SERMON XXXIX (3)

Glad tidings these of great joy. This should comfort us concerning our deceased, pious relations, that ere long they shall rise again, and soul and body be for ever with the Lord. Howbeit Jesus spake here of an immediate resurrection, though he did not speak plainly: For Christ loves to exercise the faith and patience of his disciples, and frequently leaves them to find out his meaning by degrees. It is best for us in our present state, that it should be so. In heaven it will be otherwise. “Thy brother, (says Christ to Martha) shall rise again.” She might immediately have replied, When, Lord? But she fetches a circuit as it were, and labours to find out the mind of Jesus by degrees. “I know, says she, that he shall rise again at the resurrection of the last day.” These words seem to imply, that she had some distant thought of our Lord’s design to raise her brother now, and that she spoke thus only to draw our Saviour to speak, and tell her plainly whether he meant to do so or not. Those who are acquainted with Jesus, are taught an holy art by the blessed Spirit, in dealing with their blessed master. “I know, says she, he shall rise again at the resurrection of the last day,” (a notable proof this, by the way, that the pious Jews believed the resurrection of the body). It is just the same as though she had said, Lord, dost thou mean that my brother shall rise again before that time? Our Saviour wisely keeps off from giving her a direct answer, but chuses rather to preach to her heart. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” On this Martha’s faith, if in exercise, might take hold. O glorious words! How encouraging to you poor sinners lying in your blood! Though you are dead in trespasses and sins, and might justly be condemned to die the second death, yet if you believe on the Lord Jesus you shall live. He adds, “And whosoever believeth in me shall never die;” never die as to their souls, never die eternally, and consequently never finally fall away from God. This is an encouraging soul-comforting declaration for you, O believers, who are thus kept, as it were, in a garrison, by the mighty power of God, through faith, unto salvation! “Believest thou this?” says Christ to Martha, verse 26. What avail all the many great and precious promises of the gospel, unless they are applied and brought home in particular to each of our souls? The word does not profit unless it is mixed with faith. We therefore do well, when we are reading Christ’s words, to put this question to ourselves; O my soul, believest thou this? And well would it be for us, if upon putting this question to ourselves, we could with the same holy confidence, and in the same delightful frame, say with Martha, verse 27. “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” This I think is a direct confession of our Lord’s divinity. How full was her heart when she spoke these words! I am persuaded it burnt within her. What a divine warmth had she contracted by talking with Jesus! How does she long that her sister might share in her holy joy! For when she had so said, verse 28. “she went away;” full of love, no doubt, and called Mary her sister, as all will labour to call their near relations, who have felt the Lord Jesus to be the resurrection and the life themselves. But Martha took care, in the midst of her zeal (as we should always do) to behave with prudence; and therefore “she called her sister secretly, saying, The master is come, and calleth for thee.” The master is come. She need say no more; Mary knew very well whom she meant. For holy souls easily understand one another when talking of their master Jesus. The divine Herbert used to delight (when speaking of Jesus) to say, “My Master;” perhaps he learned it of Martha, who said here, “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.” But what is this thou sayest, Martha? The Master is come, and calleth for thee? Surely a woman of thy exalted piety will not tell a deliberate lie, and in order to induce thy sister to come to Jesus, acquaint her that Jesus called her, when indeed he did not. Thou needest not put thyself to such an expence, or do so much evil, that good may come of it. Only mention Jesus to Mary, and let her know for a certainty that the Master is indeed come, and I am persuaded she will sit no longer. Martha no doubt knew, and therefore I cannot judge her as some do, as though in her haste she said what was not true. For Jesus might bid her to call her sister, though it be not directly mentioned in this chapter. And it is very probable, that our Lord did enquire after Mary, because she used to take such great delight in sitting at his feet, and hearing the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. “The Master is come (saith Martha to her sister) and calleth for thee.” And so say I to all poor sinners. Jesus, your Lord and Master, your Prince and Saviour, is come, come unto this lower world, and is come this day in his word, and by me, who am less than the least of all his servants, and calleth for you. O that he may also come in the demonstration of the Spirit, and by his mighty power bow your stubborn hearts and wills to obey the call, as holy Mary did.

For we are told, verse 29. “When she heard that, she rose quickly, and came to Jesus.” Sinners, when will you do so? Or why do you not do so? How know you whether Jesus will call for you any more, before he calls you by death to judgment? Linger, O linger no longer. Fly, fly for your lives. Arise quickly, and with Mary come to Jesus. She obeyed the call so very speedily, that her haste was taken notice of by her visitors. “The Jews then, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily (without any ceremony at all) and went out, followed her, saying, she goeth to the grave, to weep there.” How wisely does our Lord permit and order all this, to bring the Jews out to behold the wonderful miracle that he was about to perform! Little did Mary and the Jews think for what end they were thus providentially led out. But when Jesus hath work to be done, he will bring souls to the place where he intends to call them, in spite of men or devils. But how does Mary behave when she comes to Jesus? We may be assured, not without great humility. No wonder then we are told, verse 32. that “when she saw him, she immediately fell down at his feet (a place Mary had been used to, and in an agony of grief, says, as her sister had done before her) Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Poor Mary! Her concern was great indeed. Though she was a holy woman, she could not well bear the loss of her brother. She knew very well, that the world would miss him, and no doubt he had been a kind and tender brother to her. But I am afraid she was sinfully overcome with overmuch sorrow. However, had we been there, the sight must have affected us. It seems to have affected the visitors, especially the blessed Jesus. He, instead of blaming her, for her tacitly accusing him of unkindness, and for not coming to her brother’s relief, pities and sympathizes both with Mary and her weeping friends! “When Jesus saw her weep, and the Jews also weeping, he groaned in his Spirit, and was troubled.” Troubled: Not with any sinful perturbation we may be assured: nothing of that nature could possibly be in his sinless soul. And, therefore, some have judiciously enough compared the trouble our Lord now felt, to some chrystal water shaken in a glass or bottle; you may shake it, but there will be no sediment: it will be chrystal water still. “He groaned in his spirit.” I do not see why this may not be understood of his praying in the spirit, which maketh intercession for the saints, with ἀλαλητοις στεναγμοις “groanings that cannot be uttered.” Methinks I see the immaculate Lamb of God, secretly, but powerfully agonizing with his Father; his heart is big with sympathy! At length, out of the fulness of it, he said, verse 34. “Where have ye laid him? They (I suppose Mary and Martha) say unto him, Lord, come and see.” He came, he saw, “He wept,” verse 35. It is put in a verse by itself, that we might pause a while, and ask, why Jesus wept?

He wept, to shew us, that it was no sin to shed a tear of love and resignation at the grave of a deceased friend; he wept, to see what havock sin had made in the world, and how it had reduced man, who was originally little lower than the angels, (by making him subject to death) to a level with the beasts that perish: but above all, he wept at the foresight of the people’s unbelief; he wept, to think how many then present, would not only not believe on, but would be hardened, and have their prejudices increased more and more against him, though he should raise Lazarus from the dead before their eyes. Well then may ministers be excused, who, whilst they are preaching, now and then drop a few tears, at the consideration of their sermons being, through the perverseness and unbelief of many of their audience, a savour of death unto death, instead of a savour of life unto life. Upon a like occasion Jesus wept. What an affecting sight was here! Let us for a while suppose ourselves placed amidst these holy mourners; let us imagine that we see the sepulchre just before us, and the Jews, and Mary, and the blessed Jesus weeping round it. Surely, the most obdurate of us all must drop a tear, or at least be affected with the sight; we find that it affected those who were really by-standers: for then said the Jews, verse 36. “Behold, how he loved him.” And did they say, Behold, how he loved him, when Jesus only shed a few tears over the grave of his departed Lazarus? Come then, O sinners, and view Christ dying and pouring out his precious heart’s blood for you upon an accursed tree, and then surely you must needs cry out, Behold, how he loved us!

But alas, though all were affected, yet, it seems, all were not well affected at seeing Jesus weep! For we are told, verse 37. that some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” One would imagine, that Satan himself could scarce have uttered a more perverse speech: every word is full of spite and rancour. Could not this man, this fellow, this deceiver, who pretends to say, that he opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that this man, whom he seems to love so, should not have died? Is not this a sufficient proof that he is a cheat? Have we catched him at last? Is it likely that he really helped others, when he could not help his own friend?――O how patient ought the servants of our Lord to be! And how may they expect to be censured, and have their good deeds questioned, and lessened, when their blessed Master has been thus treated before them! However, Jesus will do good, notwithstanding all these slights put upon him; and therefore, again groaning in himself, “he cometh to the grave; it was a cave, (or vault, as is customary in great families) and a stone lay upon it; Jesus said, verse 39. Take ye away the stone.” How gradually does our Lord proceed, in order to engage the people’s attention the more! Methinks I see them all eye, all ear, and eagerly waiting to see the issue of this affair. But Martha now returning with the rest of the company, seems to have lost that good frame which she was in when she went to call her sister; “She saith unto him, (verse 39.) Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been either dead or buried four days.” O the dismal effects of carnal reasoning! How naturally do we fall into doubts and fears, when we have not our eye simply directed to the blessed Jesus! Martha, instead of looking up to him, looks down into the grave, and poring upon her brother’s stinking corpse, falls into a fit of unbelief: “By this time he stinketh;” and, therefore, a sight of him will only be offensive. Perhaps she might think our Lord only wanted to take a view of her brother Lazarus; Jesus, therefore, to give her yet a further hint, that he intended to do something extraordinary, saith unto her, verse 40. “Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?” Our Lord speaks here with some degree of warmth: for nothing displeases him more than the unbelief of his own disciples. “Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?” When Christ first spoke these words unto her, we are not told; it might be, this was part of their conversation upon another occasion some time before: however, he checks her openly for her unbelief now: for those whom Jesus loves, must expect to be rebuked sharply by him, whenever they dishonour him by unbelief. The reproof is taken.