THE OCCASIONS OF CHRIST'S TEARS. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? If the messenger of the sisters had taken equal time to reach Jesus in Perked, or even a longer period, as time might easily be consumed in the effort to find our Lord in the mountains of Moab; then the two days of his waiting after receiving the message would, with those occupied by the double journey, make up the four that had passed when Jesus reached the grave. Sin hides from us the love of God and the sense of His continual presence. Probably Martha's head had become dizzy in looking down from the heights of the resurrection and the life; but faith came to the rescue, and threw her arms around him who is both, and there found a safe repose and a glorious triumph. The religious confidence of the sisters was to be developed, and a full confession was to be elicited from them. THAT ALL THE MOVEMENTS OF CHRIST ON EARTH HAD AN IMMEDIATE REGARD TO OTHERS. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was. The lesson is one which ought to be deeply engraved in our memories. John 11:4. When Jesus came into the neighborhood of the village (see John 11:30), he found, on inquiry, that he (Lazarus) already £ during four days had been £ in the grave; or literally, had had four days. Nevertheless, that which proved the occasion of their malice became a further proof of his Divine goodness and superhuman claims. His personal sorrow for the death of his friend. It is a wonderful thing to learn to wait on God. The contrast between the ideas involved in the parable of Luke 16:1-31. and this narrative is so profound that we dismiss the hypothesis of the identity of the two Lazaruses. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. The grace of Christ will turn the death of his beloved throughout all time into restful sleep. For him (as for the Evangelist) this is the primary purpose of the miracle. Meyer and Alford look back to some earlier prayers. They had a strange story to tell, which it was impossible to gainsay. III. But the passage might better be translated “through the resurrection of dead persons.” That includes, of course, His own triumph over death, but it takes in also those other raisings from the dead of which we read in the Gospels. They went their ways to the Pharisees and helped them to plot against the Prince of life! The hideous inconsistency of the Jewish formalists in our Lord's time has never been without a long succession of followers. John 11:7, John 11:8.—Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 348. They have just enough of the vital principle in them to keep the organism going. Canon Westcott remarks: “The sickness is regarded in a triple relation; unto, in respect of the actual result; in behalf of, in respect of the suffering born; in order that, in respect of the divine purpose.”. etc. Though specially dear to our Lord, as well as his sisters, he enjoyed no exemption from the ordinary afflictions of life. Bengel: lacrymatus est, non ploravit, He shed tears, He did not cry aloud. Faith should be discreet as well as bold and faithful, and encounter difficulties with discretion as well as with valour. Her faith was full and running over. The facts of this chapter are a sufficient answer to the objection that there is no recommendation of friendship in the Bible. Jesus will awake us in due time. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But a certain one of them, (named) Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all. or under which Lazarus was to continue till the general It is the most pleasant of all the mountains that are round about Jerusalem; in pilgrim language “the Mount of Blessing;” and travellers are frequently surprised by the beauty which still haunts it. Why didn"t You respond? The word πιστεύω is often used absolutely (John 1:7, John 1:50; John 4:41, John 4:42; John 5:44; John 6:36; and many other places). But the plain truth is, that man's unbelief is a far more deeply seated disease than it is generally reckoned. This answer may be viewed as the Lord’s general answer to His people--“for the glory of God.” The sorrow of the world has a different tendency Revelation 16:10-11). Spiritual causes account for this lamentable fact; spiritual powers alone can check the advance of error, and hasten the kingdom of God, of righteousness, of truth. 2. This is the true death, to be. When she had said this, £ she departed, and called Mary her sister secretly. Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick. This ceremony often lasted seven days. Not only do I get these things by prayer from God, but I am these things.” And then he goes on to explain it. ", "So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed for two days at the same place there at the Jordan River. 2. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. When she had made this great utterance, her heart is big with hope. VI. John 11:11-14. Then the disciples replied, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." 28, a; cf. ( α) the propriety of the new powers being freed from restriction; ( β) the influence of Christian men in helping to unbind the burdens that habit may have fastened upon the individual life. Life with God, and in God, must be immortal; life without God He does not call life at all. III. They only said, "Lord, he whom You love is sick," and left the matter there, in the full belief that He would do what was best. Yet Jesus, who had all power as well as all love, tarried. The absolute necessity and importance of faith in Christ. He spoke the word of power, and Lazarus, who had been dead four days, heard that word and came forth. Comfortable is the thought that there is no sinner too far gone in sin for Christ to raise and convert. Compare also chap. The drawing nigh to Him as helper (Joh ).â. There was keen criticism then, although of a different kind from that we meet with now. He is on his way now to the resurrection. "This man," they admitted, "does many miracles." Tender--so tender that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. 2. Let me but see His hand, and no event is unwelcome. It should be ours to wait in faith for Him to act. This gives us the key to Christ’s belief in immortality, and to all sound belief in immortality. why does God deal thus with me?” “Come with me, daughter, and I will show thee.” “But I cannot walk.” “True, true! Constant. The very God! Her faith had been long ago nursed, strengthened, and prepared at his feet. A.). i.e. Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died." (c) He is the Life of his people (Colossians 3:3). Mutual friendship was an element in the resurrection of Lazarus, and will be at the resurrection of the last day. The heart that found expression for its woe in tears, found expression for its sympathy and pity in the reaching out of a hand of help. It was a providentially happy visit that led them to Bethany on that day. And the teaching of Jesus on this theme came with authority, because He evidently lived so closely in union with the higher spiritual sphere, so that it could be said of Him, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven" (Joh ). Are you going there again?" Lazarus, though a friend, yet died. Meyer and Alford condemn this. ), Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said, "What are we doing? 2. It was this authority which in fact, though in a different way from that expected by them, did prove fatal to their position, and subversive of their sway. He roused himself to a conflict which would be a prelibation of the cross and the burial. Nor was the thought of Lazarus absent from the mind of Jesus. 2. He shuts himself off from the light of God-given opportunity, and carries no lamp in his soul. When bereavement overtakes us, and we are very sensible that those whom we have loved, and upon whom we have relied, are gone, then let us cherish the comforting assurance that Christ is here!—T. How strange to the disciples that He made no sign of movement! Jesus sent out his seventy disciples “two and two,” and the apostles are usually mentioned in pairs,-Simon and Andrew, James and John, Phillip and Bartholomew and so on; and we shall find that two Christians can often accomplish what one alone could not do. Jesus saith.âA gentle rebuke of Martha's "slowness of heart" to believe. To this sincerity of wickedness we owe the valuable witness of those who were as competent as any of his contemporaries to judge of the validity of the claims of Jesus. So Caiaphas comes to the front with what, from his point of view, was a statesmanlike proposition enough. 4. He is one who can be touched with sympathy for our infirmities. It is true that no man dieth unto himself. 3. 2. His design in this miracle was to dispose the Jews to see in it the glory of God. 'heardest me,' viz. Our Lord awakens slumbering souls from the stupors of sin. We have all had experience of desires for the removal of sorrows, or for the fulfilment of wishes which we believed to be in accordance with His will, and no answer has come. by being enacted amid the domestic and family life of a small and insignificant town, and also by express reference to the veritable manifestation involved in it of the δόξα θεοῦ, on which we have frequently commented. TO DISCOVER TO US OUR TRUE CHARACTER--whether Christians or worldlings. "When she had so said," etc. 4. 1. "This sickness is not unto death." But we shall firmly trust that the loss of each dear leader will be made good for the common cause and for us, if not, indeed, always by another single individual, yet certainly through the working together of those powers which make toward the same end, through the common works of love which flow from the same spiritual source. The seeming loss of hold of the Church on the masses, and also on many of the cultured class, the rise and spread of socialistic and secularistic opinions and systems, the spreading abroad of sceptical ideas and the attacks of rationalism, have all alarmed them. We read that "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." This sickness is not unto death - The word “death” here is equivalent to... John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible. K.,' fol. There is the sensualist with whom life has been a race after pleasure. No love is so high as that which prefers the real interests of its object before his present comfort, which aims at permanent good rather than momentary satisfaction. four days ago in Peræa, when I prayed that Lazarus might be raised to life. ] Light may mean knowledge of duty supplied by God's providence and the revelation of his will, and so far as "day" is made by light, it is important to notice it here. Fine flower-dust brings about fructification. It is the grace of the Spirit in our hearts, and not miracles, that our souls require. All-sufficient. Why so late when this dead brother of mine, and friend of Thine, was sinking to his grave? And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary. Each has time to do his work. Weiss has made some admirable remarks on the use made by the Tübingen critics of this admission. 3. The fear of the anguish, etc., of dissolution is also removed. We read even more than this. 4. And what has been the result? II. John 8:4-11 New International Version (NIV) 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. There is no surprise in the discovery that Lazarus was as he really is. The extraordinary dignity which the Jews accorded to their rabbis may throw some light upon the honorific title when yielded or conceded to Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:1.) "Let us also go, that we may die with Him", BEDE. Here was one that was sick, but Jesus loved him just as much for all that. Impulsiveness runs; reflection walks slowly, and often sits under its heavy but delightful burden. His sower and friendship manifested in the resurrection of Lazarus were only specimens. (Romans 9:5. A clear view of the dignity of our Mediator's Person is one secret of inward comfort. Though the Law did not specifically recommend purification "before the Passover," yet the general principle of ceremonial cleansings had been applied to the Feast of the Passover (see 2 Chronicles 30:16-20; Acts 21:24). And then we have the instance of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. Some are afraid to go to God about their health; and yet surely if the hairs outside our head are all numbered it is not more of a condescension for Him to relieve throbs inside. It was a hostile motive that prompted the errand to the Pharisees, the implacable enemies of Christ. But they did not simply regret that Jesus was not with them; they went further than this, and believed and said that, had he been present, the calamity which befell them would have been averted. If a man dies in thoughtlessness, with no forecasting or foreboding of what is to follow, he can give no stronger proof of thoughtlessness. I. The cities where Lent is kept at this day with the most extravagant strictness are the very cities where the carnival after Lent is a season of glaring excess and immorality. The narrative reveals: 1. THE INTENTION OF GOD, PUTTING A DEEPER MEANING INTO THE PREDICTION OF CAIAPHAS. The message was not needed, nor was it immediately regarded. Oftentimes they express the most utter selfishness. And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the multitude which standeth around I said it, that they may believe that thou didst send me. Such tombs are seen to-day about Bethany and Jerusalem, and witness to the graphic touch of the eye-witness in this narrative. "Then after that he saith to his disciples, Let us go again into Judaea." Much harm may be done in the transmission of the message. Jesus has no such sense of weakness. 2. He calls through the living and the dead. As soon as the wind passes over the cornfield the bowing ears raise themselves. Consequently, Jesus does not come straight to the house, but allows it to be known that he is there. Many a merchant has craved the success of a venture, whose success has been the beginning of soul-destroying prosperity. 1. Jesus troubledâWithout enumerating various other interpretations of the passage, we think Augustine, Erasmus, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, and Moulton meet our difficulty by the suggestion that death itself occasioned this indignation. He that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live. And their admissions will be seen to preclude the possibility of impugning Christ's authority. because this Man, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, This he spake not from himself: but being high priest that awful, critical year, he prophesied, And not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one, Therefore from that clay they took counsel, mong the Jews; but he deputed thence into the country nigh unto the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand: and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover, that they might purify themselves, They sought therefore for Jesus, and said one with another, as they stood in the temple. "They said among themselves, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast? So Christ expounds it himself in the 25th and 26th verses. Mary's profound feeling, that made her a better listener than Martha, makes her a more helpless sufferer now. Yet he would not hold back; he felt bound to Jesus, and resolved to follow Him to the death. The best way of providing for the future is to attend to present truth and present duty. II. The help accorded by this loving Helper (Joh ).â. He who wept with the sisters of Lazarus was the Man of sorrows, the incarnate Son of God. Perhaps they expected that such a miracle would receive favourable consideration from those who were the special champions of the doctrine of the Resurrection. And not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one ( λαόν) the children of God scattered abroad—constitute a new center, life-giving and sacred in the covenant of his blood (cf. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. He Himself said, "The foxes have holes," etc. III. Though He now sits at God's right hand in heaven, His heart is still the same that it was upon earth. From that meeting, they went to the tomb where Lazarus was laid. Is it so with your household, Martha? We have to grind and polish them a great while; but, when they are done, they are very beautiful. 2. It is not my imperfect love to Him which comforts me, but His perfect love to me.” (R. Besser, D. D.), The sisters’ message and the Lord’s response, The message contained no request. Joh . And when the apostles censured Mary’s offering He reproved them. He could not bear this evidence that even the best of God’s children do not believe in God as greater than death, and in death as ruled by God. And in the case of Lazarus death seemed to have wholly gained the mastery, until Christ came and showed that He had power to "bind the strong man" and to despoil him of his goods. The "again" points forcibly back to the last visit, when he told both friends and foes that the good Shepherd would snatch his sheep from the jaws of death, even though he lay down his own life in the doing of it. Though Lazarus had passed into the region of the unknown and unseen, he was still" our friend." Joh . This is almost as arbitrary and offensive as M. Renan's endeavor (which held its place in numerous editions of his 'Vie de Jesus') to represent the miracle as a got-up scene, into which Christ, by a kind of Divine mensonge, allowed himself to be drawn. ); not to be identified with the beggar Lazarus of the parable. ] 3. They all loved Jesus after a natural manner, and Jesus loved them all and gave their characteristics immortal honour. It is implied: II. 1. And as when men awake at morn, refreshed and strengthened, they raise thankful hearts to God, so on that resurrection morn shall rise songs of gratitude and praise, never to cease eternally. 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