Scripture Reading: John 11:32-45
The eleventh chapter of John’s gospel introduces us to an experience of our Lord’s life which will ever be unspeakably precious to His friends. Here we enter a home which was in a very real way our Lord’s own home. Here He found love which was unspeakably rich and dear to His heart in its comforts and blessings. The house in which Martha and Mary and Lazarus lived was one place in which Jesus was always sure of welcome when He came to their door weary and always sure of refuge when He came from the strifes and enmities of the world.
Into this home there came sore and fatal sickness. Jesus was absent. When Lazarus was stricken, a messenger was sent to Jesus bearing the simple message from the burdened hearts, “He whom thou lovest is sick” (11:3). We would say that such a message would have brought the Master at once. We think at least that if we had been in His place, we would have made all haste, traveling by night and day, to get to our dying friend. But, strange to say, Jesus, after receiving the message, lingered two days longer where He was. Evidently He was not alarmed, although He knew all the circumstance. Explaining His delay in starting to the home of His friends, we have this remarkable statement: “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When therefore he heard that he was sick, he abode at that time two days in the place where he was.”
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