OUR RELATIONS WITH CHRIST AS RISEN
[p. 193] OUR RELATIONS WITH CHRIST AS RISEN
John 11 is a death scene. The Lord came into it to show that life was to work in the body, and in all the ruin come to man. His power was there to overcome it all. He walks with those in sorrow until He plants them in resurrection.
It is the full manifestation of what His grace will do in quickening the body. Not only are beloved ones happy with Christ, but we shall see them in glorious bodies!
It is not the question here of the Lord dealing with sin, but of His service to man. Death is the thing not reparable, none can recover from the grave. Your loss is irreparable and the Lord comes to meet you in it. What to do? To carry you on to the morning of the resurrection. You are learning the Lord’s heart in this valley of death, and as you learn Him practically now, so will you gather round Him above. In this chapter you get a green spot for the heart, a little oasis in the desert. It is an ark carrying the family of redeemed men through the flood.
The family of Bethany are in the valley of the shadow of death, but they are floating over it. In believers, as an associated company, all the beauties of Christ come out. Noah, in the ark, had everything; while the whole world is under the flood he goes over it, whether calm or waves, it was all the same to him. When the soul is able to walk in the power of the death of Christ, he may see the waves of judgment rolling round, but he is floating above it like the house of Bethany and he is more than conqueror.
In chapter 12, the Lord is giving a foreshadowing of Himself. He is at home with the family of Bethany. “Where dwellest thou? .. . Come and see!” This is one circle. Another circle is when the Lord shall stand [p. 194] on earth as the concentration of glory. But here He had come down to disclose to us the mind and heart of God - the will of God His only object, and here are we, turned aside by every trifle!
What a thought that God has disclosed His mind to one who is but a grasshopper! and that such an one has a portion in Christ, showing the very largest expression of His love! God could not love little; man’s love is proportionate to his mind. The friend you turn to in sorrow is a real friend. You may have many friends in joy, but you have not confidence in them to tell of your sorrow. You stop short when it is too personal; that is just where the Lord’s love comes in - it is never too personal for Him. The one who sorrows most will get the most consolation from Him; such a one is not to be pitied; he gets more because he wants more.
Bethany is one of the circles where the Lord is found at home. In Luke we find that ere He ascended He led them out as far as Bethany. Not from Jerusalem does He part from them, but from Bethany; there where His heart most lingered, where He had met them in death and brought them to resurrection, to understand that He was the resurrection and the life - not the life only but the resurrection.
Here we have a resurrection scene. The raised one sits at table with the Lord. What a place! in easy company with the Lord of life. If risen with Christ I must see the world as God sees it. There are two deaths - the death of sin, and death upon everything - on myself. Abraham must give up his son - death upon everything here - Jonah is taught death upon everything. Men forget that everything here is contrary to God and that judgment is upon it. What a difference between Lazarus in the grave and Lazarus at the table! There is no communion with the Lord in death. All three are seen here according to their place in chapter 11. Martha served; while troubled about [p. 195] this world you cannot serve. We find in Luke she had been cumbered, occupied with the service instead of with the One she served. Mary had been served in chapter 11. Many try to serve the Lord, but I believe they never can until the heart is free; trouble must be taken out of the way before you can be free. Paul was never in a better state to serve than when he was longing to depart. If I have not learned what the Lord is to me in the sense of chapter 11, I am not free to serve. What a place Mary has here! The Lord says, Let her alone. It is important to see that this is not commendation because of not being occupied with service, but because of the heart yielding itself up to Him as if there were no other object for it in the world. He had become everything to Mary. Her one single object was to make much of Him. She had learned that all her heart had lost in this death scene was restored in concentrated life and glory. It is not the question of service, but of devotedness; her whole object being to distinguish Him in the world which was rejecting Him. The reason we are so little up to this is that we are such cowards in showing to the world what Christ is to us; so little do we manifest the delight of heart it is to make much of Him. It is not gratitude (grateful indeed we shall ever be to Him, “who loved me, and gave himself for me”); but love goes beyond that; for love makes a personal sacrifice to make much of its object.
I believe the Lord will have a Bethany family down here till He comes, and it is a comfort to one’s heart to think it. “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking.. . I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. Amid all the ruin here, such as these will be apart with Him, in conscious, happy communion with Him and with one another. When we come to know the mind and heart of a Person, we shall find out what pleases Him and what He would have us do. Then we do it, cost what it may.