Part 8 (1/2)
”Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”--_v._ 5.
”Jesus ... said, ... Lazarus is dead.”--_v._ 14.
”Jesus wept.”--_v._ 35.
”He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. He that was dead came forth.”--_vs._ 43, 44.
”As he (John) gives us so much more than the synoptists about the family at Bethany, we may infer that he was a more intimate friend of Lazarus and his sisters.”--_A. Plummer, D.D._
In four sentences Luke draws an unfinished picture of a family group, whose memory has become especially precious because of what John has added to it. His probable familiarity with the family made this possible. No wonder if he felt that the original picture must be enlarged and retouched. The place where that family lived had become to him too sacred a spot to be called simply ”a certain village.” Martha was more than ”a certain woman,” who though hospitable, was distracted in her housekeeping. Mary was fairer than Luke had painted her. John had seen her do more than sit at Jesus' feet. He manifestly felt that the resurrection of Lazarus was too great an event to be omitted from the gospel story, as it was by the other Evangelists who, when they wrote, might have endangered the life of Him whom the Jews sought to destroy. John's heart demanded a stronger tribute to Mary than Matthew or Mark had given. Let him be our guide to the blessed home. With his eyes let us see Jesus' relation to it, and with his ears listen to the Master's words there spoken.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BETHANY _Old Engraving_ Page 120]
As he opens the door we see a family of wealth, refinement, hospitality and affection. Its members are of kindred spirit with him: and so would be attracted to him, and he to them. But there was a special bond of union. ”Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Such is the tender pa.s.sing remark of John who elsewhere calls himself ”the disciple whom Jesus loved.” These four form a group of special objects of Christ's affection. They ardently loved Him. We may suppose that John's relation to the family of Bethany was closer than that of any other disciple. This fitted him to make us familiar with their characters, and many incidents of their home.
John was with Jesus in Bethany in Peraea, when there came the sad, brief, confiding message from Mary and Martha, ”Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.” Doubtless it touched the heart of the apostle as well as that of his Master, whose response he records: ”This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of G.o.d, that the Son of G.o.d may be glorified thereby.” We are reminded of John's own words concerning the change of water into wine: ”This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory.”
Jesus' plan for Lazarus included a delay of two days in Bethany of Peraea. Meanwhile His heart went out toward Bethany in Judaea. So did John's. But, though Jesus tarried, it can be said, as on another occasion, ”He Himself knew what He would do.” While John was wondering, waiting and watching, perhaps he remembered how the n.o.bleman's son was healed in Capernaum when Jesus was in Cana, and thought it possible that the messenger would be told to say to the sisters, ”Thy brother liveth.”
When at last Jesus proposed to His disciples that they all go to Judaea, John's love may have contended for a moment with fear, as they protested, because of danger from His enemies: but it was for a moment only. When Jesus said, ”Let us go unto him,” we almost wonder that it was not John the loving, nor Peter the bold, but Thomas the sometimes unready, that said concerning Jesus, ”Let us also go that we may die with Him.” But we imagine that John was the readiest to go, and kept the closest to his Master in the pathway to Bethany in Judaea.
”Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,” said Jesus. Though all of the disciples were thus addressed, we think of John as especially including Jesus and himself in that word ”our,” because of the nearness of their relation to the afflicted family. And then that other word ”sleepeth”--it must have carried him, as well as James and Peter, back to the home of Jairus, where they heard the same voice to which they were now listening say, ”The child is not dead but sleepeth.”
We almost wonder that the three did not turn to their fellow-disciples and say that ”Jesus had spoken of the _death_ of Lazarus,” while ”they thought that He spake of taking rest in sleep.” But evidently not so; and when Jesus ”said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead,” doubtless John was the saddest of them all, because of his special interest in him. The full record--the only one of what transpired in that sad, joyful home--shows how closely John watched every movement of Jesus and the sisters, and how carefully he noted what they said. We may give credit to his memory, even with the aid which he says was promised the disciples in their remembrance. He notes the coming of Martha to meet Jesus, while ”Mary sat still in the house;” Martha's plaintive cry, ”Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died;” the conversation between her and Jesus concerning the resurrection; the sudden change from it to His asking for Mary; Martha's return to the house and whispering in her sister's ear, ”The Master is come and calleth for thee;” the hurried obedience to the call--all these incidents are recorded by John with the particularity and vividness of an eyewitness.
It appears as if Jesus would not perform the intended miracle until the arrival of Mary. John's account of their meeting is full of pathos. He watches her coming, notices the moment she catches sight of Him through her tears, and her first act of falling down at His feet, and her repet.i.tion of Martha's cry, ”Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died.” He looks into the faces of both as ”Jesus sees her weeping.” He contrasts Mary's real and deep sorrow with the outward and heartless outcries of pretended grief, at which Jesus ”groans in spirit,” because a seeming mockery in the presence of His loving friend.
John measures the depth of the Lord's ”troubled” spirit by His outward movements. He opens to us His heart of hearts in the brief, tender record, ”Jesus wept.” Where in the whole story of His life do we gain a keener sense of His humanity, especially His tenderness and sympathy.
What a revelation we would have missed if John had been silent, but the emotion of His own heart had been too deep to allow any such omission.
”Jesus wept.” As Professor Austin Phelps declares, ”The shortest verse in the Bible is crowded with suggestions.”
While John is our guide to the tomb of Lazarus, and more than that, the sincere mourner with the afflicted sisters, he is yet more the disciple of Jesus, receiving new and lasting impressions of divine truth and of his Master, which are embodied in his story.
John recorded seven miracles of our Lord. The first was that of turning water into wine. The last was the raising of Lazarus. In both of them He points us to the same glorious purpose. He says that in the first, Christ ”manifested forth His glory,” and that the second was ”for the glory of G.o.d, that the Son of G.o.d might be glorified thereby.” And now standing with Martha by the yet unopened tomb, John hears their Lord remind her of His a.s.surance that if she believed, she ”should see the glory of G.o.d.” That hour had come. The Lord had commanded, ”Take ye away the stone.” John was most attentive to every act of the pa.s.sing scene.
His eyes glanced from the stone to his Lord. As soon as the command concerning it was obeyed Jesus lifted His eyes upward, and said, ”Father”--calling upon Him with whom He was to be glorified.
John had stood at the bedside of the only daughter of Jairus, and heard the command, ”Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise.” By the bier of the widow's only son he had probably heard that other, ”Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” And now standing by the open door of the tomb of the only brother, was He not listening for a like command? He had not long to wait. The prayer of his Lord was ended. The tone of prayer was changed to that of command. ”He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead came forth.” John describes his appearance.
He was ”bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin.” When Jesus saith unto them, ”Loose him and let him go”--away from the excitement and curiosity of the heartless mourners--who was so ready as John to obey the command, while welcoming his friend back to life? Who could so fittingly escort him from the darkened tomb to the relighted home, with the sisters still weeping--but for joy.
In John's old age when he recalled this resurrection scene, he seems to have had a special memory of the younger sister's sorrow. He speaks of the ”Jews which came to Mary” in the hour of her sadness.
But His memory of that resurrection day was tinged with gloom. He traced back, from the cross on Calvary to the tomb in Bethany, the way by which his Lord had been led by His enemies. ”From that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS _Old Engraving_ Page 126]
It is tradition, not John, which tells us concerning Lazarus that the first question which he asked Christ after He was restored to life was whether He must die again; and that being told that he must, he was never more seen to smile. But John, better than tradition, tells of another scene in which we imagine his smiles were not restrained. To it let us turn.