OH 12:1-11{In chapter eleven Lazarus was dead and corrupting, and the sisters Martha and Mary brokenhearted with sorrow.
Jesus, the resurrection and the life, comes into this scene of death and sorrow, and gives life and liberty to dead Lazarus, and joy and peace to the sorrowing sisters. Then, in chapter twelve, they make Him a supper.
There is not only life but liberty; for when La zarus heard die voice of the Son of God and came forth, he was bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and could not see, or walk, or move at all. But when the second word reached him, " Loose him and let him go," he gets liberty.
So it is with our souls, and we have in Lazarus, the man who was dead, sitting in a new life, and at liberty, feeding with Jesus, a picture of the believer. Indeed, Lazarus, Martha and Mary, taken together, make up one Christian. If Christians, we are all Lazaruses, Marthas and Marys. Martha is seen here serving, and not now, as in Luke 10, cumbered with it, and careful and troubled about many things, but here it is a picture of service flowing from life, liberty and communion with the Son of God. Mary personifies worship, also flowing from the same, and a beautiful picture it is of worship. Mary pours out on the blessed Lord's feet, what (if she had not known and loved the Lord) she would have put on her own head—given to herself—and worship, i. e., praise, thanksgiving and adoration, is just what we all like naturally to give to, and get ourselves.
When, however, we get to know and love Him, we gladly give Him what we used to give; and like to get for, ourselves. We adore and praise and thank Him. We thus break the box of spikenard on Him instead of ourselves. And the Lord's Table is the place where we should specially come together to make Him a supper,, in the outside place gathered to His blessed name, like the little group at Bethany, which was outside Jerusalem and all the Temple worship there.
But we must not think to find a box of spikenard all ready to hand because we have come to the Lord's Table on the first day of the week. Just as Mary's box of spikenard cost her something (it was very costly), so it will cost us something to have a box of spikenard to pour out upon Him. It will cost watchfulness, prayerfulness and self-denial during the week in order to keep near the Lord and walk with Him, else on Lord's-day there will be no spikenard to give to Him—no worship in us.
"And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment." God smells a sweet savor when we make much of His dear Son; when we pour out on Him our adoration, praises, and thanksgiving, as we remember Him together. Men, and even Christians, like the disciples (carried away by the "good words and fair speeches " of a Judas), call this " waste," " waste of time," etc., getting together for a whole hour or more and spending it all in making much of God's Son, but doing nothing for man.—But though service, too, is all right in its place, as in Martha, and will not be neglected if we are in communion with the Lord, yet the highest thing of all is to make much of, to adore, God's dear Son, giving praise, thanksgiving, and adoration to Him.
But there is another point in this picture. We not only have worship and service flowing from life, liberty, and communion with the Lord: we have testimony, too. The man with a new life in communion with the Son of God is a testimony. (See verses 9, 10, 11.) Much people of the Jews came not only to see Jesus, but Lazarus also whom Ile had raised from the dead, and many of them went away and believed on Jesus, from just seeing the man with a new life, sitting, feeding with Jesus. This draws out the jealousy and opposition of the chief priests, who consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that, by reason of him, many went away and believed on Jesus.
How blessed to know that if we are only going on in communion with the Lord, people will be attracted by it, and some of them will go away and believe on Jesus, too, through God's grace using those who have a new life and liberty from the Son of God, and are in communion with Him. And it is not here direct service, such as preaching and talking to people, (at least we do not know that Lazarus preached to anybody), blessed as that is, but the new life being manifested and so seen in the ways, manners, business, everything, that others are led to think of, and to believe in Jesus too. This draws down religious opposition and the religious leaders try and kill the testimony.