We have seen, all through in John, that no power of Satan could hinder the manifestation of the Person of Christ. He met with incessant opposition and undying hatred, the result, however, being that glory succeeds glory in manifestation, and God was fully revealed in Jesus. That was His purpose, and who could hinder its accomplishment? “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Man’s rage against Christ, only served as an occasion for the manifestation of His glory.
Here the Son of God is glorified; we get the glory of God answering to the rejection of the Person of Christ in the preceding chapters. The key to the chapter is verse 4: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” That is a magnificent word. That was God’s purpose. If we look at outward things, sorrows and trials, apart from the divine object in sending them, we come short of God’s thoughts about us, and our connection with His glory. In this chapter we find the glory of the Son inseparably united to the glory of God Himself. “For the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” It is the Son of God, as such, glorified upon earth, and, in John 8, the Son of Man, as such. God took care, before Christ left the world, that He should be glorified in these two characters.
In the previous chapters, we have been remarking how His rejection was connected with His manifestation as a divine Person. In John 5, when He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” it brought out their enmity, and they wanted to kill Him. In chapter 8, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it and was glad . . . Before Abraham was, I am.” There is His divine Person. That means He is Jehovah. Then they want to kill Him again. In John 10:3030I and my Father are one. (John 10:30), when He says, “I and My Father are one”; they seek a third time to kill Him. You see in those three passages, the immediate occasion of the outburst of their enmity was His presenting Himself as a divine Person. They rejected Him in His words, works, and Person. No one could be rejected more than that. “Before Abraham was, I am.” “I and the Father are one.” “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” A person can only display himself in what he does and what he says.
Chapter 11 is the glorious answer on God’s part to this rejection. We believe that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and in divinely ordered connection. When we enter into that, our interest in scripture is intensified. We delight to discover the channels in which God’s thoughts are flowing — His manifestations of Himself; His holy nature and His ways; as well as His estimate of the thoughts and ways of men. In John 11, 12 and 13, you see that God is bringing out, in opposition to the enmity, hatred, and darkness of man, the personal glories of Christ. They said, “We do not believe that He is one with the Father”; and here, before the glory is reached, God shows the humbled Christ, Jesus in all His humiliation and lowliness, to be His own Son (vss. 4, 40, 41). In these three chapters we see Him as Son of God, Son of David, and Son of Man, and yet outwardly He is in humiliation.
Verse 1. “Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.” When the Spirit of God speaks of places down here, we see what it is which gives them their importance. Now Bethany was the town of Mary and Martha, and Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. Thus places upon earth become interesting; some whom Jesus loves are dwelling there. “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” “And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her.” In John 10 we were reading of the Shepherd and of His sheep, and here we have three of them. But we are in presence of deeper truths in chapter 11: Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, revealed, as such, on earth, His outward place unchanged, and at the same moment His glory as God’s Son: and this not apart from the lowliness of dependence which belonged to the place He had taken as Man. “I knew that Thou hearest Me always.” It is not merely the good Shepherd caring for the sheep, giving His life for them; but a revelation of His glory as God’s Son, quickening the dead: in His own Person the Resurrection and the Life.
In verse 2, Mary is singled out for commendation, and yet Martha is put first in verse 5. She was the weakest. The Lord never forgets them, man may; but God never (1 Cor. 1:2727But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (1 Corinthians 1:27)). Mary was a more spiritually-minded person. The Spirit of God distinguishes her for her devotedness to the Lord. “It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick “(vs. 2). I do not suppose that will be forgotten in the glory. It will never be forgotten here, while there is a saint of God on earth, unattractive alone to those who are of this world, even as they who belong to it saw no beauty in Him to whom the homage of her heart was offered. Thousands have gone to be with Christ who have left no such record. In Matthew it says, she anointed His head. “Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her” (Matt. 26:6-136Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. (Matthew 26:6‑13)). It seems no great thing to the worldly heart, and Judas was a good exponent of the mind of this world — the price of the ointment might have been given to the poor, and man could appreciate that. It is all easily understood by His people; He was despised and rejected of men. The difference between anointing His head and His feet, I am not sure about. The parts of the human body least in honor are the feet. It looks like a deeper expression of lowliness and measureless devotedness.
From verse 6 to verse 10, is a part by itself, giving us the principles of the life of Christ on earth, lowliness, dependence, and obedience. “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him” (vs. 9). That is, the Lord Jesus walked in the light, and waited for the light to guide Him. He was always in communion with His Father, and in the secret of His Father’s purposes. None knew like Him, that the Son of God could not be glorified on earth apart from the Father’s glory and counsels. He had no word to move onward, and therefore He did not move. It was necessary for this object of glorifying God, that Lazarus should die and be put in the grave, and this involved the deep sorrow of heart of the whole family. He loved them, but the love, if human, was also divine. Could that prevent His walking by the guidance of Him who is Love itself?
So we get the whole principle of His life there. His Father’s will was heavenly light to Him. That His heart was full of sweet and blessed human affections, who can doubt? But they flow onward inseparably united in the same channel with those which are divine. We must remember that if God be Love, He is Light also, and thus the movements of love were ever the shinings of light in Him, and so Jesus abode two days still in the same place where He was: “He that believeth shall not make haste.” It is a beautiful revelation of Christ, unfolding the principles of His walk down here. He uses the figure of light from the sun. He meant a deeper thing, of course, walking before and for the eye of Him, who is Light, as well as Love.
These passages, in the gospels, which give us the Lord’s ways, thoughts, feelings, and relationships, always remind me of the oases in the desert. See the beautiful termination of Matthew 11, where we have the mutual relations of the Father and the Son. The outcome and outlook of everything was what man would call adverse. His royal dignity; the mount Zion that He loved the Gentiles rejoicing with His people: where were they? Himself despised and rejected of men! How was it with Him in those inmost thoughts, which, when clothed with words, tell truly what and where one is? At that time Jesus said, “I thank Thee, O Father.” The homeless Stranger is thanking the Lord of heaven and earth (which His own hands had made), as His Son, to whom all things are delivered. Could He think of the weary ones at such a time as that? Then how restful Himself! Heir of the Lord of heaven and earth, yet less sheltered from the elements than the animals in the field! “Never man spake like this man”! Yet to babes alone were the things revealed — for Him everything found its goal in, “I thank Thee.” Sweet, quiet words, uttered in a weary world — how they tell of love, and peace, and rest, in the spirit of Him who uttered them! Is not this power, and the most perfect expression of it in Man, in its highest spiritual form? Blessed revelation, too, of the character of His Spirit’s communion with His Father, in that secret place of undisclosed delight. In Luke it is, “rejoiced in spirit.” In John 10:17, 1817Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17‑18), we have the same kind of truth. “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.” Power, obedience, and love, all blended together. Man does not come into this scene any more than into the one just referred to; but endless blessings are the fruit, for him, of what is revealed through the deeper knowledge of Himself. All through the gospels we find green places like these, where the Spirit rests on Jesus; of course He always rests on Him, but in these places He is especially occupied with the Lord.
Why is it that we enter so coldly into these blessed things? It seems as if there was no end of outward activities, and but little fruit of communion, in that secret place of spiritual manifestation, where only He is really known and enjoyed.
What a setting aside of will, the discovery that all our springs must be sought in Christ! But when He is better known, we rejoice in saying, “all my springs are in Thee!” And if we dwell in Him, why then we are at the head-springs of power and love, and, I may add, of perfect and holy liberty. Love can never be separated from power, for God is there — “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.” Again, “Hath given us the spirit of power and love,” they go together. God’s indwelling displaces self, as far as it is realized. The desire that His will should be done, in circumstances apparently, or to mere nature, adverse, cannot be separated from peace, joy, and rest, it is indeed fellowship with Christ. We joy, then, not in the circumstances, surely, but in God Himself — blessed fruit of communion with Himself.
Verse 10. “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” A man must have light to guide him. If he walks on without light from heaven, he is sure to stumble. Christ walked in the day. We see what that means, realized in all perfection in Him. That is how the Shepherd goes before the Sheep! He walks in heavenly light. He teaches us to walk in the same path, but He walks in it first Himself.
Verse 11. “These things said He: and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.” But first He sets forth the principles of His own practical position.
Verse 12. “Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.” They do not understand it. “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” If there was lack of intelligence here, the heart was yielding its best fruits, devotedness to His Person.
In contrast to this, compare in John 7:1-51After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. 3His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. 4For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. 5For neither did his brethren believe in him. (John 7:1‑5), the way His brethren speak to Him. “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill Him . . . His brethren therefore said unto Him, Depart hence and go into Judaea, that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest . . . If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world. For neither did His brethren believe in Him.” Does not that look very heartless? There was no heart and no faith. “Go and show yourself,” they say to Him, “you are doing miracles here in secret.” Yet the Lord Himself would not walk there, because they sought to kill Him.
Verse 16. “Then said Thomas” — poor Thomas, unbelieving Thomas – “which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” However he might have been stumbled, we see how attached his heart was to Christ. He says, “Let us go up in order that we may die with Him.” There was a fine devoted heart! But he ought to have known better, he aught to have counted on it that Christ could not die unless He gave Himself up. In John 14:55Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? (John 14:5), he says, “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?” He is all darkness there, as well as here, where he thinks that man can take away Christ’s life; but he is devoted to the One he believes in. How interesting the history of each individual saint, when given by the Spirit; and what will it be when the results come out in the day of Christ? The disciples leave us far behind in some things. They have a great deal more of what the Lord commends in Mary, personal devotedness to Himself.
Verse 20. “Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary sat still in the house.” In Luke 10 we are first introduced to these sisters, and in a very beautiful way. Jesus had entered a village, and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. How it brings Him before us in His daily life of poverty and simplicity, the houseless, homeless Son of Man! Well, Martha received the homeless One into her home. Here we come upon the difficulties, not of scripture, but of incredulity. Who can fully grasp the reality? The One who inhabits eternity indebted for a day’s lodging, to the faith and love of a poor woman named Martha. What a privilege for her! But her sister Mary’s position was still more blessed; it was well to receive Him into the house, and minister to His outward need; but to sit at His feet, to hear His word, and thus be ministered unto by Him, was far more blessed. She “hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” that is, to hear “the word of the Lord that endures for ever.” This appreciation of His word is above everything; by it alone, divinely given knowledge of Him is communicated to the soul; with that mighty word of His, He comes Himself, and takes up His abode in the heart. “If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:2323Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)). Blessed was the mother who bare Him, but still more blessed the one who keeps His word; in doing this we have His presence, and realize practical conformity in thoughts and ways. Thus Mary sitting in the house when Jesus was coming, reminds us of Jesus Himself remaining two days in the place where He was, when He heard that Lazarus was sick. His word, “Himself reflecting, “abiding in us, produces likeness to Himself. When told that the Teacher had come and called for her, she (the true disciple), rose up quickly, and came unto Him. And when she came where Jesus was, she “fell at His feet,” Mary’s place always (Luke 10; John 11, 12), but Martha’s never. Distracted with much serving, like many in our own time, she had not yet learned that one thing was needful. Still, if Mary placed herself at His feet to hear His word, Martha received Him into her house — dear and blessed sisters they were.
Verse 21. “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” That was quite true, but it does not show she had very great thoughts of the personal glory of Christ.
Verse 25. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.” Now we get the glory of Christ culminating. This is the highest point. This is not what He does, but what He is in Himself. “I am the resurrection and the life.” He had all the power of it. In John 8 we read, “Before Abraham was, I am”; that gives us His Person as Jehovah, the Eternal. But here it is God able (Almighty) to meet and break the power of death which Satan had brought into the world. He says, “I have the power inherent in Myself.” He puts, “the resurrection” first, because there was the poor body stinking in the grave. She says, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” That was orthodox faith. “Jesus said unto her, 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.” If any one dies now, yet shall he live, but when the Lord puts forth His resurrection power, whoever is there alive will never die. But if a man were to die, Christ has the power of resurrection and of life. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” He is talking here about believing.
Verse 27. “She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” This was no answer to Christ’s question. That Christ should in His own Person have the power of life and resurrection, were truths too high for her, as yet, and beyond her grasp, she needed the opened understanding and help of the Spirit. “And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.” She knows very well that Mary has more of the mind of Christ. It was not an untruth morally. She meant that Mary knew more of the mind of the Lord.
Verses 32-35. “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto Him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.” People generally think that it was mere sympathy with the family. But it was much, much deeper than that, a touching expression of sorrow, deep sorrow on the part of Christ. “He troubled Himself” (New Trans.). He saw the power of death resting on those human hearts. It was a very deep thing. The Lord was feeling for those people in whose hearts the power of death was resting. He knew He was just going to raise him from the dead. But He sees the state they are in here. They are not in the secret. “He troubled Himself.” He had the power to remove it all, out the weight and dark shadow of death was resting upon human souls, upon those He loved, and He felt it.
This expression, “He was troubled,” is used three times. In John 12: 27, He says, “Now is My soul troubled.” He had just been speaking of the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, that is, His own death, and feels it too, in its own solemn character, and was troubled – “And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Then, in John 13:1818I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. (John 13:18), when He had said, “He that eateth bread with Me, hath lifted up his heel against Me, “He “was troubled in spirit.” In each of those passages, it was soul-trouble in Christ, and in each passage, glory from God is the answer. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him — Son of Man here. “If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.”
He enters into the state of man, takes up both it and its consequences (as far as this world is in view), in His spirit before God. Oh how precious to Him were those groans of Jesus! His groans were according to God, and in sympathy with man. He enters into these various states. He troubled Himself, and said, “Where have ye laid him?” “Jesus wept.” The people, talking from their point of view, say, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” It is all a mystery to them. They do not say, “Could He not have raised this man? but, Could He not have caused that this man should not have died?”
Verses 38-40. “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, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” That is in connection with verse 4. How interesting and blessed, this answer from the Father, to all the dishonor that man was putting on Him, connecting Jesus with the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby! What rich reward there ever is in waiting for Him! It was a divine thought, that the Son of God should be glorified upon earth, and that without leaving His place at all. He is still the rejected Jesus, and what comes out? The Son of God glorified.
Verse 41. “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.” He was not surprised that the Father heard Him. His confidence in His Father was perfect.
Verses 42-44. “But because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. And when He thus had 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.” This is the answer. There was the Son of God glorified. He says, “Come forth “—he comes forth. Divine power was there. Yet He does it in dependence, that belongs to His perfection as Son of Man. “Loose him, and let him go.” Resurrection life can never harmonize with bondage, but with perfect and holy liberty. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of liberty and holiness.
Verses 45-48. “Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” The Pharisees owned the miracles, but that was all, their hearts and consciences were not affected. Some think it a wonderful thing when they have demonstrated, as they suppose, the truth of the miracles of Christ; but mere conviction as to miraculous power, does not lead the soul to God. They owned them here, but it has no effect whatever. Nothing could be more terrible than their state.
Then Caiaphas prophesies. It was just like Balaam of old. There is an instance of the Holy Ghost using a man that was no better than the dumb ass, as to his relation to Christ. There we see the difference between a man being sealed by the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost using him as an instrument.
Verse 48. “If we let Him thus alone, all will believe on Him, and the Romans will come and will take away both our place and our nation.” They were all under the power of the Romans, but were allowed privileges, as all the nations conquered by the Romans were. They were sometimes allowed great privileges, and they were afraid that the Romans would take them away.
Verses 53, 54. The result of the Pharisees council was, that “from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews: but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples.” Ephraim, a town near the desert; and Bethany, a mountain village on the far side of the mount of Olives, on the slope descending towards the Jordan, are the last tarrying-places on earth of the Man of sorrows.
This is a very wonderful chapter, containing such a blessed revelation of His Person, in answer to all that they had been doing. This at the end, after all the rejection and hatred, and while Christ is on earth, and all His outward place unchanged. The man was there, stinking in the grave. Christ has only to say to him, “Come forth,” and he comes forth.
We find the same in the other passages, where He is seen as Son of David and Son of Man.