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THE SERVICE OF THE SON OF GOD

SMcC The thought in mind in suggesting this part of the Scripture for a basis of enquiry is the value of each member of the family of God. Romans 8 speaks of the liberty of the glory of children of God. The creature is to be affected by it in a day yet to come. The passage that we have read would show us the service of the Son of God, in relation to the family of God figuratively in the family at Bethany. It will be noticed by the brethren that we are speaking of the family of God figuratively here. It was a literal family of course in Bethany, but they set out in figure the great thought of the family of God; and while the passage that we have read in chapter 11 is somewhat lengthy (we cannot go into all the detail linked with it) we should see certain outstanding features that are linked with the Lord’s service to this family. We should have in mind that in chapter 12, over against the dark background of chapter 11 with its tremendous sorrow and pressure, the completing of the matter involves each member of the family in a distinctive setting, and the Son of God distinctively before them. As it says in chapter 12, “Mary having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” It is one of the prime features that we should see in our enquiry that this kind of fragrance is to fill the realm where the members of the family of God, figuratively presented in Lazarus, Martha and Mary, are viewed as honouring the Son of God. They have been served by Him in a distinctive way, each member coming under His hand, having a distinctive touch in relation to His service, and in their place, as the completing of the matter shows in chapter 12, honouring the One who has served them in the way He has. What should be kept before us is the great end that seems to be in mind in the Lord’s service, that these persons should be set up in relation to Himself, in relation to what has been dealt with in the 11th chapter. The matter of Divine love entering into the chapter, each member of the family is viewed as the object of Divine affection, no one written off. We might be inclined to write Martha off as we have often had pointed out according to Luke, but she is to be taken account of as being served by the Son of God, adjusted in her outlook and, in the completing of the matter, forming part of the circle in which Christ is supremely honoured.

EB So that even death that had taken place, was but to subserve and to show forth the glory of God, and the glory of the Son of God. Would you say something about that?

SMcC Well, exactly, the death is made to serve this great end. Whatever death may suggest as set out in this chapter as affecting the family, and casting a shadow over the whole position, the holy feelings of the Son of God come into it, the matter being dealt with so effectively. Every member as it were, comes under the personal touch and hand of the Son of God, the whole matter having in mind not exactly that the persons might be distinguished and made much of, while they do come before us, but for the glory of God and that the Son of God may be glorified by it.

CWM While, as you were saying, we might in our way of thinking write Martha off, it is noticeable that in this 5th verse, the Spirit mentions Martha first. It says “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus.” Martha is mentioned first. Is there anything in that to help us in the way in which the Lord takes account of things?

SMcC I think there is. It is to be noted in what you refer to, the difference in the words employed, that is the love in verse 5 is the love of settled disposition, whereas the love of verse 36 is the love linked with attractiveness in the one loved - the love of friendship. Well, these two sides of the truth are to be noted, the settled disposition of Divine love towards every member of the family. But then the other side, attractiveness in the one loved is stressed. “Behold how he loved him.” This Gospel brings up the matter of attractiveness of the one loved, not only the attractiveness of the love and the One who loves, but the attractiveness in the one who is loved. For Jesus Himself is viewed in the bosom of the Father in the first chapter. John in the 13th chapter is in the bosom of Jesus and on the breast of Jesus. And here we have Lazarus marked out according to the testimony. “Behold how he loved him.”

MB Had Mary established some claim in that the Spirit says of her here, “It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick”?

SMcC Exactly. John would help us to value the work of God in one another, and value what is linked with Mary’s action in the honouring of Christ.

AMcKH Would you say a little more about the matter of the settled disposition of love; you connected this passage with the thought of the children. Paul speaks of sons; is there in the divine family the idea of each member having a place in the affections of the Father?

SMcC There is the thought of the settled disposition of divine love where Martha is brought in. It is not a question of attractiveness in the person loved so much, the verb is throwing into relief the character of the love and the One who loves. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

EB Would you say a word as to chapter 3 where even the Lord Jesus Himself is stated to be the subject of the settled disposition of the Father, whereas in chapter 5 it is the love of lovability that is stated in regard to Him. “The Father loves the Son?”

SMcC So that both sides are seen in relation to Him. We think of the settled disposition of the Father’s love in relation to Him. Especially the matter of committing all things into His hand, the formal statement as to the economy. And then the love referred to in chapter 5 implying attractiveness in Christ, what holy attractiveness was there, and in the same way in John 11 there should be the element of attractiveness with us, we should desire to be attractive in that way.

Ques Has the service of the Lord that He renders that in view, that we should become attractive?

SMcC I think so. The whole realm in chapter 12 is peculiarly marked by attractiveness in a spiritual way in the persons that are there, each of them the subject of a real spiritual experience under the hand of the Son of God.

AWH So would the attractive features that you are speaking of, be the result of the work of God in the soul. In chapter 2, although many are stated to have believed in Jesus. He did not trust Himself to them; but would the work of God be trustworthy?

SMcC Well, exactly. John’s ministry helps us as that throughout, both in the Gospel and in the Epistles, the reliability of the work of God in the saints.

CAI As to the love of settled disposition, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus,” would that love be a basic thing in relation to the family?

SMcC Exactly, and it is at the beginning of the chapter, whereas the love that we have been referring to in connection with Lazarus is in the middle of the chapter, where the testimony as to it comes out; but the chapter begins with this thought, it is lying at the very doorway of the chapter, that this matter of death invading the family of God in figure is a serious thing. What our attention is drawn to is the distinctive place of each member of the family in the affections of Christ. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

Ques Would you have in mind then, the moral application of death, as well as what it is here, physical?

SMcC I am thinking of the moral application of it in whatever way it may apply to us. The chapter is to help us as to things that may invade divine territory the environment where divine affections are radiating. That is, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” We have the radiation of divine affection in this settled way which nothing can interfere with, nothing can as it were set aside, but death comes in to interfere with the enjoyment of it amongst the members of the family.

CCC Would you say something as to the delay in verse 6? I am thinking of the other Gospels, perhaps Mark particularly, the immediate response in relief that the Lord grants. Would you say a little as to why this delay comes in?

SMcC Well, the Lord has something in mind. It is not that the Lord is not thinking of the family, for it is just stated, “Now Jesus loved Martha.” We get that word first. That is a great matter that we should understand the positioning of the verse, because in the working out of all matters in the family of God if love is lost sight of, the position will be lost. Love has to come into operation and John would stress that in his ministry in view of a right settlement of every matter, and especially what may cast a shadow over the spirits of the members of the family of God.

CAI That 5th verse, would be as it were, a background to all that follows in the chapter.

SMcC That is how one is looking at it, that it is a background, and Mary’s act too was a background to what follows in the chapter, as if in the teaching of the chapter, we are to keep that in mind, that while the Lord is detained and takes another way of moving, it does not interfere with this verse. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” He is going to bring out something. It may involve tremendous pressure and sorrow as it did here, even, a stench being referred to, the awfulness of what came in through what is referred to here, in relation to Lazarus; Martha says to Him, “Lord he stinks already.” Think of a reference like that! But over against that - we do not want to dwell on that - is the odour that fills the house in chapter 12; that is the completing of the matter.

Ques Were there certain conditions there that were the occasion of death coming in that love took account of and must deal with?

SMcC Well, we are always tested in delays. We are always tested as to what the Lord is going to do and what He may be doing. How He may be moving. Mary suggests something to us that we are to notice. Martha suggests something too, suggests something to our minds that we are to notice. Martha, as we have often spoken of, would represent one who claims to understand and to know things, but she needs adjusting in her way of thinking, and in her outlook, so that she might come into her proper functional place, in the family of God.

CWM So that would you say that delays coming in as you were speaking of them, would become a test for our faith, and also for our spirituality?

SMcC Well they are, we are often tested as to what the Lord is going to do. We do not want to prevent the Lord, to go ahead of the Lord; we want to be near to Him and to understand what He is going to do.

MB Is the test as to what place He has with us; did it begin in chapter 6? You will remember His question to Philip, “Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat? But this he said, trying him, for he knew what he was going to do.”

SMcC That is, He leaves matters with us as it were and sees just how things will work out.

Ques Is there any significance in the order in which the names are given in the verse, Martha, her sister and Lazarus?

SMcC I think so. I think in the putting of Martha first, John would help us to see what is in mind, lest we should in any way leave Martha out. Martha is put first because according to Luke she is not right in what she is doing, and John would help us to see where she is here, that she is not out of the picture here, she is in it, loved by Jesus, with her sister and Lazarus.

RGC Was it the faithfulness of the love of Christ in speaking to her, that brought about her adjustment?

SMcC It was, the Lord is very skilful in handling Martha, just as He was skilful in handling the woman of John 4.

RGC So it is love that begets love, is it?

SMcC Exactly. John makes much of love in relation to divine Persons, between divine Persons and among the saints. “By this shall all know,” the Lord Jesus said, “that ye are disciples of mine if ye have love among yourselves.” Love is a great matter in the working out of difficult problems. Not the love that would, as we sometimes think, ignore things. That is not what we are referring to, it is the love that values what there is in relation to the distinctive features seen in the members of the family of God in figure here.

AWH In regard to the delay, it is a great test. I was thinking of a certain king in the days of Elisha, who said, “Why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?” But for those prepared to wait and go through the testing, do you think it would result in an increased knowledge and appreciation of the Lord as here?

SMcC Well, it does, that is what the 12th chapter shows, that all the experiences of chapter 11 are to bring us together. That is the great thing that we should see, be brought together, not just on ecclesiastical ground but brought together in life as quickened, as the type would show in the life of the Son of God. That is what would be in mind.

CAI At the end of the chapter the Lord Jesus is brought before as going into death, that He might gather together into one the children of God.

SMcC One was thinking very much of that passage, and how John would keep it in our minds in relation to the closing of the dispensation, his ministry bearing on it, the need for understanding oneness and unity as John’s ministry presents it.

WHW Do you think in the Lord’s delay of two days He is bringing about a position, where He will be able to serve them, and the service will be accepted?

SMcC Yes, it might be that, certainly the waiting period would be a testing one for Martha and Mary and for the disciples too, for the disciples no doubt might be tested by the Lord’s movements, why He was allowing things to work out this way.

AMcKH Martha in a way questions it in verse 21. She said “If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Is that a good remark, or does she need adjustment about it?

SMcC She needed adjustment about it. It says,

“Martha then when she heard Jesus is coming went to meet him, but Mary sat in the house. Martha therefore said to Jesus, Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died.” It is as if she is reproaching the Lord, as if she is drawing the Lord up in regard to the matter; and the Lord says to her, “Thy brother shall rise again.” It is a very assuring word that the Lord gives her.

MB I was going to add that Mary says the same thing, showing that this was just the test. She says it almost complainingly, it is like us is it not? But the Lord stayed away until the blow fell, in order that He might be known in a new way as the resurrection and the light. It is greater, is it not, to bring Lazarus out of death, than to prevent his dying?

SMcC That is it, life was to be brought in as a result of this experience. Life that was to be known and enjoyed in the members of the family, a great thing that we should understand in our setting together in the light of these chapters. Chapter 10 stresses the thought of the sheep, the object of Christ’s care, the holy vigilance of His love in caring for the sheep includes the words “They shall never perish.” But then, up comes chapter 11 where it looks as if one of the members of the family will perish, death claims him. Well, is the Lord able to cope with the situation? He certainly is, in the light of what we have here.

ABM Is it encouraging to see that when this thing came in that was so disturbing and caused so much sorrow, the Lord was not taken unawares. He understood the whole position from start to end, even though Mary and Martha were taken unawares, He was not. Is that encouraging?

SMcC It is all encouraging in that way.

CJG So that the word ‘therefore’ comes in in verse 6. There are a number of ‘therefores’ in this chapter and in the 12th. Is it a sequential matter, and the Lord steadily moving on to His own end?

SMcC That is what it would be. The Lord at different times uses that word. He says ‘on account of this’ and ‘therefore.’ He says “On this account the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.” John 10: 17. He provides a basis in relation to which divine love can radiate, and that is what is coming in here, that we have the glory of God entering into the chapter, the Son of God being glorified.

EB Notwithstanding the fact that in the ways of God He allows the matter to proceed even as far as corruption! I have been very much impressed as we have sat together, that evil principles may come in and invade a locality, a corrupting influence may invade, and yet it is not beyond divine love to deal with it. He allows it to go that far, however, would you say?

SMcC That is the point, that the Lord shows how far the thing affects Himself. It says that He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. The word, as you will notice, means “groaned;” it is translated elsewhere “spoke very angrily.” Here it was the inward feeling in spirit produced by the deep pain caused by seeing the power of death over the human spirit. Think of divine feelings coming into this great matter, that one of the members of the family of God was affected. The other members are to be affected too, by what is being done. Think of the Lord’s feelings especially at the matter of the fruit of sin operating, because death is the penal sentence in relation to sin.

CAI So the Lord had been appealed to, had He not? The message had gone, “He whom thou lovest is sick.” And he had remained two days, so that there were deep feelings with Him in letting this matter proceed.

SMcC Exactly. He was not ignoring what was taking place. He was not forgetting it, because the verse that we began with, reminds us that He loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus, and that love would go through, nothing would interfere with it; but then He allows this matter to proceed that adjustment might be brought in where needed, and I think where Martha shines as the result of the service of the Son of God to her is when she uses the word the ‘teacher’ in verse 28. She earlier takes the place it would seem in speaking to the Lord, of knowing things, and not needing any help in regard to what should be done, the Lord has to adjust her. She says “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection.” Verse 22, “But even now I know ... .” Martha is making much of her knowledge. That is what exposes us, that is what will bring out where we are, but we are not prepared and ready to receive and to take on divine teaching.

FGS What we may think we know would appear very small in the presence of One who could say “I am the resurrection and the life,” would it not?

SMcC Exactly. I suppose if you had talked to Martha, she would say, There is nothing wrong with me. But the Lord you see is dealing with her, just like the woman in the 4th of John, the Lord has her under hand. I mean the fact that I may say that I have not got a conscience about a matter does not mean anything. Divine teaching comes in and shows that I am wrong. And I have to accept it that I am wrong. Paul said “I am conscious of nothing in myself but I am not justified by this: but he that examines me is the Lord.” So that if I say I do not have a conscience about a matter to justify myself that is a poor thing. My conscience has to be regulated by the Word of God.

TR Referring to verse 8. Did the disciples have something to learn? They say to him, “Rabbi even but now the Jews sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?” But yet the Lord is prepared to move where death has come in.

SMcC Exactly. They would say to the Lord “Save yourself.” It is almost akin to what Peter says, after the revelation in Matthew 16.

WHW Is what the Lord said about stumbling something to be taken account of?

SMcC It is. You mean in verse 9. “Are there not twelve hours in the day.” It is to be noted the length of the day the Lord refers to here. “If anyone walk in the day he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walk in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him.” We are to notice the negative reference to light here, because it would imply that on the positive side the light is to be in us. Not just around us, there is the idea of light all around us, but then there is the idea of light in us.

RGC Is that why you stress the point the Teacher is come? Is that where we get the help?

SMcC That is it, and I think that is the great turning point when Martha begins to see that teaching is the great thing in mind, and she comes under the hand of the Lord, and it says in verse 28 “And having said this, she went away and called her sister Mary secretly, saying The teacher has come and calls thee.” That is she sees the value of the teaching, the wonderful value of the teaching that comes in at this particular juncture. Was not the Lord teaching all the way through? He was, but she is stressing now the teaching at this particular juncture.

AMcKH In chapter 20, Mary turning round, says to Him in Hebrew “Rabboni, which means Teacher.” Is that the attitude? Some of us have had to make a change and turn right around.

SMcC John would help us as to that. He would help us to turn around, turn completely around, when we are facing the wrong way, especially in regard to this matter of divine teaching.

PB She calls Him ‘the teacher’ after he has said to her “I am the resurrection and the light, he that believes on me though he have died shall live, and everyone who lives and believes on me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Is that the answer to our calling him Teacher?

SMcC Well, there are great truths that are referred to here. The Lord brings something else that is in His mind, into Martha’s mind. How often it is the case, that we may have certain things in our mind, but the Lord wants to bring other things into our mind.

WHW Does Martha get help when the Lord brings the truth in as a present application? She says “I know that he will arise ... in the last day.”

SMcC Yes, that is the point. She is stressing the orthodox side, and often you see orthodoxy ensnares us, it may be all right in its place, but if we are building up too much on orthodoxy, on religious reputation, or all that is linked with orthodoxy, we may miss the point. It is a question of what the Lord is saying now, what the Lord is doing now.

WHW Do you think that Mary might represent to us the work of God, whereas Martha represents what has to be taught?

SMcC So that Mary is there, but not saying anything here. Her time will come too, she will come into the chapter as it proceeds, just as we are all in it. Let none of us elect ourselves out of the matter, we are all in it you see, because a great matter is in hand, great instruction, and a great result is in mind, a refined result. All the uncouthness and awfulness linked with the tomb and the cave, all that is to be left, and John 12 opens up a realm in which the members of the family are seen as set together in life, not criticising one another, but as valuing one another in the light of the family and Christ being the Object.

Ques Is He bringing the truth of things to bear upon them when He asks the question, “Where have ye put him?”

SMcC Well, all that would enter into the teaching in the subject. It says in verse 32, “Jesus therefore, when he saw her weeping ... “ Notice that, that Mary is the one that is weeping. Verse 32, “Mary therefore when she came where Jesus was, seeing him, fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Jesus therefore, when he saw her weeping.” Who is the one that is weeping here? - the one that anointed the Lord. The one that in devotion and affection for Him anointed Him. That is the one that is weeping here, it is not Martha, Mary is now before us. Martha is not weeping, she is stressing what she knows. She is assuming to know, and that has to be dealt with, because “If anyone think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it.”

WHW So is it the case of the Lord developing inward feelings with us?

SMcC Yes, and adjusting us in regard to the truth. That is, the teaching is adjusting us in regard to the truth, and it is imperative that we should get the gain of the teaching in regard to the truth, what the Lord is stressing now, as you were saying earlier.

CAI Is it significant that Martha had to do with the Lord outside of the village and Mary finds that He is still in that place? Has each one to come to the Lord where He is? He has drawn near, but there is a movement required on the part of each one, is there?

SMcC Exactly, the different features of each one are to be noted in that way, and then the influence of Mary has often been alluded to. She was apparently an influential personality, “and the Jews who came with her weeping” - think of that, even the Jews are affected, and then it says “Jesus therefore when he saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled and said, where have ye put him? They say to Him, Lord come and see. Jesus wept.” This is one of the most touching references to the Lord Jesus, and especially is it remarkable as coming into John’s Gospel. We might understand it better in Luke’s Gospel where stress is laid on His holy humanity. John’s Gospel is stressing the Person and what it was to Him here, the Person in manhood being before us, that was affecting the family of God.

EB Are we to think of that in regard to assembly sorrows, that the Lord is pre-eminent in feeling the pressure and the sorrow that comes among the saints?

SMcC We are to understand divine feelings in the matter. We may make a good deal of our own feelings, and it is right that we should feel things - Mary feels things here. It is right that we should feel things, but then think of the feelings of a divine Person, who can measure the sorrow and the disaster as no one else can, infinitely perfect in His holy sensibilities as He was as Man.

WHW Do we gather from these feelings of the Lord’s the way He would lead us to understand the way divine Persons have come into the economy?

SMcC What are you meaning by that?

WHW I was thinking how feelingly They have come into the economy, and They have come in so that we might be attracted into it. Take the 4th of John that you quoted, the woman is attached to Jesus, is she not?

SMcC Exactly. A divine Person has come into the place of manhood and the tears are linked with His feelings as in that position. The matter is not an ordinary one, it is a matter that He feels greatly that such a realm should be invaded by death as it was in this instance.

PB I was just going to follow up what you said, as to the 38th verse. “Jesus therefore again deeply moved in himself comes to the tomb.” Is that to draw attention to His Person - deeply moved in Himself?

SMcC Yes, stressing the inward side of the feelings. “Jesus therefore again deeply moved ... “ The repetition of this is to be noted, that it was not an ordinary matter here that was drawing out such feelings on the part of the Lord. He could measure things as no one else could measure them, but we are to measure them too.

AMcKH I suppose Joseph’s brethren never knew the feelings of Joseph. It says, “He sought a place to weep and went into the chamber and wept there.” It would be like this, the Lord shows His feelings now, but there was a time when He was holding them back. They did not understand, did they?

SMcC That is it, what regard He had for them. What lay behind all that transpired in His service in relation to them, and that is what is coming out here. And then it says in verse 38, “Now it was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus says, take away the stone. Martha the sister of the dead says to him, Lord he stinks already for he is four days there.” Now Martha has to be adjusted again. She is adjusted to begin with and seems to get a certain measure of gain, but she is again saying wrong things. What she was saying was not true, it was not affording any help and light to the position. She is drawing attention to the corruption, to the stench that was there as she thought, whereas, the Lord is seeking to get her eye on the glory of God.

CAI She was referring to what was in the natural and not what was in the spiritual.

SMcC Exactly, and the Lord has in mind to get her eye on the glory of God. He says, “Did I not say to thee ...?” The Lord would bring these matters up with us as to what has He been saying to us, what did He say to us, why did we not understand? We have thought of that in the Gospels, the Lord being affected by the fact that they did not understand. The Lord says, “Did I not say to thee, that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” When He had said that, it says, “They took therefore the stone away.” Will everything come out linked with the stench and the corruption? What was in mind, was the glory of God and Lazarus coming forth in life.

WHW Would the stone in any moral way represent the difficulty we often have in accepting fresh truth?

SMcC It is a very heavy and cumbersome matter, a stone, as we understand, and Jesus says “take away the stone ... “ He is not going to take away the stone. He could easily have commanded the stone and it would have rolled away, because He is going to bring Lazarus out, but you see there is what we have to do about this matter. “Take away the stone.”

AMcKH What about the grave clothes?

SMcC Well, all that enters into the teaching of the passage in connection with Lazarus, the allusion to the Lord in verse 41 lifting up His eyes on high, bringing in the thought of the Father. He says, “Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me but I knew ... “ Think of the Lord stressing what He knew - Martha had been stressing what she knew - I know, I know - like many of us do, but the Lord says here in speaking to the Father, “But I knew that thou always hearest me; but on account of the crowd who stand around I have said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” That is, the Lord is saying things here that we might believe, that we might be affected, that we might accept the truth, especially in view of Lazarus coming forth.

Rem They seem very slow to arrive at what He was seeking to bring them to. Are we not like that? Why are we so slow?

SMcC The Lord would help us to come to what He is teaching us.

FHB Is the whole family to learn that the whole situation of sickness and death and the grave had been designed and that the Lord was in control of the whole situation? Is His glory to come out in that way?

SMcC That is it, and so it says in verse 43 “Having said this he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And the dead came forth bound feet and hands with grave clothes and his face was bound round with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go.” Now here is another matter that they are to come into. The Lord does not do everything; He does do certain things. He does do crucial things, but then we have to do things, and we have to understand what is to be done both in regard to the stone - that stone is to be noted - that the Lord does not take it away, we are to take it away. And the grave clothes, we are to loose him and let him go, it is now the liberty of the family that comes into view, the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Confidence is involved.

PB Why should He cry with a loud voice?

SMcC I think it is to show the importance of the matter in hand, the power that was required, the feelings that entered into the dealing with the matter.

FGS Why does it say the dead came forth?

SMcC It is just what Lazarus was, he was dead.

It says “Where was the dead man Lazarus” in the next chapter.

FGS Yes, I wondered if there was any connection.

SMcC It is important that we should see as we come to chapter 12 that the family is unified in honouring the Son of God.

Rem It is your thought that as members of the family we are feelingly to enter into the whole of what has transpired in chapter 11, so that we can enter into the service of God feelingly in the 12th chapter.

SMcC That is it, and to see that it is not a question of any of us being made much of, it is a question of the Son of God, that is the great thing, that the Son of God may be glorified by it. There are no grave clothes in chapter 12, there is no stone to be taken away, the members of the family are at liberty and free as the full result is secured in them surrounding Jesus, each in his or her place.

EB It is a glorious completion to a very distressing matter.

SMcC Well, it is and I think we shall be helped and the brethren in this city will be helped and all of us will be helped when we see that the grave clothes have to be left. You cannot bring them into chapter 12, all that is linked with the corrupt side of things, the cave, the deep hidden side of things. Lazarus was to be loosed and let go, that is, the saints are to appear in the liberty of the glory that is theirs as children of God.

PB The house being filled with the odour of the ointment, is the contrast to all the corruption, is it not?

SMcC Exactly, so that we do not remain over the tomb all the time, it is a question now of the new set of circumstances in chapter 12 and the Lord Jesus supremely before the members of the family, honoured by them. Judas comes into it, he has got something in mind, but he does not fit into the picture, he stresses the side of the poor, whereas the teaching is stressing the side of the Son of God being glorified.

RLP So that at the beginning of chapter 12 Judas is like what the apostle says to the Corinthians, if I “have not love I am nothing.”

SMcC That is it. Judas did not have love. He was ostensibly in the picture, he was there as part of those that were there, but vitally he did not belong to it.

RGC Does Mary express active love in what she does?

SMcC There are things to be done. Martha represents the silent side. She is there, she is not left out again, and has part in honouring Christ, because what Mary does would be representative I suppose in the realm.

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