer in that black letter book. Poor Martha was looking up into the sky for life, or down into the deeps for resurrection, when the Resurrection and the Life was by.
Learn
1. To construe the promises in their largest sense.
2. To look to the Promiser, and not to the difficulties which surround the accomplishment of the promise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Martha went … but Mary sat still
Martha meeting Christ
Martha’s “met” is a perfect tense; Mary’s “sat” is an imperfect. It is impossible not to see the characteristic temperament of each sister coming out here, and doubtless it is written for our learning. Martha--active, stirring, busy, demonstrative--cannot wait, but runs impulsively to meet Jesus. Mary--quiet, gentle, pensive, meditative, contemplative, meek--sits passively at home. Yet I venture to think that of the two sisters, Martha here appears to most advantage. There is such a thing as being so crushed and stunned by our affliction that we do not adorn our profession under it. Is there not something of this in Mary’s conduct throughout this chapter? There is a time to stir, as well as to sit still; and here, by not stirring, Mary certainly missed hearing our Lord’s glorious declaration about Himself. I would not be mistaken in saying this. Both these holy women were true disciples; yet if Mary showed more grace on a former occasion than Martha, I think Martha here showed more than Mary. Let us never forget that there are differences of temperament among believers, and let us make due allowance for others if they are not quite like ourselves. There are believers who are quiet, passive, silent, and meditative; and believers who are active, stirring, and demonstrative. The well-ordered Church must find room, place, and work for all. We need Marys as well as Marthas, and Marthas as well as Marys. (Bp. Ryle.)
Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died
If
“Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” How natural it all is! “If Thou hadst been here.” Prone is the human heart to utter just such words as these. “Much virtue in an if,” says the poet. But there is also much torture in it. Had this been done or that, had such and such precautions been taken, had the doctor been sent for a little sooner, had certain remedies been tried which were learned of too late, had we not moved into that house, the result might have been different. So we go over the whole miserable catalogue of peradventures and possibilities with much bitterness of spirit. That is the tendency and the temptation. But it should never be done. That “if’’ has no business in our bosom. It is a stinging serpent that should be ruthlessly cast out. There is no if. Nothing ever simply happens so. Chance is the god of atheism, and will minister no comfort in the time of trouble. Banish him. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and all things come of Him. Our ignorance is as much a part of the Divine plan as our knowledge. He does not mean us to know all things. (Boston Homilies.)
The imperfection of spiritual qualities
God made the first marriage--of the body and soul in creation, and man the first divorce--of the body and soul through sin. God allows no such second marriages as are implied in the transmigration of souls into other bodies. And because God has made this band of marriage indissoluble but by death, as far as man is immortal, his divorce is only separation. Body and soul shall come together again at the Resurrection. To establish the assurance of this God raised Lazarus and others here. Note from the text
I. THAT THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD PERFECT.
1. In the best things.
(1) Knowledge. What thing do we know perfectly? One philosopher thinks he has dived at the bottom when he says he knows nothing but this, that he knows nothing; and yet another thinks he has expressed more knowledge by saying that he knows not so much as that.
(2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’s prayer for an increase of faith (Luk_17:5); in Christ’s upbraidings (Mat_6:30; Mat_8:26); in Paul’s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1Th_1:2; 1Th_3:10; 2Th_1:3); in the expressions “rich in faith,” “abound in faith,” “measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more.
(3) That our hope is not perfect we see from Jam_4:3. We cannot hope constantly because we do not pray aright; and to make a prayer a right prayer there must go so many circumstances as that the best man may suspect his best prayer. Whereas, ordinarily, a fly, the opening of a door, a memory of yesterday, a fear of tomorrow, a noise in the ear, a fancy in the brain, destroy prayer.
(4) There is nothing perfect in our charity. There is no work so good as that we can look to God for thanks for it; none but has so much ill mingled with it that we need not bespeak God’s mercy.
2. How this weakness appears in the action in the text. Lest we should attribute it only to weak persons, note that Martha as well as Mary comes also in the same voice of infirmity (verse 32). Look upon
(1) Their faith. We cannot say as much as they did to any college of physicians; but the weakness of their faith lies in this, that they said so much and no more to Christ; and regard even that power to be derived from God and not inherent (verse 22). Again, they relied so much upon His corporal presence. It was this that Christ diverted Mary from after His resurrection (Joh_20:16). “Touch Me not--send thy thoughts whither I am going.” Peter had another holy distemper upon this personal presence, “Depart from Me” (Luk_5:8). The sisters longed for Him, and Peter to be delivered from Him, both out of weakness and error, as do they who attribute too much or too little to Christ’s presence in ordinances. To imprison Christ in opere operato, to conclude that where that action is done Christ must necessarily be is to err weakly with these sisters; but to banish Christ from those holy actions is to err with Peter.
(2) So in their hope and their manner of expressing it. For they did not go; they sent--unlike Nicodemus, who came in person for his sick soul, and the centurion for his sick servant, and Jairus and the woman with the issue. That is not enough; we must bring Christ and our necessities nearer together. Then they made no request, but left an intimation to work on Christ; but I must not wrap up my necessities in general terms, but descend to particulars. As God is an accessible God He is open to receive thy smallest petitions, and as He is an inexhaustible God He cannot be pressed too much. Pray personally, rely not upon dead or living saints, and pray frequently and earnestly.
(3) In their charity even towards their dead brother. To lament a dead friend is natural; but inordinate lamentation implies a worse state in him that is gone; and if we believe him in heaven to wish him here is uncharitable.
3. Yet for all these imperfections Christ doth not refuse or chide, but cherishes their piety. There is no form of building stronger than an arch, and yet an arch has declinations which even a flat roof has not. So our devotions do not the less bear up upright in the sight of God, because they have some declinations towards natural affections. All these infirmities of theirs multiply this consolation, that though God look upon the inscription, He looks upon the metal too; though He look that His image should be preserved in us, He looks in what earthen vessels this image is put by His own hand.
II. As in spiritual things there is nothing perfect, SO IN TEMPORAL THERE IS NOTHING PERMANENT.
1. The earth itself is in motion.
2. Consider the greatest bodies upon it--monarchies which one would think destiny might stare at and not shake; and the smallest bodies, the hairs of our head, which one would think destiny would hardly observe; and yet destiny or, to speak as a Christian, God, is no more troubled to make a monarchy ruinous than a hair grey; nay, nothing needs be done, the one will ruin and the other turn grey of itself.
3. In the elements there is no acquiescence, but a transmutation into one another; air condensed becomes water, and air rarefied becomes fire.
4. It is so in the conditions of men: a merchant condensed, packed up in a great estate, becomes a lord; and a merchant rarefied by a riotous son evaporates into nothing. And if there were anything permanent in the world, set we gain nothing, because we cannot stay with it.
5. The world is a great volume, and man its index. Even man’s body is an illustration of all nature. Even in its highest estates, as the temple of the Holy Ghost, it must perish. Conclusion: But as in spiritual things there is no perfectness, and yet God accepts our religious services, so, notwithstanding that all temporal things, God’s noblest piece included, decays, yet God affords this body a resurrection. The Gentiles describe the sad state of death as one everlasting night; but to a Christian it is the day of death and the day of resurrection. And looking at this we may invert the text and say, “Because Thou wast here our brother is not dead.” For Christ is with the Christian in life, death, and the resurrection. (J. Donne, D. D.)
Salvation, not from suffering, but by it
I. THE LOWEST VIEW OF LIFE looks out upon it only as a hostelry, where every guest is to seize on so many of the good things exposed as the laws allow. This selfish hunt will take different directions according to the ruling appetite. But the characteristic mark on it all is that it disowns God. This system not only fails to provide for the chief internal necessity--viz., a religion; it fails to meet the external fact of suffering. That is a test of all philosophies and theories of life. It is useless to leave it out of the calculation; it forces its way back into every lot. Life does not become a problem till we taste of its bitterness. Whenever pain, bereavement, etc., come, that comfort-seeking, epicurean plan of living collapses, and the least that the man can then do is to fly to Zeno’s porch and borrow some crumbs of frigid dignity that fall from the stoics table.
II. ASCEND A STEP HIGHER. Here we find God to be acknowledged, but more through fear than devout submission. Providence had returned to the world from which unbelief had rejected Him; but the confession, “Thy will be done,” is not so full as to include the giving up of the dearest idols, and there is the suspicion that here and there some sparrow or more precious thing may fall without the Father’s notice. This state is met by suffering, the touchstone; how does it behave itself? Well, but not best. Soberly but not serenely. Some selfish preferences linger to mar the beauty of resignation--to keep back part of the souls trust, and so disturb the perfect peace of believing. There is the beginning of faith--too much to be thrown away, not enough to live by. This is precisely where Martha stands. There is a mixture of the strength and weakness of faith, perhaps of faith and superstition. She believed in the power and love of Jesus--that was her true faith--but she believed that it must operate in prolonging her brother’s life, and was limited to His physical presence. That was the falsity and weakness of her faith. Jesus corrects it with, “Whosoever [anywhere] believeth on Me shall never die.”
III. Out of that state into A HIGHER ONE STILL Christ wishes to lift her and us. Where a holy soul will be felt to be of more value than any freedom from pain; when sympathy with Christ is valued more than having a human friend at our side. Saved by suffering, not from it, is the law of life revealed in Christ. Character depends on inward strength, but this strength has two conditions: it is increased only by being put forth, and tested only by resistance. So the spiritual character must enter into conflict, and stand in comparison with something formidable enough to be a standard of its power.
1. The ordinary conditions of a prosperous fortune furnishes no such standard. The favoured moral constitutions which ripen into sainthood under perpetual comfort are rare exceptions. Suffering in some form must put faith to the proof and purify it; what form God, who knows best, must determine. The sisters must see Lazarus die, Matthew must forsake all to follow the Master. How many of us take up Martha’s plaint instead of, “Lord in these chastenings of friendly love Thou hast been here--Thy will be done.” And Christ shows three times over that the design here was that the disciples, the sisters, and the people, might believe.
2. In another class of moral experiences the principle has a direct application--in those who long more earnestly for rest than faithful submission. They have heard that there is joy in believing, and so believe for the sake of the joy, and this, though a nobler thirst than that of the senses, is tainted with selfishness and wanting in faith. Then, again, the mercenary tendency to offer to God your good works as a price for purchasing self-complacency needs to be watched. It defeats its own end. Faith never comes that way: it comes swiftest when you seek it as an end least. Seek purity, harmony with God, and peace in God’s good time will come. Stillness is our needed sacrifice. Baffled and broken the soul must often be ere its immortal strength comes. Not from but by this suffering we shall be saved.
3. We may embrace all those instances in which we doubt whether some care was not omitted whereby the fatal blow might have been warded off When shall we learn that God takes the past into His secure keeping, and that even out of sorrows that we might have prevented, a spiritual benefit may be now drawn greater than their prevention. Vain cry, “Lord, if Thou hadst,” etc. But to receive and bless Him in whatever robes of darkness, when He comes. Conclusion:
1. Suffering is disciplinary.
2. If our desires reach only after exemption from it, they are but half faithless.
3. The true conquest and peace of faith, as well as the solution of the mystery of sorrow, lie in our willingness to suffer, so far as it may bring us to the society of our Lord. (Bp. Huntington.)
The power of God to prevent death
I. GOD IS ABLE TO PREVENT ANY PERSON DYING SO SOON AS HE DOES DIE. He preserved the lives of men much longer in former ages: but He could have prevented Methuselah dying at 969 had He pleased. He is able to preserve men from sickness, the common cause of death--and He does so often for seventy, eighty, or ninety years. And if men become sick He can raise them as He did Hezekiah. So with accidents, another cause of death.
II. GOD NEVER DOES PREVENT MEN DYING AS SOON AS THEY DO DIE. He might have prevented Lazarus dying, yet He did not. And this holds in all cases; and no power can move Him when He chooses that any shall die. This we see in David’s prayer for his little infant, in those of pious parents for theirs, and in those of the Church for good and useful men.
III. WHY GOD DOES NOT PREVENT PERSONS DYING AS SOON AS THEY DO DIE. Because
1. He knows that their appointed time to die is come. “Is there not an appointed time,” etc.
2. He sees it best for them to die then. He knows what will be the consequence of living, and takes them away from the evil to come.
3. He knows that it will be the-best for the survivors. Many have done more good by dying than they would by living.
How often has the death of a child resulted in the conversion of the parents! This was the reason of the death of Lazarus.
4. He has a supreme regard for His own glory. He displays a wisdom, goodness and sovereignty which surpasses that of all His intelligent creatures.
Improvement. If God can preserve human life or cut it short as He pleases, then
1. It is proper to pray for the sick as long as the least spark of life remains. Neither young nor old ought to give up the hope of living; and God has wrought wonders in answer to prayer.
2. We ought never to pray for the preservation of life unconditionally. We ought to rejoice that we are in God’s hands, who knows best. So Christ prayed conditionally in view of His tremendous sufferings--“Not My will.”
3. All ought to carry about with them a sense that they are dying creatures. They know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. “Lord make me to know mine end.”
4. Death commonly comes unexpected. We are ready to remember that God can preserve our lives as long as He pleases, but forget that He has an appointed time, and that time always comes suddenly.
5. None can enjoy life without becoming truly religious. Then whatever comes we shall be ready for the joy of our Lord.
6. Mourners have always reason to exercise unreserved submission to his bereaving hand. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Restoration better titan prevention
I. MARTHA SAW NOT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE DEATH AND BLESSEDNESS OF CHRIST’S SERVANTS. She had largely in her thought the Jewish idea of death as the disturber of fellowship. Truer to have said, “Thou hast been here and my brother has lived.” Christ’s influence goes to make men feel that they are citizens of heaven. The whole meaning of our life is in the future; death is the portal to that perfection.
1. We feel in our hearts that there is an inseparable connection between faith and knowledge. The relation is not complete here. We must die to know the right coordination of the two.
2. Aspiration and perfection are not equal here. In eternity demand and satisfaction are one.
3. How sundered are love and happiness here, where love and sorrow are fellows. In heaven measureless love will yield limitless gladness.
4. Power and opportunity are frequently divided. In heaven power and environment will be matched. We must die to realize the true correlation of our being with the spiritual universe.
III. SHE DID NOT SEE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHRIST’S DELAY AND THE GOOD OF ALL CONCERNED. Jesus was absent not that Lazarus might die, but that he might die in faith without sight. Christ might have checked the disease in Person, but His delay furthered the purposes of His love.
1. To educate their trust.
2. To prepare them for the actual work about to be wrought.
3. To reveal His glory more fully.
4. To make the deepest impression on the unbelieving.
III. SHE DID NOT SEE AS WE DO NOW THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THEIR SUFFERING AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. John shows us how the miracle was a distinct link in the chain of events that led to the death of Jesus.
1. They suffered because Christ was to suffer. As some on-rushing star sets up perturbations in other worlds that come within the range of its influence, so this great process of God in sacrifice draws into its vortex the lives of men.
2. They suffered because Christ must suffer, “Ought not Christ to suffer these things?” Ought not His disciples to share in the community of His sorrows? This is the explanation of pain and conflict. To see the relation between our pain and Christ’s Cross is to be qualified to meet and conquer it. The fellowship of such suffering carries in its heart even now the sharing of His glory. (J. Matthews.)
Contingent events and providence
I. THERE IS A CLOSE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE FEELING HERE EXPRESSED AND THAT EXPERIENCED BY MOST BEREAVED PERSONS. How few afflictions which are not made doubly afflictive by an if. If our friend had done this instead of that--if we had only foreseen. These thoughts make perfect resignation impossible. They come in between us and God, and bewilder in a maze of second causes which no man can thread or find repose in.
II. IF THERE IS ROOM FOR THESE REFLECTIONS IN ANY, THERE IS ROOM FOR THEM IN EVERY CASE. Take any instance of death, except by constitutional decay, and you can always fix upon some circumstance which seemed the turning point. Only let danger be foreseen, and, humanly speaking, in nine cases out of ten deaths would be prevented. If a man knew he was going to catch a fever or meet with an accident, how he would avoid the dangerous localities. Calamities flow immediately from the shortness of human foresight. Could ocean storms be calculated or shifting currents mapped, there would be no shipwrecks. Here Divine Providence overrules and moves in ways higher than ours. To say, therefore, “Had it been thus my brother or child had not died is, to complain of the ordinance of Divine Wisdom by which man is kept ignorant of the future.
III. THIS PRINCIPLE APPLIES EQUALLY TO THE HAPPY PORTIONS OF OUR LIFE. Recovery, preservation, prosperity, depend equally on contingencies, which, when we look back, we see might have been otherwise. A choice which has led to the most fortunate issues was determined, not by foresight of the end, but by the most casual circumstances. Thus there is room for the if in our joys which we cannot number.
IV. THE NECESSARY LIMITS OF HUMAN FORESIGHT INDICATE THE POINT ON WHICH WE CHIEFLY NEED TO PRACTICE CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. Our ignorance is part of the Divine plan, and is essential to happiness. You murmur that you could not see a particular calamity so as to have prevented it: but then you would have to see all. This would make you a secondary providence in your own circle, and impose a weight of care which Omnipotence alone could sustain for a single day.
V. THE CONDITION OF MORTAL LIFE IS SUMMED UP IN TWO WORDS--MAN’S DUTY AND GOD’S PROVIDENCE. In the hour of bereavement the question as to our faithfulness in the relation suspended will and ought to come up. When you can answer it to your satisfaction you have no ground for uneasiness. You did what you could. You had not Divine foresight: do not then torment yourself, because you were not in God’s stead. Do your duty, and in the majority of instances it will lead to the outward results you desire. Obey nature’s laws, and health will be the rule, disease the exception. But with all your care there is another system: that of Divine Providence, which has no law but eternal love. The decree has gone forth--“Ye shall have tribulation,” and we need the discipline as pilgrims todetach us from the attractions by the wayside, and to fix our affections on things above. When God sees that we need this, vain are our anxieties and precautions. All that remains is to say, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemest to Him good.” (A. P. Peabody, D. D.)
The consolations of Christ adapted to She state and character of His people
(text and Joh_11:32)
I. HOW MUCH SAMENESS THERE IS IN GRIEF. It is remarkable that two persons so different in turn of mind and feeling should both utter the same words. It shows how the heart when deeply moved is the same in all. The sisters were united in their affection to Lazarus and in their reliance on Jesus. Together they watched, sent for Christ, waited anxiously for His coming, fell into the dreary sadness which follows the first violence of grief, then greet Jesus as He comes too late in the same way. It is the voice of nature mingling its vain regrets with the resignation of simple faith.
1. There is the feeling that it might have been otherwise. We know not what detained Thee, perhaps we did not send, or the messenger did not reach Thee in time. Oh that the sickness had happened when Thou was in Jerusalem! Is it not thus that the heart speaks under every trying dispensation? If some measure had been adopted, or such an accident not happened, my brother had not died. However natural, is this not the very folly of unbelief conceiving Christ as limited by events which He Himself ordains? Nay, He might have answered, I might have been there; and though not I might have kept him alive, or being there might have let him die. Whatever comes is not accident, but His will. Be still and know that He is God.
2. That it should have been otherwise. We sent a special message, why linger and not make haste to help us--an instinctive complaint in a season of bereavement. It is hard to believe that God ordains it and does no wrong. You can give many reasons. How serviceable that valuable life might have been to God and man. But remember God has many purposes with which you are unacquainted. Wait patiently and you will see that it was for His glory. It may be that He had need of His services elsewhere.
3. That it was sincere, if melancholy, satisfaction in meeting with Jesus at last. He had not come at the time, in the way, for the purpose they expected, and too late for their purpose, but still He had come for good, and they gratefully receive Him. Happy if you so meet the Saviour’s advances. Like Rachel, you may refuse to be comforted, and like Jonah, when your gourd withers, you may be angry, and turn away when Christ comes. Beware of such moods. It is enough if He is with you to fill the aching void in your affections, and be to you instead of what you have lost--better than a thousand brothers.
II. HOW MUCH VARIETY THERE IS IN GRIEF. The sisters differed in their sorrow as they did generally. Both regarded Christ with confidence and affection, but Martha showed it by active and Mary by quiet devotion. So now, when Martha received intimation of Christ’s approach, she rose in haste impatient to meet Him; but Mary remained in the house absorbed in her grief; and when she went forth they said, “she goeth to the grave,” etc., as though she, unlike Martha, could do nothing else.
1. Thus in different circumstances the same temper may be an advantage or a snare. Mary was never so occupied with an emotion of one subject as not to be ready for the call to another. This was a disadvantage when she was so hurried with this and that household care as to have no time to wait on the word of life: but it was an advantage now that she could shake off her depression and hasten to meet Christ. The same profound feeling, however, which made Mary an attentive listener made her the most helpless sufferer until Jesus sent specially to rouse her (verse 28).
2. In the meeting the difference is equally characteristic. Martha is calm and collected enough to enter into argument, and at length is sufficiently self-possessed to make a formal declaration of her faith. Not so Mary--her heart is too full for many words, she cannot command the passion of her soul. She can but cast herself down weeping, and say (verse 32).
III. HOW MUCH COMPASS THERE IS IN THE CONSOLATION OF CHRIST, ADAPTED TO GRIEF OF EVERY MOULD AND MOOD.
1. Martha’s distress admitted of discussion and discourse. Jesus spoke to her and led her to speak to Him, and though she understands Him not fully she is relieved by having laid on her Divine Friend the burden of her soul, and with her lightened heart she declares her entire acquiescence in Him (verse 27).
2. Mary is differently affected and His sympathy is shown in a different way. He is much more profoundly moved. He does not reply in words, for her own were so few. Grief has choked her, and His own responsive sigh is more comforting than any promise. Jesus wept. Blessed mourner with whose tears thy Saviour mingles His own. With Martha Jesus reasoned: with Mary Jesus wept.
3. How confidently every Christian mourner can come to Him. He will give you the very cordial you need. He is a patient hearer if you have anything to say, and He will speak as you are able to hear it, and if you cannot collect your thoughts, and your heart is hot within you-remember that with these groanings which cannot be uttered the Spirit maketh intercession for you. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Whatsoever thou wilt ask of God
The Master advocate
This is our comfort, that Christ is all in all with the Father, and may have what He will of Him. What need we of any other “master of requests” than Christ. If David will hear Joab for Absalom, and Herod Blastus for the Tyrians, what may not we hope? (J. Trapp.)
Death defeated by prayer
At a certain time Luther received an express, stating that his bosom friend and co-worker in the reformation, Philip Melancthon, was lying at the point of death; upon which information he immediately set out upon the journey of some hundred and fifty miles, to visit him, and upon his arrival, he actually found all the distinctive features of death; such as the glazed eye, the cold clammy sweat, and insensible lethargy, upon him. Upon witnessing these sure indications of a speedy dissolution, as he mournfully bent over him, he exclaimed with great emotion, “Oh, how awful is the change wrought upon the visage of my dear brother!” On hearing this voice, to the astonishment of all present, Melancthon opened his eyes, and looking up into Luther’s face, remarked, “Oh, Luther, is this you? Why don’t you let me depart in peace?” Upon which Luther replied, “Oh no, Philip, we cannot spare you yet.” Luther then turned away from the bed, and fell upon his knees, with his face towards the window, and began to wrestle with God in prayer, and to plead with great fervency, for more than an hour, the many proofs recorded in Scripture of His being a prayer hearing and prayer answering God; and also how much he stood in need of the services of Melancthon, in furthering that cause, in which the honour and glory of God’s great name, and the eternal welfare of unnumbered millions of immortal souls, were so deeply interested; and that God should not deny him this one request, to restore him the aid of his well-tried brother Melancthon. He then rose up from prayer, and went to the bedside again, and took Melancthon by the hand. Upon which Melancthon again remarked, “Oh, dear Luther, why don’t you let me depart in peace?” To which Luther again answered, “No, no, Philip, we cannot possibly spare you from the field of labour yet.” Luther then requested the nurse to go and make him a dish of soup, according to his instructions. Which being prepared, was brought to Luther, who requested his friend Melancthon to eat of it. Melancthon again asked him, “Oh, Luther, why will you not let me go home, and be at rest?” To which Luther replied as before, “Philip, we cannot spare you yet.” Melancthon then exhibited a disinclination to partake of the nourishment prepared for him. Upon which Luther remarked, “Philip, eat, or I will excommunicate you.” Melancthon then partook of the food prepared, and immediately grew better, and was speedily restored to his wonted health and strength again, and laboured for years afterwards with his coadjutors in the blessed cause of the reformation. Upon Luther’s arrival at home, he narrated to his beloved wife Catherine the above circumstances, and added, “God gave me my brother Melancthon back in direct answer to prayer;” and added further, with patriarchal simplicity, “God on a former occasion gave me, also, you back, Kata, in answer to my prayer.”
Thy brother shall rise again
Earthly relationship not destroyed by death
There was that in the tie of blood which death was powerless to alter. Many an aching heart would find comfort, if it were assured of this. Have we lost them forever as ours, those loved ones--lost all the claim upon their special answering love, which those old earthly names, “brother,” “sister,” and the like, gave us? Is the Communion of Saints one monotonous dead level of spiritual relationship? Or are the ties of earth--whether ties of blood, or ties of friendship, or ties of love--not abolished, but transfigured, in that mysterious world beyond death? On the warrant of these words of Jesus! dare to believe that they will be glorified, not destroyed; that that, which more than anything else makes earth bright and worth having, will be at least one of the lesser luminaries of heaven. Nay, even if we had no such words of Jesus as these, I could never bring myself to believe that God would so mock us, as to give us these relationships and bid us be faithful to them, only to tear our hearts in pieces with grief--grief which must necessarily be intense in proportion to our fidelity to them--when the cruel hour of death arrives to dissolve them. It is sad enough that they should be even suspended, through “ignorance of a common tongue”--their destruction would be intolerable to us. As the seed is transformed into the plant--as the natural body is transfigured into the spiritual body--so will the earthly relationship be glorified into its heavenly counterpart. (D. J.Vaughan, M. A.)
Funeral sermon
Let us survey
I. THE LIFE OF THE DEPARTED. Note
1. His affection as a relative.
2. His attachment as a friend.
3. His grace as a Christian.
4. His fidelity as a minister.
II. THE DEATH OF THE DEPARTED. It was
1. Unexpected.
2. Tranquil.
3. Gainful to Him. He has
(1) Full vision of Christ--of those around the throne.
(2) Full image.
(3) Full enjoyment.
4. Loss to you--as relative, friend, Christian, minister.
III. HIS RESURRECTION.
1. To an immortal life.
2. In a superior state.
3. For the noblest purposes. This resurrection is
(1) Possible.
(2) Reasonable.
(3) Certain.
(4) Desirable
(a) To see his bereaved kindred.
(b) To meet his sorrowing friends.
(c) To present his beloved people.
(d) To enjoy his incarnate God. (J. Judson.)
The identity of the earthly and the heavenly life
“Thy brother”--the very being that had died--the same in feeling, mind, sentiment. This is the Christian idea of immortality. The next life is an unbroken continuation of this as regards
I. OUR PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE. Why should this be closed by the opening of the soul’s prison gates? So far from this it hardly admits of doubt that the direction which the mind has assumed in the obscurity and distractions of the world will determine its favourite course when for darkness there shall be light, and for hindrances helps, in the case of, e.g., the philosopher, the scientist, the historian.
II. OUR AESTHETIC NATURE. No attribute of the Creator is more richly manifested than His love of beauty. For all refined tastes He has furnished nutriment with the same bounty as that with which He has provided for our lower needs. We trace God none the less in the beauty that flows from human hands. Man, in the pride of his art, and at the zenith of his power is the copyist of the Creator; and if I can be glad and worshipful in the presence of the copies, how much more in the better life shall I be sensible of their archetypes. And when St. John lays all nature under contribution, and piles splendour upon splendour to shadow forth the glories of the new Jerusalem, I know the very power of painting those gorgeous forms is an authentic prophecy of more of beauty in heaven than heart has conceived.
III. OUR CAPACITY FOR FRIENDSHIP. This capacity for transcends its earthly uses, and our power of enjoying it here. The most tender home love only intensifies and enlarges the power of loving. With this proclivity to form attachments we are saddened, not only by the death-thinned ranks of our friends, but by the multitude of the living who win our dear regard and then seldom come within our reach--friends of our travels, e.g., and friends in distant cities. Why are we made capable of loves so strong, and yet so evanescent? To lay up treasures for the heavenly life, providing friends that shall be ours forever. There will be in heaven time enough and room enough for all. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.)
I know he shall rise again in the resurrection
Grace imagined less
The grace was so great that Martha does what we all often do--imagines it less: as when you slip a sovereign into a boy’s hand on his birthday, and he imagines it a shilling, having no thought of a gift so great. (J. Culross, D. D.)
A near benefit not understood
This passage of the history may remind us of somewhat similar in the conversation with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well. Neither does Martha here, nor that woman, understand the nearness of the benefit. In each case, half despondingly, they put it off. Yet to the one, speaking only of a distant future, and saying, “I know that Messias cometh: when He is come He will tell us all things;” the Lord suddenly rejoins, “I that speak unto thee am He.” And so here to the other, who can think of nothing nearer, nothing better, than the remote general resurrection, the Lord likewise rejoins, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Each has but the vague, inoperative idea of the final good: He speaks to each of an even present blessing. (G. J. Browne, M. A.)
Our treatment of the promises
We do with the promises often as a poor old couple did with a precious document, which might have cheered their old age had they used it according to its real value. A gentleman stepping into a poor woman’s house saw framed and glazed upon the wall a French note for a thousand francs. He said to the old folks, “How came you by this?” They informed him that a poor French soldier had been taken in by them and nursed until he died, and he had given them that little picture when he was dying as a memorial of him. They thought it such a pretty souvenir that they had framed it, and there it was adorning the cottage wall. They were greatly surprised when they were told that it was worth a sum which would be quite a little fortune for them if they would but turn it into money. Are we not equally unpractical with far more precious things? Have you not certain of the words of your great Lord framed and glazed in your hearts, and do you not say to yourselves, “They are so sweet and precious”? and yet you have never turned them into actual blessing--never used them in the hour of need. You have done as Martha did when she took the words, “Thy brother shall rise again,” and put round about them this handsome frame, “in the resurrection at the last day.” Oh that we had grace to turn God’s bullion of gospel into current coin, and use them as our present spending money. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
I am the Resurrection and the Life
The Resurrection
All the titles of our Lord are names of power. They express His nature, perfection, or prerogatives; what they declare He is. They are shadows of a Divine substance. He who is Very Life raised Himself from the dead: “I am the Resurrection.” On the first day of the week His glorious soul returned to His pure flesh, and His manhood, whole and perfect, through the power of His Godhead, arose of His own will. He came back the very same, and yet the same no more. The dishonour of His holy passion had passed away, but its tokens still were there. And as in body, so in soul. Death had no more dominion over Him, yet He was full of sympathy, learned by dying. All the depths of His human experience were in Him still. “He learned obedience by the things which he suffered;” and the ineffable mystery of His three and thirty years of sorrow rose with Him from the grave. Wherefore this Divine name, as it reveals the power of His own resurrection, so it is the pledge of ours. It is a pledge to us of many joys; but chiefly of three Divine gifts.
1. The first is a perfect newness of body and soul. This very body shall be deathless and glorious as the body of His glory when He arose from the dead. And so, too, of the soul. It shall be still more glorious, even as the spirit is above the flesh. The more we know of ourselves, the more incredible, if I may so speak of a very blessedness, this promise seems. To be without sin, what else is heaven? And can it ever be that we who brought sin with our life blood into the world--who have fallen and soiled ourselves through and through with wilful evil--that we shall be one day clean as the light, and white as the driven snow? Yet this is His pledge to us.
2. Another gift pledged to us is the perfect restoration of all His brethren in His kingdom (Joh_17:24; Joh_14:2-3). We shall be “with Him.” We shall behold Him as He is; He will behold us as we are: He in the perfect sameness of His person; we in ours. What, then, means this unbelieving Christian world, when it asks, Shall we then recognize each other? Will not they all know Him as He them, and all know each other as He knows each? The law of perfect recognition is inseparable from the law of perfect identity. Our individual consciousness must be eternal. We should not be what we are to ourselves, if we were not so to others. The kingdom of God in glory is the perfection of His kingdom in grace, in which every several soul here tried, chastened, and purified, shall be there blessed, crowned and sainted--the same in person, changed only to perfection. And more than this. The perfect restitution which shall be in the kingdom of the resurrection will bring back, not only perfect mutual recognition, but the restoration of all pure and consecrated bonds.
3. This title pledges to us an immortal kingdom. The Resurrection has given back to us an inheritance in the paradise of God, where there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, of which the first creation, even in its perfection, was only an imperfect shadow. In that true paradise there shall be no seasons nor vicissitudes, no sweat of the face nor hard toil for bread. An everlasting noontide shall be there; an endless spring in the newness of unfading joy, a perpetual autumn in the ripeness of its gifts. There shall be “the tree of life bearing twelve manner of fruits”; all joy and all delight for every capacity of man; reward for every toil, and health for every wound, after the manifold trial of every soul, in the Israel of God. (Archdeacon Manning.)
Life everlasting
After the resurrection comes life everlasting. “I am the Life”! This life and the life to come are not two, but one and the same. Death is not the ending of one, and resurrection the beginning of another, but through all there runs one imperishable life. A river which plunges into the earth, is buried for awhile, and then bursts forth more mightily and in a fuller tide, is not two, but one continuous stream. The light of today and the light of tomorrow are not two, but one living splendour. Night is but a veil between the light and us. So with life and death. The life of the soul is immortal, an image of God’s own eternity. It lives on in sleep; it lives on through death; it lives even more abundantly, and with fuller and mightier energy.
2. Another great law here revealed is, that as we die, so we shall rise; as there is no new beginning of our life, so there is no new beginning of our character. We shall all carry with us into the eternal world the very self which we have here stamped and moulded, or distorted and branded--the renewed image of God, or the image of the evil one. Our life from first to last teaches us this lesson; it is one continuous whole, gathering up itself through all its course, and perpetuating its earliest features in its latest self: the child is in the boy, the boy is in the man; the man is himself forever.
3. The resurrection will make each one perfect in his own several characters. Nay, even at death it shall be unfolded into a new measure of fulness. Our character is our will; for what we will, we are. Our will contains our whole intention; it sums up our spiritual nature; it contains what we call the tendency of our character: for the will gives the bias to the right or to the left; as we will, so we incline. Now this tendency, both for good and evil, is here imperfect; but it will be there fulfilled. Here it is hindered; the wicked are restrained by truth and grace, by laws and punishments, by fear and shame, by interest and the world; the good are hindered by sin and temptation, by their own infirmities and faults. But there all restraints shall be taken away, and all aids shall be supplied. It is both an awful and consoling thought. What sinners are now in measure, they shall then be in its fulness. So likewise with the faithful: what they have striven to be, they shall be made. God’s grace shall perfect what they had here desired.
Lessons
1. How dangerous is the least sin we do! Every act confirms some old tendency, or develops a new one.
2. How precious is every means of grace. (Archdeacon Manning.)
The Resurrection and the Life
I. THE CHARACTER. “I am the Resurrection,” etc. Christ is this.
1. As it is by Him that the doctrines of the resurrection and eternal life are revealed. None had a knowledge of the Resurrection, and there were only confused notions of immortality before Christ came. He taught these truths with the greatest clearness, and illustrated and proved them by raising others, and mostly by His own resurrection. This act of His was to extend His influence over the world and to the end of time.
2. As He has the power by which they are bestowed. Martha admitted the general fact; but Christ goes on to affirm that by His own power He could raise her dead brother when and how He pleased, when Martha came to the conclusion that He was the Messiah. In this assertion we see the supreme dignity of Christ. “As the Father raiseth up,” etc. The miracles at Nain of Jarius’ daughter, and here at the last day, prove Christ to be the Master of Eternity, King of kings, and Lord of lords.
II. THE PROMISE.
1. The characters to whom it is comprehensively directed. “He that believeth,” etc.
(1) The necessity of faith. It is the turning point in your immortality. Those who do not believe have no title to this and the other promises which make eternal life to depend upon faith.
(2) What have we to believe? Christ, in all the essential points of His character--Divinity, atonement, etc.
2. The particular application of the promise to the circumstances of those to whom it is addressed.
(1) “Though he were dead.” He who has believed, but is now in the grave, shall be restored to life. “I, who am the Resurrection,” etc., will not allow him to remain in that narrow house forever. Death itself shall die. We mourn not as those who are without hope.
(2) “Whosoever liveth.” He first goes and gives hope to the dead, and then He says of the living believer, “he shall never die.” What is death? The consequence of sin? The sins of the believer are pardoned. The effect of a curse? The curse from the believer is removed. The stroke is not in vengeance, but in love.
III. THE APPEAL. “Believest thou this?” Christ is desirous of bringing the whole to bear on personal experience. What is your answer? If we do believe this
1. We shall not mourn improperly for those who have gone, but have comfort concerning our departed friends.
2. It will be our principal security in the event of our own departure.
3. It will give the hope of a happy reunion on the day of final restoration.
4. The rejection of this testimony will be a cause of condemnation and eternal despair. (J. Parsons.)
Christ the Resurrection and the Life
1. Christ’s greatest utterance on death was spoken on the first occasion on which its dark question had come closely to His own soul. Elsewhere He had gone to meet it; here it had come to meet Him in that inner circle of friendship, and had gained complete possession.
2. The two mighty questions--What is death? Can it rend the friendships of life?--confronted the Redeemer; and the miracle was His answer. It showed that there was in Him a life which death had no power to destroy, and that death had not sundered Lazarus from Jesus or his sisters. It had made the ties of affection stronger than before, and had not quenched one faculty of his being.
I. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A BATTLE; THROUGH DEATH IT RISES INTO A VICTORY. We carry within us our perpetual foe, and a thousand outward forces tend to quench the love of Christ within. This struggle is with death, for sin is death. The act of dying is but the outward and visible sign of this constant struggle. But in this last scene the apparent victim is conqueror; the life-long fight is finished, and the victory won. The life Christ gives demands a resurrection for its completion, and a resurrection in Christ makes death the fulness of life in victory.
II. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A HOPE; BY DEATH IT RISES INTO ITS CONSUMMATION. The Christian’s hope is to see Christ, and be with Him, and like Him. From the earliest dawn of the new life that desire is kindled; and it deepens until it colours every aspiration, and finds its whole heaven in “absent from the body,” etc. To the first disciples the storms that swept over the lake had often been things of terror; but after Christ has calmed them every storm would seem holy with the memory of His presence. The desert hath oft seemed a strange, unfriendly region; but after Christ had fed the multitudes there, it would be sacred with the memory of the Saviour’s pity. Mount Tabor had long looked stern, but the memory of Christ’s unveiled glory there transformed it into a temple. And so it has ever been. The felt presence of Jesus has transfigured earth’s gloomiest places, poured a light into prisons, diffused peace through the cruel tortures of the rack, filled the martyr’s soul with the dawn of paradise. Where Christ is is heaven. But this hope demands a resurrection. Here our visions are transient and partial; and until the veil of the body be rent, we shall not see Jesus as He is.
III. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP: BY DEATH IT BECOMES PERFECT AND ETERNAL. No man can be constrained by the love of Christ without feeling that henceforth he is bound by new and holy ties to “the whole family in heaven and earth.” It was just the depth and power of that fellowship which, in the first disciples, startled the world as a new thing. The world might crush the men, but it could not touch the fellowship; it might try to break up their union with fire and sword, but, as apostle and martyr passed away, the brethren who remained said only that they had gone to the earlier home, and were now waiting in the Father’s house the reunion. And in these days the fellowship of spiritual life is as real and powerful, and demands a resurrection. Death seems the great divider. No friendship here is perfect, no sympathy complete, no love ever reaches the fulness of which it dreams. The constant longing for complete communion is the soul’s great outcry for the resurrection day. And here again Christ, who is the life of our fellowship, gives us the pledge of its rising. In restoring Lazarus to his home, He showed that the ties that bind a brother to a sister are, when spiritual, among the things which shall rise again. In His words of farewell, He promises a Father’s house where we shall meet again; and in the forty days He showed that our communion shall rise from death, having lost nothing but its infirmity, and clothed
