My dear Brother, I have often thought of you and the children, since I saw you, and we have asked the Lord to sustain and comfort you in this hour of deep trial and sorrow.
What an unspeakable comfort it is to know Him in the hour of sorrow! We sorrow not as those who have no hope. We do indeed sorrow, but it is sorrow of another sort, and even unspeakable joy mingles with it. And in our sorrow we know the power of a sympathy to which the world is an utter stranger. We know Him who wept with the weeping sisters at the grave of Lazarus; and who, at the same time, could say, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
What an unfolding of divine affections and sympathies we get in that scene! Sin was there, and death was there as the result, and man powerless able only to weep, in the presence of human misery. Jesus had healed the sick, made the lame to walk, opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, unloosed the tongues of the dumb. Must He stop here? Was this as far as He could go? No, blessed be God, even the grave must give up its dead. Lazarus, given back that day to his bereaved sisters, was the proof that One was there present who had power to abolish death and the grave. The resurrection of Lazarus was at once the proof of this power, and the revealing of a heart that feels all the sorrows of His own in this scene of suffering and death.
But where sin had come in, bringing death with it, something more was needed than mere power. Power was there to bring back the dead one; but death was not abolished, and sin was still there. Lazarus came back from the tomb at the bidding of Jesus, but he came “bound hand and foot with grave-clothes.” The emblems of death were still about him. He was brought back into the same condition he was in before he died, and was still subject to death. He had gone into the river, but came out on the same side as he had entered. He was still in the old creation. He had not passed over. Why was this? Why did not Lazarus, when raised up from the dead, at once pass into the eternal state of the blessed beyond death? Just because of this: The waters of the swelling Jordan must first be dried up. The Ark must enter the river, and stay the floods, before the people could pass over. The Lord said to Peter, “Whither I go, thou canst not, follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterward” (John 13:3636Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. (John 13:36).) So Jesus must first enter into death, and bear the judgment of God against sin, before any could pass over. This was why He groaned at the grave of Lazarus; for He not only wept in sympathy, but “He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.” This was more than mere sympathy. He was in the presence of death, but it was death as that which sin had brought in. How was this to be met? Mere power would not do. There was a moral question a question of the divine glory in the presence of man’s sin and Satan’s power. Mere power could not meet this. Jesus Himself must undergo death the death of the cross death under the awful weight of God’s judgment against sin. This He anticipated, and He groaned in spirit. Nothing short of this could take away sin. Would He meet the issue? Would He undergo the forsaking of God? Would He bow under the stroke of righteous judgment that was to atone for sin, so that God could deliver and bring His people to Himself? Blessed be God, He did. Nothing could turn Him back in the path of fulfilling His Father’s will, His Father’s glory, and the salvation of all the Father gave Him were before Him, and He would go on to the end. No storm could turn Him back. Human hatred and Satanic malice were alike powerless. Even through the storm of God’s wrath and judgment on sin He pressed forward, Such His devotedness to His Father’s glory; such His love to us. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:11Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John 13:1)).
What was the result? He rose from the dead; not bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, like Lazarus, but witnessing His eternal victory over sin, Satan, death, and the grave. Risen from the dead, He has entered a new order of things, into which He also brings His own people, even now. His relationships and associations are ours. “My Father and your Father; my God and your God,” He could say. Though our bodies still link us with a groaning creation, to faith, and in spirit, we have crossed the river. We are risen with Him, and even seated in Him in the heavenly places, and, in spirit, live in the eternal scene of blessedness He, as man, has entered. We still wait for the redemption of our bodies, but that will come ere long; and when it does come, it will not be bringing them back into the old scene of sin and death, like Lazarus, but raising them up into the eternal scene beyond, fashioned into the likeness of Christ’s body of glory, Thus, dear brother, we know Jesus, not only as One whose sympathy is perfect, but as One who is able to bring us out of this scene of sorrow altogether, and give us a place with Himself in a scene of divine joy and blessedness, where no tear shall ever be shed, and where no sorrow shall ever darken the eternal brightness. He has told His Father He wants us there: “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24).) And in order that He may take us there, He has dried up the waters of the Jordan, so that death cannot touch us. And, what is more, He is coming to complete the exhibition of His love surpassing all other loves by taking us home to the place His love has prepared for us in the Father’s house: “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. How perfect, how infinite, is His love! Not a tear is unnoticed; not a sigh or groan of a wounded or broken heart is unheard. He sees all, hears all, feels all; and, blessed be His name; He pours into the sorrowing heart His own sympathy. This He does now, while we are here in the midst of the sorrow, and sustains us by His own blessed presence. But in a little while He will dry our tears forever, and turn our night of weeping into one long, bright, eternal day of joy.
Even now there is joy and blessing in the midst of the sorrow. Links are broken here; but fresh links are formed above. Strong ties of nature are severed, and the heart bleeds, and feels its own desolateness; but Jesus Himself comes to fill the void, and bind up the wounds He has made; and He does it so tenderly, and in such love! He wants the whole heart wants to live in it and will fill it with the brightness of His own presence, and make the desolate sing with a new joy.
And then it is only a moment, as it were, until we meet again those we loved so well. And what a meeting that will be! The parting was amid blinding tears, and with breaking hearts; the meeting will be in eternal sunshine, in the presence of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us, where parting will be no more.
The natural ties, indeed, are broken, and that forever, but the spiritual ties the ties that are in Christ abide; and all that we have been to each other spiritually will have place there. Paul could tell the Thessalonian saints, that they would be his “joy” and “crown of rejoicing,” “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.” (1 Thess. 2:1010Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: (1 Thessalonians 2:10).) The relationships of husband and wife, parents and children, &c, will have no place there. But those who have been in these relationships here, and have helped each other spiritually, will have the result of it there, and rejoice together, while owning only the links that are in Christ.
How blessed, then, to meet again those with whom we have walked here in the fear of the Lord, and whose spiritual conflicts, labors and trials we have shared! Only we must remember, that Christ will be all the glory in that eternal scene of blessedness.
How soon we may see His face! “We shall see: him as he is,” and then we shall he like Him. We shall hear His voice, and behold His glory. It may be today, or it may be to-morrow. It must be soon. At the most, only a few more tears, a few more weary sighs, a few more steps in the desert sands, and the end will be reached, the longings of the heart all satisfied in the presence of Him who loves us, and whose love never changes. His companions in the joy and glory of the Fathers house, never more to be separated from Him, or from each other “Forever with the Lord!”
Let us then have good courage, and press on to the goal of all our hopes that meeting in the air, when raised dead and changed living we shall once more meet one another, in the presence of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He will shorten our pilgrim journey by coming to meet us on the way.
With kindest love to yourself and all the children,
Your affectionate brother.