December 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
787
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The true view of death is victory.
V. 41. What was the prayer for having heard which He now thanks His Father? Surely He had spoken about bring ing Lazarus back, and His Father had shown Himself of ope mind with Him.—Macdonald. V. 42. He said it before the miracle rather than after, for the crowd would be too excited then to give heed.— Peloubet. V. 43. A loud shout, symbolizing and anticipating that voice o f the Son of God which shall echo one day through the sepulchers of the world.—Dean Alford. “ Lazare deuro exo,” “ Lazarus, hither out!” And out came the dead man, is the next sentence. The Greek original is very graphic.—Peloubet. V. 44. He calls him by name as we call those by their names whom we would wake! out of sleep. This intimates that the same individual person that died shall rise again at the last day.—Arnold. He returned from a better coun try, from a happier condition. It was hard upon Lazarus; he was better where he was; but he must come and bear the Lord company a little longer, and then be left behind with his sisters, that they and millions more like them might know that God is the God of the living, and not of the dead.-^—Macdonald. Some think that the grave-clothes were only swathed around each limb, leaving movement free. But it seems far more probable from our Lord’s command, “ Loose him and let him go,” that there was, as an old writer observed, a miracle within a miracle— that the form, swathed and confined, glided forth supernaturally from the tomb. And so the most ancient pictures represent it.— Dean Alford. A cloth fastened under the chin to keep the lower jaw from falling. Who but an eye-witness would have intro duced such details?— Peloubet. This miracle is throughout an acted parable of the winning to life of a soul that is “ dead in trespasses ahd sins.” “ Loose him, and let him go,” is Christ’s command to the living*whenever the dead arise. Be swift, O Church of God, to help each newly risen soul that comes forth from the sepulcher of sin! By instruction, by encouragement, by sympathy, by counsel, by incitement to service, by removal of hindrance,, loose him! Let the resurrection life have resurrection liberty.— Rev. Herrick Johnson, D. D. Lazarus was evidently in a serious Condition, and his anxious sisters sent to Jesus the message: “ He whom thou lovest is sick.” The little home in Bethany seemed to have a special place in the affections of Jesus. "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. DEVOTIONAL When therefore he heard that he was COMMENT sick”—What would we naturally expect John A. Hubbard to follow? Would it not be something like this: “ He immediately left, and with all possible speed made His way to the home of those whom He loved.” But instead we read that “ therefore he abode two days still in the same place where he was” (v. 6 ). “ What a startling ‘therefore’ ! He abstained from going, not because He did not love them, but because He did love them. His love alone kept Him back from hastening at once to the dear and stricken home. Anything less than an infi nite love must have rushed instantly to the relief of those loved and troubled hearts, to stay their grief, and to have the luxury (which only love can appreciate) of wiping and stanching their tears, and of causing their sorrow and sigh ing to flee away. Divine love alone could hold back the impetuosity of the Savior’s tender-heartedness until the Angel of Pain had done her work.” How strange it must have seemed to Mary and.Martha that He did not come at once! How perplexed they must have been! And yet, after He did come, and had wrought the mighty miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, how grateful they must have been that He delayed His coming till all hope, apparently, had gone! They got a revelation of His power and glory such as otherwise could not have come to them. And not only to them, was it a great bless ing, but to others also, for we. read that “ then many of the
Introduction: Of all the narratives of our Lord’s acts none is so full of His majesty and His sympathy as this of the raising of Lazarus.—Dean Alford. Bethany is a small town on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, on the Jericho road, nearly two miles from Jerusalem. From near this town Jesus ascended to heaven.—Peloubet. spirit.” The Greek word here translated “ groaned” ex presses indignation rather than grief. Jesus was indignant at the hypocritical and sentimental lamentations of His enemies, the Jews, mingling with the heartfelt sorrow of His loving friend Mary.-—Plummer. I cannot but think that He was disappointed with His friends, Martha and Mary. Had He done no more for them than this? Was His Father and their Father no comfort to them? Was this the way His best friends treated His Father, Who was doing for them everything possible for a father to do for his children? He cared so dearly for their hearts that He could not endure to see them weeping so that they shut out His Father. To think they should believe in death and the grave, not in Him, the Life!—George Macdonald. V. 34. A question addressed to and answered by the sis ters. Not that Jesus did not know, but His question was indicative of what He had determined to do.—Arnold. V. 35. Jesus was a man, and as a man He wept. He did not feel it beneath His dignity to sympathize with the dis tressed and to weep with those who wept. This act on the part of Christ shows His sympathy and love for us. The needs of the whole world rose up before His eyes; all its mourners and all its graves were present to Him.— Trench. One reason may lie back of the tears of Jesus: He knew what the eternal world is and what glory lies behind the veil; and He did not weep because Lazarus was done with life and its gladness and sunshine; no, but because His friend had passed “ to where, beyond these voices, there is peace,” and He must summon him back, must fetch the wanderer—who had got home— out once more into the weary wilderness.—Prof. David Smith, D. D. V. 37. They imply that since Jesus did not save Lazarus from death, probably He could not, and therefore probably He did not really open blind eyes.—Peloubet. V. 38. Lazarus was, as became his station, not laid in a cemetery, but in his own private tomb in a cave— probably in a garden, the favorite place of interment. Not only the rich, but others of smaller means, had tombs of their own, prepared before they were needed, and kept as personal property. The tombs were either of rock, hewn, or natural caves, or else large walled vaults, with niches along the; sides. In such caves or rock-hewn tombs, the bodies were laid, having been anointed with many spices—with myrrh, aloes, etc.— Edersheim. V. 39. The same voice whose mandate, “ Lazarus, come forth,” was obeyed by the issuing of the swathed form from its transient imprisonment, could likewise have bidden the stone to roll away, and it should have rolled—-a lesser won der fitly inaugurating the greater. But Jesus undertook to do only what inferior power could not. What others could, He required that they should. Only when they could do no more, He did all the rest.—Rev. James M. Whiton, Ph. D. Martha was his sister, and so would keep his disfigured body from public view. She was the practical sister, the one to think of such a matter. Lazarus had been dead four days; corruption had begun; dust was returning to dust. According to the measure of man’s extremity is the great ness of God’s opportunity.—Rev. William Arnot. The daughter of Jairus comes back to life; but “ possibly that was a swoon,” says unbelief. The son of the widow of Nain is made to rise from his bier; but that, too, may have been a case of suspended animation. Lazarus, however, has been dead four days— dead and buried. The case is to be signal. There shall be “ no hinge or loop to hang a doubt on.”—-Rev, Herrick Johnson, D. D. COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES Thomas L. Colwell the Revised Version: V. 33 This is a strange term and is better rendered by the margin of “ was moved with indignation in the
Made with FlippingBook HTML5