John 11:32-45
Jesus was in a retired place beyond Jordan, whither He had gone to escape the continual persecutions of the Jewish rulers. There He laught the people in quiet, "and many believed on Him there." (John 10:42) While He was there, one of His dearest friends fell ill, and his sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick." (John 11:3) "When Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." (Verse 4) Yet Lazarus died. What shall we say, therefore? What should we say if it were a present instead of a past occurrence? If we had received the assurance that our loved one's sickness was not unto death, but for the glory of God, and he was now lying cold and lifeless? Would we say that the word of the Lord had failed? That either the Lord had made a mistake, or else we had misunderstood His words? That is what we should be likely to say, but it is just what we ought not to say. "The word of the Lord shall stand forever." Although Lazarus had been dead for days, his sickness was not unto death, but for the glory of God. Can you believe the word of the Lord even when it is very "apparent" that it has failed? That is faith; and faith that will not be shaken by anything that appears, will bring victory out of defeat, and life from the dead.
At last the Master had come to the home where He had passed many pleasant hours in unrestrained, quiet, Christian fellowship. He was met with the words, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." (Verse 21, also 32) This was the greeting of each sister. It almost seemed as if the Friend had been indifferent. He had tarried two whole days after hearing of the sickness of Lazarus, before making any movement toward going to see him. Oh, glorious indifference! It was the indifference of Omnipotence,--not indifferent to human suffering and human need, but indifferent to the threats of a foe whose utmost power could avail nothing. It was the immovable calm that comes from the consciousness of "all power." No one can by any means pluck a single soul out of the hand of the great Shepherd. The gates of the grave cannot prevail against one of those whom He bears upon His heart.
What need to be in a hurry? "He that believeth shall not make haste." Suppose the grave did close for a moment upon one whom it claimed as its prey: that proved nothing. When a general was informed in the heat of the battle that the day was lost, he coolly replied, "Very well, we'll take it again," and he did. Defeat was but a step to victory. So death did not disconcert the One who could say, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die." (Verses 25, 26) What a marvelous confidence in the power of the Father, was manifested in the seeming indifference of Jesus! He claimed nothing for Himself; He acknowledged that He had no power in Himself; but He knew whom He had believed, and in quietness and in confidence was His strength. What a lesson of trust there is for us in this story of Jesus and Lazarus. "Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."
"Jesus wept." So did Mary and Martha, and so did the Jews who had come to condole with them. They all wept. But whoever supposes that Jesus wept as the rest did, makes a great mistake. It is unfortunate that none of our English versions indicate any distinction here, for there is a marked difference. In the Greek two different words are used, and some translations are faithful to it. The word used concerning Mary and Martha and the others is properly rendered "weep," and may be used to indicate any loud lamentation and wailing; but Jesus simply "shed tears." The fountain of Divine love and compassion is always full to overflowing. Jesus must shed tears at the sight of human anguish, even when He knew that the power was in His hands to remove it, and He was just on the point of doing so. Here is an example to us, that we may "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." (1 Thess. 4:13, 14) He who sorrows only with Jesus, and only as He sorrows, has such joy as the world knows nothing of.
"Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Saith I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." (John 11:38-44) "Thou shalt see the glory of God." Did any dazzling light shine upon the company there assembled? There is no evidence of any such thing. Everything was quiet, and no light appeared to any, except the ordinary daylight; yet all present saw the glory of God. How?--In the power that was displayed in the resurrection of Lazarus. When Jesus turned the water into wine, at the marriage in Cana, "He manifested forth His glory." (John 2:11) God's glory is His power, and that is His righteousness. "God is light" (1 John 1:5), so that His glory is His own Personality--His character--and since His glory is His power, we see that He is glorious and powerful because He is righteous.
That the power and the glory of God are the same, may be learned by comparing (Rom. 6:4) and (Eph. 1:17-20) In the former we read that "Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father," and in the second we read that the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and His elevation to the right hand of God in the heavenly places, was the result of the working of the "mighty power" of God. This power was "wrought in Christ," and, moreover, the Spirit of God earnestly desires that we may know the "exceeding greatness" of this power, which is "to usward who believe." Whatever the Spirit desires for us, we shall have if we consent to be led by the Spirit. Let us think what this means to us.
The glory of God is the power of the resurrection, and this power it is possible, nay, absolutely essential, for us to know. (Phil. 3:10) We are exhorted thus, "Glorify God in your body." (1 Cor. 6:20) This can mean nothing less than that the power of Christ's resurrection is to be manifested in the bodies of Christians. But this is the power by which Lazarus was raised from the dead,--the power by which Christ was raised from the grave. And this means a power--the life of Christ--in men that will lift them above the power of death. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. 4:11) The same thing is set forth in (Rom. 8:10, 11). "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." The Spirit is life; therefore the Spirit cannot dwell in a man in fullness without imparting life to that man. The life of the Spirit makes the man live in spite of mortality. That this imparting of life is now, in the present world, and not something to be expected in some future state, is shown by the verse following: "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Having received the Spirit, we are debtors to live according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh. That is to say, the Spirit gives us all His fullness, so that we owe everything to Him; but in that condition the flesh gives us nothing of its corruption, so that we owe nothing to it. But when the flesh gives us nothing of its corruption, then we are delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glory of the liberty of the sons of God.
The same truth is taught in (Isa. 40:3-5): "The voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Where is the way of the Lord to be prepared?--In men. The way of the Lord is prepared by preparing the people for the Lord. "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people in the remission of their sins." (Luke 1:76, 77) The Lord's way is in the hearts and lives of His people. When that way is prepared, then the glory of the Lord must and will be revealed in His people; and the glory of the Lord is His life. It is by believing that we receive the Lord, and become sons of God; and thus it is that to us, as well as to the sisters of Lazarus, the words come, "If thou wilt believe, thou shalt see the salvation of God." What glorious things God has prepared for them that love Him!
"Loose him, and let him go." Christ came to set the captives at liberty. "I the Lord have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isa. 42:6, 7) But the word of reconciliation is committed to us; it is put into all who are reconciled. To men is entrusted the work which Jesus of Nazareth began. "Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves." (Isa. 49:8, 9) A comparison of this text with (2 Cor. 6: 1, 2), will show that believers in Christ are the ones addressed. Not only are Christ's people to have the unconquerable life of Christ manifested in their own mortal flesh, but they are to minister it to others.
--March 23, 1899