It is in human nature to lean upon the presence of friends and patrons. In their absence it seems as if we could not help exclaiming, "Ah! if only we had been supported by their nearness, their countenance, their encouragement, then all would have been otherwise, all would have been far better with us!" So the soldier regrets the absence of his commander; the official the absence of his chief; the child the absence of his parent. And so, sometimes, like Mary of Bethany, the Christian laments the absence of his Lord.

I. ONE SAYS, "IF THOU, LORD, HADST BEEN HERE, I WOULD HAVE BELIEVED ON THEE." To some Jesus seems so far away, in time, in space, that they feel it hard to cherish faith in him. But such should remember that faith is more truly faith when it is tried by the distance of its object. "Blessed," said Christ, "are those who, not having seen, yet believe." II ANOTHER SAYS, "IF THOU, LORD, HADST BEEN HERE, I SHOULD HAVE RESISTED. TEMPTATION." In the absence of the mighty Master, how can the servant stand? Yet, reflection assures us that the Spirit of Christ and the Word of Christ are sufficient to enable the tempted to resist the adversary, and to overcome in the trial. Peter yielded to temptation, and denied his Lord, in his very presence. The same Peter afterwards boldly confessed his Lord when that Lord was no longer present in the body upon earth.

III. ANOTHER SAYS, "IF THOU, LORD, HADST BEEN HERE, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPARED THIS SORROW, OR, AT THE LEAST, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED UNDER IT?' But this is not certain. Trouble is often - to the Christian it should be always - blessing, even though in disguise. If so, wisdom and love may permit it, whether Christ be, as to the body, present or absent. And certainly his Divine supports and consolations may be experienced, even though his form be not seen, his voice not heard.

IV. ANOTHER SAYS, "IF THOU, LORD, HADST BEEN HERE, I WOULD HAVE BOLDLY ENCOUNTERED PERSECUTION AND DARED DEATH." They who through timidity and faithlessness fail in witnessing to their Lord, and then make to themselves this excuse, prove how little knowledge they have of their own hearts. Some have thought, "If, like the dying malefactor, we could have hung by the side of Jesus, with his presence to encourage and his example to cheer us, then we could have dared to die for him; but how can we suffer for his sake when unnoticed, unsupported, and alone?" This way of thinking overlooks Christ's spiritual presence. In reality, they who suffer for him "suffer with him."

V. ANOTHER SAYS, "IF, LORD, THOU HADST BEEN HERE, THEN THY WORK ENTRUSTED TO MY HANDS WOULD HAVE PROSPERED." There are those who fear that in this spiritual dispensation, where no present Lord stands ready to work signs and wonders for the conviction of men, it is vain to hope for great results to follow the preaching of the gospel and the witness of the saints. Yet it cannot be denied that greater works than those wrought during Christ's ministry were effected after his ascension, and that the spiritual economy was introduced into the world with signal trophies of might and signal omens of victory. It is not the Master's bodily absence which accounts for the slow progress of the truth and kingdom of Christ. Spiritual causes account for this lamentable fact; spiritual powers alone can check the advance of error, and hasten the kingdom of God, of righteousness, of truth. The Church has not faith enough in the Lord's own assurance, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

APPLICATION. It is well for us to remember that, as a matter of fact and reality, Christ is always here. His Spirit is near our spirit. He is truly present to those who have faith. When duty is difficult and arduous, let us reflect, Christ is here! When temptation is urgent, or when trials are severe, let us not forget that Christ is here! When bereavement overtakes us, and we are very sensible that those whom we have loved, and upon whom we have relied, are gone, then let us cherish the comforting assurance that Christ is here! - T.

1. Mary fell at His feet; formerly she was willing to sit at them. The soul is never, as amid such desolation, constrained to cling to "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

2. There is continued confidence — it is still "Lord," notwithstanding what had happened — seen in the conviction that an earlier arrival would have brought deliverance, and leading to a hope of help even in this extremity.

3. Mary uses the same words as Martha (ver. 21). Perhaps they had often said so. But Mary did not finish her appeal as Martha did (ver. 22); not that her faith was less strong: it was finished in her own heart. Tears break in and check utterance (ver. 33).

4. Yet with this faith there is wonder at Christ's absence, which almost verges on reproach. Why so late? We shall look at the question in the light the narrative gives.

I. THE STRANGENESS OF CHRIST'S DELAY TO INTERPOSE AGAINST DEATH.

1. Turn to the circumstances around us, as Martha and Mary may have done. Consider —(1) What death is to the sufferer. No happy translation. The end of all earthly sufferings but more dreaded than all. Man's heart recoils from its accompaniments. When we see a friend moving forward to his doom, what means do we not exhaust to save him? Yet Christ suffered Lazarus to die. And how many have been struck down since of the most lovely and loving; and yet death has no power without Christ's permission.(2) What a bereavement death is to the survivors! In a Christian it is not the dead who are to be mourned, but those whom they leave. What ages of agony are lived while the wavering balance is watched! And then the anguish of the parting, and the slow groping which follows to realize it! The childless mother, etc., have wrestled over the dying and moaned over the dead and none seemed to listen.(3) What a ground of reproach death has furnished to the enemies of Christ. There was no lack of unbelieving Jews in Bethany to take advantage of Christ's absence. Something like the feeling of the Psalmist must have been theirs, "My tears have been my meat...while they said unto me, where is thy God," and so now over closed graves we hear the reproach, "Where is the promise of His coming?" etc., and the Christian heart wearies for some interposition to vindicate its claim. "Arise, O God," etc.

2. Turn from our circumstances to Christ as these sisters did. We believe —(1) That Christ is fully aware of our need. When a friend fails us through ignorance, we do not blame him. As soon as the sisters apprehended danger they sent to Jesus. Without this we know that Christ understands all our need. He can draw nearer than the nearest, and His foot does not step forward to the rescue. Is it not strange —(2) That Christ has full power to interpose (vers. 22, 42). He has not only omnipotence, but the moral right and power, having paid the ransom price. The keys of death hang at His girdle, and that He should not use them occasions strange thoughts.(3) That it is the desire of Christ to interpose (vers. 5, 33). But if He felt so deeply why did He not come sooner? And if He meant not to interpose why should He weep? (Jeremiah 14:8). Our very confidence in Christ becomes the occasion of bewildering doubts. "Lord...help Thou our unbelief."

II. THE REASON FOR CHRIST'S DELAY WHICH MAY BE FOUND IN THIS HISTORY. Other reasons there are to be found in the Bible, and probably outside. But here we see that Christ delays —

1. That His friends when dying may have confidence in Him, and have an opportunity for showing it. We have no account of Lazarus's death, but the period has its peculiar use in every spiritual history.(1) The great end of Christ's dealing with any soul is to convince it that in Him it has an all-sufficient life, and that with Him it can pass safely through every emergency. But this course of teaching would want its crown if it did not end in death. He invites the soul, and constrains it to put all its confidence into that last act of surrender knowing Him whom it believes, and feeling that underneath are the everlasting arms.(2) Death is the last touch of that purifying fire which Christ employs to melt the fallen nature, free it from its dross, and fuse it into His likeness.

2. That the sorrowing friends may learn entire reliance on Him. It is a subject for study how Christ leads on these sisters from a dead brother to the Resurrection and the Life, and teaches them through their loss to gain what they could never lose any more. Christ separates our friends from us for a while that we may learn to find our all in Himself.

3. That in the midst of death the union of sympathy between Christ and His friends is perfected. Jesus had given them many tokens of His love while Lazarus lived, but none with that touching tenderness which came forth at his grave. The fellowship of suffering brings hearts and lives together more than all the fellowship of joy. When Jesus wept the mourners knew He was one with them. Gethsemane shows us the agony of Christ's soul for man's sin — the grave at Bethany His agony of heart at man's suffering.

4. That God makes this a world of spiritual probation. By His delay Christ tried the character of all who knew the case, and Christ's delays now are the touchstone of spiritual life. You who would have Him never suffer the tears of His people to fall would lead men to seek Him, not for the love they bore Him, but for outward benefits. But God defers the time for interposition in order that He may sift their characters and prepare them for the day of judgment.

5. That He brings in thereby a grander and final issue.

(J. Ker, D. D.)

In the days of King Solomon there lived among the Jews a wise man named Lokman. His master once gave him a very bitter kind of melon, called the coloquintida; he ate without making wry faces or speaking a word. "How was it possible for you to swallow so nauseous a fruit?" asked the master. Lokman answered: "I have received so many sweets from you that it is not wonderful I should have swallowed the only bitter fruit you ever gave me." The master was so much charmed with this reply that he gave Lokman his liberty. The beautiful answer teaches us a lesson. We must take the gifts from our heavenly Father with a smiling face; but when He sees best for our good to send us something we do not like, our countenance falls, and even if we do not speak, our sullen discontent is apparent to all. Fretful impatience under bereavement: — The Duchess of Beaufort, on the death of the Duke, shut herself up in a room hung with black and refused all comfort. A Quaker, who found her thus disconsolate, in the deepest mourning, ejaculated, "What! hast thou not forgiven God Almighty yet?" The rebuke had such an effect that she immediately rose and went about her usual and necessary business.

(Madame D'Arblay.)

"Peace, Mary, peace," said a godly woman, who had lost all her family, to a godless neighbour who was rebelling against the Providence that had taken one child of many; "Peace, Mary; while I have six pairs of empty shoes to look on, you have but one."

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Caiaphas, Didymus, Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, ThomasBethany, Ephraim, Jerusalem, JudeaBrother, Dead, Died, Exclaimed, Fell, Hadst, Mary, Master, Reached, Saying, Seeing, Sir, Wouldn't1. Jesus raises Lazarus, four days buried.
45. Many Jews believe.
47. The high priests and Pharisees gather a council against Jesus.
49. Caiaphas prophesies.
54. Jesus hides himself.
55. At the Passover they enquire after him, and lay wait for him.

John 11:32

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March 28 Evening
Our friend sleepeth.--JOHN 11:11. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. But now is Christ risen from the …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 6 Morning
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.--COL. 3:4. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.--God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 11 Evening
Jesus wept.--JOHN 11:35. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.--We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.--It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.--Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 22 Evening
Behold how he loved.--JOHN 11:36. He died for all.--Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. He . . . liveth to make intercession for them.--I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.--Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.--Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. We love him, because he first loved loved us.--The …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 30 Evening
Thou hearest me always.--JOHN 11:42. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.--Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.--Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.--Not my will, but thine, be done. As he is, so are we in this world.--This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Christ's Question to Each
For the Young '... Believest then this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord.'--JOHN xi. 26, 27. As each of these annual sermons which I have preached for so long comes round, I feel more solemnly the growing probability that it may be the last. Like a man nearing the end of his day's work, I want to make the most of the remaining moments. Whether this is the last sermon of the sort that I shall preach or not, it is certainly the last of the kind that some of you will hear from me, or possibly from any …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Open Grave at Bethany
'Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. 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 …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Seventh Miracle in John's Gospel --The Raising of Lazarus
'And when Jesus thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come forth. 44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin.'--JOHN xi. 43, 44. The series of our Lord's miracles before the Passion, as recorded in this Gospel, is fitly closed with the raising of Lazarus. It crowns the whole, whether we regard the greatness of the fact, the manner of our Lord's working, the minuteness and richness of the accompanying details, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Caiaphas
'And one of them, named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.'--JOHN xi. 49,50. The resurrection of Lazarus had raised a wave of popular excitement. Any stir amongst the people was dangerous, especially at the Passover time, which was nigh at hand, when Jerusalem would be filled with crowds of men, ready to take fire from any spark …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Delays of Love
'Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.'--JOHN xi. 5, 6. We learn from a later verse of this chapter that Lazarus had been dead four days when Christ reached Bethany. The distance from that village to the probable place of Christ's abode, when He received the message, was about a day's journey. If, therefore, to the two days on which He abode still after the receipt of the news, we …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Miracles no Remedy for Unbelief.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?"--Numbers xiv. 11. Nothing, I suppose, is more surprising to us at first reading, than the history of God's chosen people; nay, on second and third reading, and on every reading, till we learn to view it as God views it. It seems strange, indeed, to most persons, that the Israelites should have acted as they did, age after age, in …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Mystery! Saints Sorrowing and Jesus Glad!
Jesus is talking of the death of His friend, let us listen to His words; perhaps we may find the key to His actions in the words of His lips. How surprising! He does not say, "I regret that I have tarried so long." He does not say, "I ought to have hastened, but even now it is not too late." Hear, and marvel! Wonder of wonders, He says, "I am glad that I was not there." Glad! the word is out of place? Lazarus, by this time, stinketh in his tomb,and here is the Saviour glad! Martha and Mary are weeping …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

Beloved, and yet Afflicted
We need not be astonished that the man whom the Lord loves is sick, for he is only a man. The love of Jesus does not separate us from the common necessities and infirmities of human life. Men of God are still men. The covenant of grace is not a charter of exemption from consumption, or rheumatism, or asthma. The bodily ills, which come upon us because of our flesh, will attend us to the tomb, for Paul saith, "we that are in this body do groan." Those whom the Lord loves are the more likely to be …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

Though He were Dead
Martha, you see, in this case, when the Lord Jesus Christ told her that her brother would rise again, replied, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." She was a type, I say, of certain anxious believers, for she set a practical bound to the Saviour's words. "Of course there will be a resurrection, and then my brother will rise with the rest." She concluded that the Saviour could not mean anything beyond that. The first meaning and the commonest meaning that suggests …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 30: 1884

Even Now
"Even now."--John 11:22 I HOPE that there are a great many persons here who are interested in the souls of those around them. We shall certainly never exercise faith concerning those for whose salvation we have no care. I trust, also, that we are diligent in looking after individuals, especially those who are amongst our own family and friends. This is what Martha did; her whole care was for her brother. It is often easier to have faith that Christ can save sinners in general, than to believe that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

Oh, How He Loves!
"Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!"--John 11:36. IT WAS AT THE GRAVE OF LAZARUS that Jesus wept, and his grief was so manifest to the onlookers that they said, "Behold how he loved him!" Most of us here, I trust, are not mere onlookers, but we have a share in the special love of Jesus. We see evidences of that love, not in his tears, but in the precious blood that he so freely shed for us; so we ought to marvel even more than those Jews did at the love of Jesus, and to see further into …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 56: 1910

The Welcome visitor
IT seems that Martha had heard of Christ's coming, and Mary had not. Hence Martha rose up hastily and went to meet the Master, while Mary sat still in the house. From this we gather that genuine believers may, through some unexplained cause, be at the same time in very different states of mind. Martha may have heard of the Lord and seen the Lord; and Mary, an equally loving heart, not having known of his presence, may, therefore, have missed the privilege of fellowship with him. Who shall say that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

The Displeasure of Jesus.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.--John xi. 33. Grimm, in his lexicon to the New Testament, after giving as the equivalent of the word [Greek: embrimaomai] in pagan use, 'I am moved with anger,' 'I roar or growl,' 'I snort at,' 'I am vehemently angry or indignant with some one,' tells us that in Mark i. 43, and Matthew ix. 30, it has a meaning different from that of the pagans, namely, 'I command with …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

The Disciple, -- Master, what is the Real Meaning of Service? is it that We...
The Disciple,--Master, what is the real meaning of service? Is it that we serve the Creator and then His creatures for His sake? Is the help of man, who is after all but a mere worm, of any value to God in caring for His great family, or does God stand in need of the help of man in protecting or preserving any of His creatures? The Master,--1. Service means the activity of the spiritual life and is the natural offering prompted by love. God, who is Love, is ever active in the care of His creation, …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

How to Make Use of Christ as the Life, when the Believer is So Sitten-Up in the Ways of God, that He Can do Nothing.
Sometimes the believer is under such a distemper of weakness and deadness, that there is almost no commanded duty that he can go about; his heart and all is so dead, that he cannot so much as groan under that deadness. Yea, he may be under such a decay, that little or no difference will be observed betwixt him and others that are yet in nature; and be not only unable to go actively and lively about commanded duties, yea, or to wrestle from under that deadness; but also be so dead, that he shall scarce …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Of the Intimate Love of Jesus
When Jesus is present all is well and nothing seemeth hard, but when Jesus is not present everything is hard. When Jesus speaketh not within, our comfort is nothing worth, but if Jesus speaketh but a single word great is the comfort we experience. Did not Mary Magdalene rise up quickly from the place where she wept when Martha said to her, The Master is come and calleth for thee?(1) Happy hour when Jesus calleth thee from tears to the joy of the spirit! How dry and hard art thou without Jesus! …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Peræa to Bethany. Raising of Lazarus.
^D John XI. 1-46. ^d 1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [For Bethany and the sisters, see p. 478.] 2 And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair [John xii. 3 ], whose brother Lazarus was sick. [The anointing had not yet taken place, as John himself shows. For a similar anticipation see Matt. x. 4. There are five prominent Marys in the New Testament: those of Nazareth, Magdala and Bethany; the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Retiring Before the Sanhedrin's Decree.
(Jerusalem and Ephraim in Judæa.) ^D John XI. 47-54. ^d 47 The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council [called a meeting of the Sanhedrin], and said, What do we? [Thus they reproach one another for having done nothing in a present and urgent crisis. As two of their number (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathæa) were afterwards in communications with Christians, it was easy for the disciples to find out what occurred on this notable occasion.] for this man doeth many signs. …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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