| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 17 |
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That is, it was just because He loved the sisters and Lazarus that He abode two days longer before He sent out to minister to them. When He reached Bethany at length, Lazarus had been dead four days. In the narrative we have our Lord’s conversation with the sisters. Then we have the exquisite picture of the wary and way worn Christ, standing beside His friends in their grief, weeping with them. But we have more than tears — the same One who weeps calls the dead from the grave, and gives back to the darkened home its light and joy.
Martha was the first to meet Jesus when He reached the village. It was outside the home, in some quiet place. Presently He sent her to call Mary. The message was, “The Master is come, and calleth thee.” Mary was sitting in the house in deep grief. Evidently the sisters and brother were bound together in very warm ties of affection. Probably they were orphans, keeping up the old home after father and mother were gone. A good brother is a great comfort and blessing to His sister, especially when they have neither parent to lean on. Great, therefore, was the grief when Lazarus died. Jesus had been a friend to them all, and when Mary had learned that He had come and that He wished to see her, she rose up quickly and hastened to Him. Jesus sends the same message to everyone who is in sorrow, “The Master is come, and calleth thee.” He wants to comfort His friends who are in sorrow. He bids them come to Him with their trouble. No matter how deep the grief is, we should always do as Mary did — hasten to Jesus. He is the only true Comforter.
When Mary came to Jesus she fell down at His feet. A true picture of Mary should always show her there. Mary seems to be grieving, almost complaining, at the Master’s long delay in coming to the sad home. She told Jesus that if He had been there, her brother had not died. Perhaps that was true. So far as we are told no one died ever in the presence of Jesus. But the saving of Lazarus from dying was not the best thing for even divine power and love to do that day. When the word came that Lazarus was sick, Jesus said to His disciples that the sickness was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.” Curing His friend’s fever would have glorified God and His Son, but raising him from the dead was a great glory. When a friend of ours is sick, it is right for us to pray for His restoration to health, but we do not know that this is the best thing. Perhaps the death of our loved one may be a better thing and more for God’s glory than His living longer would be.
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