The thought that I have in turning to this scripture is that the Lord Jesus has made a feast for us for time and for eternity, and therefore it is for us to keep the feast, not with the old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The Lord Jesus Christ, when passing through this scene as a man, was not only the rejected One, but everybody, with the exception of His few disciples, was seeking His life—in other words, seeking His destruction.
I am sure it was sweet to the heart of that blessed weary Man, the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to have one little green spot, so to speak, just with the two or three at Bethany. There He got refreshment for His own blessed heart; and, beloved, it was not the Lord Jesus Christ making a feast for them—they made a supper for Him. I believe, as I said before, it was one of those green spots that He had while passing through this scene. And to my own mind, there was that which delighted His own soul when He was in more solemn circumstances, and that was when He was upon the cross, when one of the thieves who were crucified with Him could acknowledge with regard to himself and his fellow, “We indeed justly,” we are getting our just deserts; but he could say, “This man hath done nothing amiss.” I believe that there He got something to refresh His blessed heart, even for time and eternity.
But looking at this scripture, beloved, He comes to Bethany, and there they make Him a supper, and Martha serves. Just notice Martha’s case first. She is all right here about service. In Luke 10 it is the same person, but you find that she is all adrift. She is not satisfied with her service; she was encumbered with it; and because Mary had chosen that good part, she complained to the blessed Lord even against that one, and then she gets a gentle rebuke from the lips of the One who loved her. But here the Holy Ghost does not bring one word against her; here she is in position: Martha serves, and serves the Lord Jesus Christ; but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him.
We remember well what came to pass in the previous chapter. Lazarus had been in the grave and, according to Martha’s announcement, he stank, for He had been dead four days. He is the one to whom the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “Lazarus come forth;” and Lazarus obeyed. The thought in connection with this is that we were all once dead, not physically dead, but morally and spiritually dead; dead in trespasses and sins. It is His own infinite grace that has quickened us. What do we find here? We find the very one that had been in the grave for four days, and raised by the One who was the resurrection and the life, sitting as a guest; he sits at the table with the Lord Jesus Christ. I am just giving you the thoughts that are before my heart.
Mary still keeps to the right place. In Luke 10, she is at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Beloved, she is there to gather, to feed on the words that fell from His own blessed lips. She is a learner there, a receiver there, but she is a giver here. Just the blessed position that we are brought into through infinite grace; and it is for each of us to come on a morning like this, to bring forth our little—it may be a very tiny basket—but to be giving Him the homage of our hearts. She may be blamed for what she does. Never mind about that, she did it intelligently and filled the house with the odor of the ointment, and He himself appreciated it.
We have here three different people, and three different attitudes: but they are all ministering to the One Person: they are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one sitting with the Lord, being a guest and ministering to His heart; another, serving Him; a third paying homage to Him which is worship.
May the Lord keep Himself so before us beloved, that whether we are at His feet as receivers, we may be receiving from Himself; or whether in any little act of service, may we be doing it as unto Himself, serving the Lord Jesus Christ with singleness of eye, to the praise and to the glory of His own blessed name. And if it is worship, what have we to give Him? Let us remember, as the apostle says to the saints at Corinth, that he was in a position not only to spend, but to be spent for us.
May we have grace to follow in the steps of our divine Master. May it be ours to be at His own blessed feet, and to be giving Him the honor and adoration, and blessing due to Him, and from the bottom of our hearts, for His own glory, and for our blessing.