In John 11 our Lord passes into a yet further glory upon the death of Lazarus. He acts by sovereign power in His higher titles, as "the resurrection and the life." Here Jesus refuses to discourse with His disciples about death, as they viewed it in relation to Lazarus, but teaches them to look at it in the presence of Himself and His Father, that they may understand Him and the new doctrine which He declares. "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." How could He act in character as "the resurrection and the life," without a Lazarus who was dead and buried, who had been in the grave four days already, and of whom those who loved him said, "by this time he stinketh"? Fearful indeed are death, the grave and corruption when looked at in their condemning and separating powers in relation to God in His righteousness and to man upon whom death was inflicted on account of sin. All men are guilty under the weight of this penalty, and every mouth is stopped at the grave of Lazarus. Jesus is alone here with God, in the presence of Satan and his greatest power!
Lazarus was dead while the man born blind (John 9) was still left alive in this world, and so was the woman who was taken in adultery and who had forfeited her own right to life to the curse of the law she had broken (John 8). But "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." Jesus took this place in the temple and passed before the scribes and Pharisees as the light of it; but they left Him alone with the convicted woman as "the light" to her, who under the law, which they used, was appointed to death. He had also come to the man who was born blind and had so filled his vessel with "the light" from Himself, that the man needed only to learn further that the Person who had brought "life" to him was "the Son of God."
These were happy deliverances for themselves and trophies for Him who was passing thus through the world with a power that was able to remove the very causes of human misery, to find a new use for them for "the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." This is what the Lord is doing as "the potter" with clay, and under His skill everything is seen to suit Him and serve His purpose very well for glory or beauty just as it is!
The language and actings of Him who now comes into Bethany as "the resurrection and the life," are all in correspondence with this title. "He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." In the hands of Him that quickeneth and raiseth, "this sickness is not unto death," though, speaking after the manner of men, Lazarus was dead, buried, and in a state of corruption. The faith of Martha and Mary which recognized a "resurrection at the last day" (for this was their hope) also must embrace Jesus in the light of His own perfections "while it is called to-day." They must learn all these lessons afresh in this connection with the Son of God. "The last day" does not apply when Jesus is in their very midst to act as the resurrection and the life.
We may well challenge our hearts upon the importance of such a revelation of the person of Christ as we are considering. Now that Christ has come, we are "taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." Eph. 4:2121If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: (Ephesians 4:21). Old things are passed away in His creation, so that "sickness... unto death" and almost everything else which is the natural order and relation in Adam have given place to a new order in the Son of God, who was dead but is alive again and lives forevermore and has "the keys of hell and of death."
How slowly we make room, like the two sisters and the group at Bethany, for the display of "the glory of God." His glory is so far above and beyond all that sin and Satan brought into the world placing man under the cruel bondage of death and corruption. How often we forget that the very Son of God took it all upon Himself at the cross, to be glorified thereby. He went down to the grave by means of death, and up to the right hand of the throne of God in glory by means of resurrection! What a pathway of trespass and guilt—sin and blindness—sickness and death—these chapters have opened up, and what misery would they still record if Jesus had not passed through the midst as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He made all its stumbling-blocks
His own stepping-stones up to the right hand of the Father and the crown of glory which adorns the Victor's brow.
"When Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." But in this confidence of her love, she is not near enough to His own heart, in the secret of all that He is, as the Son of God, for the objects of His affection, for "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." He did not come to reach His glory by preventing death, as Mary supposed (for He abode two days in the same place where He was), but came to win His spoils by means of death, and to bring in the Father of glory in due season to His own sepulcher, that He might raise and glorify His Son with other glories besides those which He had with Him "before the world was."
We notice here that this visit of Jesus as the Son of God to Bethany, and the rolling away of the stone to bring out the man who lay therein with a napkin about his face and "bound hand and foot with graveclothes," is a companion picture to the "exceeding high mountain" in the other gospels, upon which Jesus stood and was transfigured before His disciples. His face shone' as the sun and His raiment was white as the light when "He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 2 Pet. 1:1717For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (2 Peter 1:17). The Son of man in righteousness, thus revealed to us by His transfiguration upon "the holy mount," was at His height in majesty and glory upon the earth. By contrast, Lazarus in his grave, "bound hand and foot with graveclothes," under the power of death, was sunk down into the depths of corruption! These two extremes are met in the Person of the Son, who passes through John's gospel, not so much in the coming and majesty and glory of His earthly kingdom as in the veiled power and title of "the only begotten of the Father," to work the works of God for the glory of God. So it was said concerning Lazarus, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."
The work, the sad work of Satan, is before the Son of God at the grave of Lazarus where man who was made in the image of God has been laid in the separating power of death, the keys of which the usurper held upon' the grave and over the captive dead, buried out of sight from those who were in tears at the felt desolation of that hour. A groan goes up to God from the heart of Jesus who has come into such a scene of helplessness and misery to "work the works of God" in the face of Satan's power at the grave's mouth. The groan found its answer between the Father and the Son, and "Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I know that Thou hearest Me always." Nor is this new work of Jesus as "the resurrection and the life" to be only for the glory of God (as the first object, always before His Son), but in truest sympathy and love for the oppressed and bereaved, He adds, "because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
In whatever way this grace could associate others with itself in such an act, it is always the delight of His unjealous love to do it! How like Himself it is, when Jesus bids them begin this mighty action, saying, "Take ye away the stone"—an act only to be rivaled, when all was over, by the same love which bade them, "Loose him and let him go." What a moment for them, for they did it! The groan to God brought its answer from above to the opened ears of Jesus. Perfect in the expression of His sympathy to the sorrowing and helpless ones with whom Jesus wept, they looked that these tears should be wiped away by power from Him, as the Son of God. Jesus is left in possession of the entire scene, and "cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot." A new thing had been wrought already in the man who walked about upon the earth with his eyes opened by means of the clay which Jesus made out of it. Now a greater wonder is to be wrought in reply to the groan, the tears and the loud cry, for Lazarus comes forth from the depths of the grave at the bidding of Jesus the Son of God passing through the ruins as "the resurrection and the life." The Savior has won back all that the enemy had plucked from the hands of men, from Adam in paradise to Solomon in his kingdom and majesty in Jerusalem, as declared when He was transfigured upon the holy mount. In this gospel He comes down from that height, that He might be seen also to enter into the palace of the strong man and spoil his goods, and take from him all his armor wherein he trusted.