11. THE DEAD MAN RAISED, AND THE GATHERING TOGETHER INTO ONE.
(John 11–12. 1-11)
THE previous chapter presents the aroused and attracted soul undertaken for by Jesus from first to last. This necessitates His death, and therefore resurrection. For contrast, we now see man in his state of death, but the power of Christ, as the resurrection and the life, bringing him out of it into fullest association with Himself.
The history of Lazarus of Bethany sets forth these truths in the most powerful way. Rejected by the Jews, Jesus goes away beyond Jordan. Meanwhile Lazarus, His friend, falls ill. The sisters Martha and Mary send to let Him know. But Jesus, knowing that the object of the sickness was not death but the glory of God, and that the Son of God might be glorified by it, remains two days where He was. Meanwhile Lazarus dies. Then He proposes to return to Judea. His disciples object the violence of the Jews. But Jesus was in the light of the will and glory of God, and knew that though death in its full power held Lazarus in its grasp, His own love to him was uninterrupted by it, and powerful as ever. For Jesus He was still “Lazarus our friend,” and real as his death was, he had but fallen asleep, out of which He would awake him.
Delighting in the wisdom and power of God, which uses the ruin of the creature and the utmost success of evil only the more gloriously to express itself and to call forth and strengthen faith thereby, Jesus says, “Let us go to him.” Thomas says to his fellow-disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” Though devoted to his Lord, he was entirely under the power of death in his soul, so that the word of Jesus that He would awaken Lazarus passes his ear unheeded or unheard.
Death, wielded by the power of evil, had reached its limit, for Lazarus had been already four days in the tomb when Jesus arrives, and every heart but His was bowed beneath its sway. The scene around spoke of man’s ruin by sin — his heart alienated, God’s sentence against him put in force by the subtle spirit of evil, that great opponent and slayer of man. The Man was there indeed, the Redeemer, who could and would do the kinsman’s part. But at what a cost! All that man was in evil, become a child of the devil, must be faced; the judgment of God against such evil endured to the full; death as Satan’s power passed through; the promises made to man in the flesh and fulfilled in Christ Himself be all surrendered; His Messiahship laid down, Himself cut off and to have nothing; all this, and that which it involved, known alone to Him and to His Father, was the redemption price, so that man might be raised from the dead in abiding blessing.
Yet He alone was superior to that dark power of death, and him that had it, which in varied forms held every other soul in bondage. The Pharisees, with Caiaphas at their head, held resurrection as an orthodox doctrine; Martha believed and confessed it, as also did Thomas and the other disciples; Mary felt that death would not have struck its prey if Jesus had been there; some of the Jews were equally convinced of it; but one and all were fully agreed that if corruption, which is death’s seal, were once imprinted, no power on earth, or perhaps in heaven, could alter its decree till the day of doom.
The Pharisees, therefore, careless of a resurrection so long deferred, counted upon carrying through their cause by killing Jesus. As to Martha, the very last thought to enter her mind was that then and there Jesus would raise Lazarus from among the dead, though she could say, “But even now I know that whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God, God will give Thee.” Thomas saw nothing but death for His Master and himself and his fellow-disciples. Mary could but fall at Jesus’ feet — hope had faded from her heart. Resurrection was to none a present reality and power. Not one saw in Jesus the resurrection and the life.
Martha was orthodox, and knew and confessed the doctrine of the resurrection at the last day, but she knew not the power of the presence of Jesus. In virtue of what He was, the last day should be anticipated for everyone who believed on Him. Whether living or dead, they should be conformed to Him. If dead, they should live; and if living, they should never die. Of this Lazarus was an illustration, in the fact of being called forth from the tomb.
But this declaration refers precisely to the time when Jesus, Himself in resurrection, shall bring His own into the same perfection of life in which He is.
What glory, spiritual and divine, comes before the Saviour in this revelation of Himself as the resurrection and the life! Martha understands nothing of it. For her it meant no more than an orthodoxy, which left untouched both heart and conscience — a Christ come down into the world, and the heart of man still in and of it.
Ill at ease in the presence of Jesus, and feeling perhaps the contrast between her gloomy creed and the Spirit’s light and power that breathed in His words, Martha goes away and calls her sister Mary secretly, saying, The teacher is come and calls thee.
Mary had remained in the house. Martha had promptly gone to meet Jesus as soon as she heard He was coming, and her words betray excitement of spirit, if not disappointment. Mary now rises quickly and goes to Jesus, who was still where Martha met Him. She used words similar to those of Martha, but, as come to one in whose love and power she could absolutely confide, she abandons herself to the expression of her mingled grief and confidence in Him, which hitherto had been restrained.
Jesus Himself was deeply moved. Those around Him wept in helpless, hopeless sorrow. And Jesus wept, but not because of inability to help. On the contrary, the glory of the Son of God was His, with power to manifest it by His Word, so as to dispel every trace of evil and its consequences, But He wept because sin, from whence these consequences come, was there darkening every human heart, and hiding the glory of God in unbelief. This He estimated according to its full true character before God, and the dishonor which it brought upon His name.
Again deeply moved, Jesus comes to the tomb and says, Take away the stone; for it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. To the thought of Martha this would have been an offensive and unwarrantable exposure of the dead man’s condition. For though she had said, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will give Thee, she had not credited the Lord with asking that Lazarus might be raised. But He had done so — such was His love — and replies to her, Did I not say to thee that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then lifting up His eyes on high He said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me; but I knew that Thou always hearest Me; but on account of the crowd who stand around I have said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me.
The voice that then called dead Lazarus from the tomb, crying, Lazarus, come forth, speaks today in the gospel to souls of whom he was a picture dead in trespasses and sins and past all hope or help. The Father and the Son, acting in the community of grace, call those who hear not only into life but life from among the dead — into liberty as well, for Jesus says, Loose him and let him go. The trappings of death and woe, the legacy of our former state, must be removed.
Divine grace and power, calling the dead into life and liberty, is the subject so far. But there is more. Jesus must needs die to accomplish the will and word of God with respect to Israel, as Caiaphas unconsciously prophesied; but not only so, as the Spirit Himself adds, but that also He should gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Worldly wisdom, regardless of justice, would sacrifice Him to secure the public safety. According to the mind of God, He would die a sacrifice of propitiation in order that the legal system might be ended, and that in its place a divine ground might be laid in righteousness for the gathering into one of God’s children out of Jew and Gentile.
From that day the Pharisees took counsel to kill Him. Jesus therefore goes away to a secluded city called Ephraim. But the Passover approaches, and Jesus is to be the Lamb.
Six days before the Passover He comes to Bethany. The once dead but now raised man was there, who was the great pattern and expression of what sovereign grace would do with those whose every link with this world, and even with divine dispensation in it, was severed by death. Gentile without law or promise, and Jew under law and its curse, could alike benefit by this grace. A supper is made for Him there, fitly symbolizing the spiritual repast this grace provided. Martha serves; it was her calling, and she pursues it still, but in the serenity of communion. Lazarus sits at table with Him: what more fitting than that the monument of grace and He who wrought it should be together! Mary, pattern of adoration and of communion with the heart of Jesus, adds that which gives fragrance to the feast. Her devotedness — for she buried her treasure with Him, though it was but three hundred pence — gave expression before all of her faith’s appreciation of a pathway in which all that was heavenly and blessed before God was expended on behalf of man corrupt and worse than worthless.
These three form a pedestal for the glory of Jesus — Lazarus sitting with Him, a man risen from among the dead; Martha peacefully serving Him; and Mary pouring forth His praise. It represents to us the effect of grace in the day of grace — not yet of glory.
Lazarus is one upon whom the eyes of all turned, and by reason of whom many believed on Jesus. It only provokes the greater hatred of the priests, who take counsel to kill Lazarus also. Such is the character of the world, especially of its religion. The new spiritual condition brought in by grace and faith is thus set forth — the gathering together into one of the children of God, hitherto scattered abroad.