If we turn to John 11, we have a different but most instructive display of Jesus on the earth. For what is seen there is no remedial measure in a living Messiah. Nothing of the kind could adequately meet the depth of the ruin even for those who believed in Him and were loved of Him. Death must take its course. It was no use merely to heal; man was too far gone. The Lord therefore remains till all was over and Lazarus slept in death. Jesus saw things in the light of day: This sickness was not unto death but for God’s glory, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. He awaits therefore His Father’s will and goes to raise the dead. Martha had no just estimate of the power of death any more than of the Lord’s glory: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” Neither did her orthodox creed meet the case: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on Me, though he have died, shall live: and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (vss. 21-27). No; Martha did not enter in, though a believer, and this because she had but Jewish thoughts of Christ. Present resurrection power in Him was beyond her. She went her way and sent Mary, who, if she did not yet anticipate His power better than Martha, at least fell down at His feet and wept as did the very Jews.
Death was there, and now Jesus was there. He was the Son, very God, yet did He estimate death as none could but Himself who, a man, was that eternal life which was with the Father. He groaned in His spirit, apparently with the strongest indignation and pain, at the power of death over the spirit of man, and troubled Himself or shuddered. In divine grace He weighed and felt it all in spirit — wept, too, as they asked Him to come and see where the dead saint lay. Little did Jewish comment penetrate the reality, but the more did Jesus groan in Himself as He came to the grave, whence, spite of Martha’s unbelief, the glory of God was seen in Lazarus coming forth at the voice of the Son. Nothing can be more blessed than this sympathy in entering into the sorrow and power of death, Himself all the while conscious of the power of life, but using it only as the Sent of the Father. This introduces into a new scene through the door of resurrection, when death has closed all connection between God and nature. Decent and dull orthodoxy finds its prototype in Martha; value for the person of Christ may be slow, like Mary, but, waiting on Jesus, at length sees light and life in His light.
If we look again at the doctrinal statements of Scripture, Hebrews 2 shows us the singularly honored place of man in the person of Jesus according to Psalm 8: “But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for [or, on account of] the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Incarnation could not deliver, all-important as it is. The person of the Deliverer was thereby manifested, but death was the pivot of blessing, if man was to be brought out of sins according to God; in no other way could there be a righteous basis, for thus only is there a due dealing with our evil before God. “For it became Him, for whom are all things . . . in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (vs. 10). Thus it was fitting that Christ should pass on high through sufferings for the many sons God is bringing to glory. Their state demanded it; grace made it His path. But there is the greatest care to guard against irreverence toward the Lord Jesus. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (vs. 11). The phrase “all of one” is exceedingly, and designedly, abstract. Still He is the Sanctifier, as risen from the dead, for so the quotation of Psalm 22:2222I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (Psalm 22:22) in Hebrews 2:1212Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12) proves. Then first did our Lord put the disciples definitely in this relationship (see John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)). “All of one” means, not His entering into their state, but His taking them into His. The foundation was laid in His death; as risen, He at once associates them with Himself. They were “all of one” thus. It is not men as such, but “the sanctified” (oiJ aJgiazovmenoi). He does not call them His brethren till He became a man, and only then distinctly when risen, according to the passages cited. The nearest approach before was when He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and said, “Behold My mother and My brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:4950). But this is vague compared with “Go to My brethren,” connected as it is with His ascending to His Father and their Father, and to His God and their God. It is manifest also that the Son’s incarnation is, in verse 14, introduced as the necessary means for making void through death the power of the devil and delivering those who were in bondage all their lifetime through fear of death. Alone He wrought this mighty work, by virtue of which, when risen, He gathers the sanctified into association with Himself, but in both as really man, for such the children were.