The history of man by nature begins with his birth, and ends with his death. Joy and festivity flow from his birth; amid the tears of his friends his history closes here. The history of Lazarus, as presented in this chapter, is the reverse of all this. Commencing with his sickness and death it ends with his life in resurrection. At the beginning of the chapter his sisters are distressed at his sickness, and weep for his death, at the close he is with them alive from the dead, and the cause of their sorrow removed.
A picture then we have of resurrection. Death, the end of man s existence here, is not the end of man. That door which no mere human power can open, and which, when once it closes on its victim, seems to enclose him within its portals forever, can be pushed back, and man be set free from the grasp of death. There is a power superior to death, there is a voice which can be heard in the grave. The child of God can look forward to life beyond death, resurrection from the dead, and the closest personal communion with his Lord. Lazarus died and was buried, but he came forth from the grave, and sat at meat with Jesus in his own house, so will the sleeping saints one day rise and drink with them. Lord the wine new in the Father’s Kingdom. But, whilst we trace in the history of Lazarus the outlines of resurrection, we must remember the great difference between that of Lazarus and the hope of the sleeping saints. He came back from the grave, they will rise from it. He returned to earth, they will ascend to Heaven. He died again, they will live to die no more. So, whilst an illustration of resurrection from the dead, as living again on earth, we may see here pictured the future resurrection of the people of Israel. They will be called nationally out of their graves, the dead bones be united bone to his bone, and the nation be resuscitated at the word of the Lord. But more is met with than all this, for this history is intended in harmony with the rest of the Gospel to teach us what the Lord Jesus is, and can be, to His own; that whilst He is absent from us, we should be able to reckon on Him for all that we need. His person, His heart, His power are all three exhibited in this chapter, that His people may learn to confide in Him as one who has gauged the full measure of their sorrows, and is not only able but willing to enter into them.
Perfect Man, as well as Son of God He is. The perfection of His manhood He manifested to the disciples beyond Jordan, the reality of His Godhead He announced to Martha outside the village of Bethany. The messages of the sisters moved Him not to go to Bethany, because He thought first of God’s glory; the death of Lazarus decided Him to go there, because the time for God’s glory to be displayed had drawn near. “This sickness is not unto death (i.e., death is not the ultimate object of it) but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” This was a new view of death, which He, who is the resurrection, first brought forward. In death, the consequence of man’s sin, the enemy seemed to have triumphed completely. Through death, the act of God in Government towards His sinful creatures, His Son should be glorified. What an answer at once to the oft put question, why did God allow sin to enter the world? He might have prevented it, and so manifested His power; He allowed it to enter that He might display His glory. But how? Would He triumph over the creature He had made, who is crushed before the moth? He will be glorified, not by consigning man to the grave, but by displaying to all the universe that He can righteously raise up His saints from it.
What glory will surely accrue to Him on the resurrection morning when all His saints who have died—the evidences of the devil’s successful machinations against Adam and Eve—shall arise from the grave to die no more—the witnesses to all creation of the perfection of the work of His Son! To be faithful to His Word, death must be the lot of man as such; to be faithful to His Son, resurrection must be the everlasting portion of His saints. It was to all appearance a great achievement on the part of Satan to make God pronounce sentence on those he had drawn into sin; but the glory of God was displayed, when resurrection from the dead could be righteously proclaimed as the sure expectation of those who were subject to death. To set this forth the Lord re-entered Judea, and advanced to the confines of Bethany.
Met by Martha outside the village, He stands to proclaim the reality of His Godhead. Knowing something of Him, but not fully confiding in Him, she expresses confidence as to the result of His prayers. Had she really trusted Him, she would have left Him to act as He would without indicating a line to be pursued. He teaches her, and by her us also, who and what He is. True it is that whatever He asked He would receive. But she has to learn that in Himself, as He stood before her, was all Lazarus wanted. He was, He is the resurrection and the life, the resurrection for all believers who die, the life for all saints who shall be living on the earth when He comes. “I am the resurrection and the life.” Martha looked for the resurrection at the last day. He who stood before her was it. Where He was present there was the resurrection. It was not a period of time that needed to elapse ere the dead could rise again, His power, His presence were the requisites; and, when He returns and puts forth His power, this will be gloriously exemplified. But He spoke of something new. He intimated what till then had not been the hope of God’s saints—resurrection from the dead. For He here speaks only of what concerns God’s children, whilst Martha spoke of what is common to all. “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” To Satan was it permitted to wield the power of death. To the Son of God belongs the power of recovery and preservation from it, but only for those who believe on Him. By Martha all this though heard was not understood. Each time the Lord spoke to her she fell short of the truth, He would teach her; and at last she called her sister Mary, saying, “The teacher is come, and calleth for thee.” Did she think that Mary would enter more fully into his meaning? That she had not penetrated it was clear, for at the grave she almost remonstrated with Him for commanding the stone to be removed. “Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.” What mattered corruption of the body in the presence of Him who could raise it, for of the body, not of the salvation of the soul, does He in this history speak.
With Mary we have something further about the Lord unfolded. She, like Martha, accosted Him with the words, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died.” But unlike Martha she fell down at His feet, and added no more. Surrounded by Jews who had come from Jerusalem to comfort them, Mary, as Martha had done, left them all for Jesus. They could condole with her, but they could not help her. What a picture is this of the emptiness of mere human consolation. Something more is wanted which Jesus only can supply. She turned, therefore, from the whole company of the Jews to the One who was still outside the village. He could comfort, and He could help; and He could show it. Man, in the folly of his heart, thinks it unmanly to weep. He who is Son of God would show He could weep with those who weep. “Jesus wept.” He wept, but not because Lazarus was dead, for He was about to raise him up. He wept, surely, as He witnessed the sorrow sin bad brought into the world. “He wept.” The Jews beheld it, and said, “See how He loved him.” He wept really for the living who sorrowed, and not for the dead who rested; and all present were permitted to see Him weeping, that when absent from earth, as He shortly would Le, His people should count on His sympathy when in circumstances of bereavement like these two sisters. But He did more. What no human ear could hear, that God heard, and the pen of inspiration has recorded it, He groaned in spirit. He manifested before men how fully He could sympathize with His people in sorrow; but He entered into all its depths, and bore it on His heart before God. Not sin, that He bore on the cross; not anticipation of His approaching death, that He went through in Gethsemane; but the full sense of the sorrows sin had caused, and entailed on the children of Adam. Entering into them all, as none before Him could, He wept before the Jews, and groaned in spirit before God. Upholding all things by the word of His power, He could yet he occupied the sorrows of two of His people, and so enter into them as to bear the whole weight of them before God. Many around them were weeping, but surely the tears He shed consoled Mary and Martha more richly than all the attention and sorrow, however real, of their friends. The Jews and the sisters bewailed their loss. Jesus shed tears, and so manifested how really He felt for them. His heart was discovered to the sisters that day. And blessed be His name, with Him is no change. What He was He is still—
“Who, in each sorrow, bears a part
Which none can bear below.”
From the entrance of the village to the grave of Lazarus they all proceeded, and there He took His place at the grave’s mouth as God. Weeping as man, He could command as God. At His Word they removed the stone, but Lazarus stirred not. All outward impediments to His leaving the grave were rolled away, yet he remained within. Man had done all he could, but Lazarus needed something more. He needed what none but the Lord could do for him—impart life to the dead body: and here something fresh meets us. The stone rolled away, language of thanksgiving was heard as they stood round the grave’s mouth. This was surely something new in the world’s history. How often, however, since has thanksgiving been mingled with weeping at the funeral of a believer. The Lord gave thanks that weeping had been heard of the Father, for the consequence would he the immediate resurrection of Lazarus. We give thanks in the knowledge of resurrection from the dead, and for the revelation of the condition till then of all the saints who sleep through Jesus. But, how fitting was it that from Him, who is the Resurrection and the Life, by whose atoning work His people will be raised up from the grave, such language should first proceed.
Sleeping still in the cave, though the stone was rolled away, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin.” Till Jesus cried Lazarus was dead. When He cried life returned, and no impediment could hinder its full action, for with his grave-clothes still around him he came out of the cave, and took his place once more among the living. It was no vision. They saw him, they could handle him, they all saw him free from the garments of the tomb. The power of the Lord was exerted, and he was free. For the living and for the dead the Lord was needed. The sisters could learn what He was to them in their sorrow. Lazarus proved what He could be to him who was dead. And this history meets our condition likewise. We may see what in bereavement He can be, or, if entering into death, what He will do. Whilst living His sympathies we may often want, if we die His power we shall need to prove. He will not fail His people in sorrow, He cannot leave any of His members one moment longer than the. appointed time in the grave. -C. E. S.