of the enemies of Christ. “But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death” (12:10). It would have been super lative gain for Lazarus to have re mained in the Heavenly Palace, and to have to return to Bethany was an indescribable loss. We believe the testimony of Lazarus would have been: “But if to live in the flesh, if this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose, I know not.” And unquestionably his final answer might have been ex pressed in the words of Paul, “That your glorying may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again” (Phil. 1:26). The resurrection of Lazarus brought immediate results: “Many therefore of the Jews who came to Mary and beheld that which he did, believed on him” (11:45). God was glorified a second time as the people of Bethany accepted Jesus as the Sent One of God. Thus in the story of Lazarus we see illustrated the words: “ For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8). It is the privilege of everyone to enter into a position of eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Why not do it now? “Be hold, now is the accepted time; be hold, now is the day of salvation.”
would only add to their damnation. “But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done. The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many signs” (11:46 R.V.). These enemies of the Lord acknowledged the real ity of His miracles, and then what did they do? “So from that day forth they took counsel that they might put him to death” (11:53 R.V:). They loved the darkness rather than the light. Let us consider the fact that Jesus wept. Jesus shed tears of sorrow for the disappointment and pain that Martha and Mary endured through the death and burial of their broth er. In His hour of the conquest over death, He was mindful of the two .sisters and the experience through which they had passed. In Him we see the fulfillment of the prophet’s word: “In all their affliction he was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9). It is still true today: “Even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ.” Perhaps Jesus wept also because of the ne cessity of bringing Lazarus back to the world to endure further persecu tion and to dje again. He who had already entered the presence of the Lord in which there was fullness of rest, comfort, peace, and joy, had to return to face the murderous hatred
lieve” (11:15). For the sake of His disciples, including Mary and Mar tha themselves, Jesus was glad that He was not present when Lazarus was about to die. Death could not snatch its victim in the face of Jesus. Martha and Mary and all the disci ples knew that Jesus was master of every incurable disease. They were convinced that if Jesus were present, Lazarus could not die. When Jesus arrived in Bethany, both sisters greeted Him with the same word, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (11:21,32). Jesus had raised from death a twelve-year-old girl, in her home, and a widow’s son on the pub lic highway, as the body was being taken to the grave. But to raise the dead when corruption had begun was unthinkable. Once in the South a man was sen tenced to death. On the appointed day of the execution, he was hanged and pronounced dead. Relatives bore away the body, but on the way home there was a sound of life in the cof fin. Amazing as it may seem, the man fully recovered, and the law was unable thereafter to exact the death penalty the second time. Some may ask: “Who knows if the daughter of Jairus and the widow’s son were really dead?” However, in the case of Lazarus, no one could question the reality of his death. Martha, his sister, testified: “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days” (11:39). Jesus waited two days beyond the Jordan in order that His disciples, and Martha and Mary, might know that He was more than the Healer of in curable disease, that He was in deed the Resurrection and the Life. As Jesus approached the tomb, His mood changed (11:33,35). “He groaned in the spirit, and was trou bled” (R. V.); he “was moved with indignation in the spirit and trou bled himself” (R. V. Marg.). Then “Jesus wept.” Did Jesus know that His hour of triumph was at hand, and,, that in obedience to His com mand, Lazarus would arise from the dead? Why then did He weep? Jesus was ' indignant because He was face to face with the fact of physical death. “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus was also face to face with the fact of spiritual death. He was up against the fact of sin and its power, was therefore “moved with indignation." He cried with a loud voice, so that all in that group of waiting men and women could hear, "Lazarus, come forth.” Then “he that was dead came forth.” Jesus knew that in spite of the display of God’s glory in the resur rection of Lazarus from the dead, some there present would refuse the evidence, and, instead of believing upon Him as their Saviour, it AUGUST, 1947
Niagara Falls, N. T.
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