[AI translation] It is still about the small family in Bethany, as in the previous chapter from beginning to end. There is still no end to the story of Lazarus' resurrection. This passage we are reading now is part of it. It would not be complete without it! For here we are dealing with the echoes of Lazarus' resurrection. How do the people concerned respond to that mighty and wonderful act of the Lord? About what Jesus' work provokes in the souls of different people? How is gratitude and love shown to Jesus for the precious gift he has given? Martha, Mary, Lazarus and Judas are mentioned by name in the story. They all witnessed the mighty, divine act of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. Shall we see here who was affected, who reacted?We read that they prepared a meal in Jesus' honour. Whether this meal was in Lazarus' house or in someone else's home, as we can infer from the account in Matthew and Mark. The point is that a lot of people were delighted to have Jesus back in Bethany, and the joyful gratitude and respect was expressed in the hospitality they had prepared for Him. John then goes on to describe, "And Martha served." (Jn 12,2b) It is as if he is saying that Martha will serve again, for it is when she is in her element that she can serve. It is in such diligent work that we get to know Martha from the Gospel. When it comes to Martha, she always has her hands full of work, of service. But I can imagine that now she is extremely zealous in her service. Perhaps he has never served as he is now, for today he is serving the dear One who raised his dead brother from the dead! He may have always served Him out of duty at other times, but today he serves Him out of gratitude, for his brother was dead and now he is alive. How can he not serve with joy Him to Whom he owes this great good?
True service is when one does something not because one has to, because one has a duty, or because one wants to serve God, to please God, to make atonement for Him, to make something good with Him, - but when one serves because one has received so much from the Lord! His heart is so full of gratitude that he has to show this grateful love to the Lord in some way. And not in a big thing, like building a church, but in little everyday things like serving a meal, or cleaning a room, or setting the table at a charity event, or sweeping out a church! Because it makes a difference how one does such services! It may be that it is necessary, but it may also be that it is the joyful gratitude of a soul. It depends on what the heart is filled with: if not with Christ, even the most loving service is burdensome and exhausting; if with Christ's gifts and miracles, like Martha's, even the simplest and most thankless service has become a worship service, because it is done for Jesus, for Jesus, by a grateful soul. Martha served the Lord with her two hands, but in such a way that there, through her two hands, overflowed from her heart a joyful gratitude to the Lord. Martha was the type of person in whom love and gratitude for Christ were expressed in such practical ways. Happy Martha! The Lord loves you and delights in the work of your two hands, if it is truly out of gratitude to the Lord that this service springs.
Mary also serves. In her own way, so does she! She sacrificed the greatest value she had for the honour of Jesus. She showed her gratitude and love by pouring on Jesus' feet what was most precious to her: a pound of real nardus, a precious perfume made in India, estimated by Judas to be worth 300 denarii. If we consider that a denarius was then a day's wages for a labourer, then, not counting Sundays, it was the equivalent of a year's wages! Such was the value Mary wasted on Jesus' feet in a single movement! And this homage can only be understood, can only be classified as not a senseless waste, if one knows that the one who does it has a very great reason to be grateful to Jesus, since he raised his brother from the dead! What a comparison to a year's wages, or even all the money in the world! Surely many people would be willing to sacrifice such a sum if they could win back their brother, mother or child at that price. Oh, what a pittance is this 300 denarii worth of nard oil compared to what Jesus gave Mary!
This is something that cannot be asked of someone, this is something that can only be done out of spontaneous love! If one starts to reason and calculate here, like Judas, the whole "prodigality" becomes at once incomprehensible and meaningless - so that only one who is bound to the Lord by a thread of grateful love can do it. Mary did not give something - just that she might give something - but she gave the greatest, the best that she had. A truly grateful heart always wants to act in this way: to give the best of everything, to offer it to the Lord. For example: not that part of my time, my money, my physical and spiritual strength, my talents, which could not be used for anything else, but that part which would be valuable, precious, necessary, which I really need, which I could use for myself, and which would be a great sacrifice to give up! Which, according to the world's judgment, is a waste - but according to the believer, it is still nothing compared to what Christ sacrificed, wasted for me! Though Mary's prodigality should now become a serious question in your heart: what have you ever offered to Jesus that was dear to you? So not: what have you given, but: what have you sacrificed? And not in the sense that it has benefited you, but in the sense that the air around Jesus has become more fragrant!
And Lazarus also served. He too, in his own way. This Lazarus is a strange man. He sits there quietly among the other guests, never saying a word. At least, there's no record of him. Here again we read only, "Lazarus was one of those who sat with him." (verse 2c) We know nothing else about him, except that he was sick and died, but Jesus loved him and raised him from the dead. And this silent Lazarus, with his silent presence, served the Lord, so mightily that the record says: "many of the Jews believed in Jesus." (verse 11) Do we think that the only way to serve the Lord and give Him glory is to do or give something like Martha and Mary? No! But also, as Lazarus did, by humbly accepting what Jesus does and Jesus gives, that is, by letting Jesus work on you. This silent, taciturn Lazarus became a witness for Christ by making Christ's love evident in him. A man whose life has done such mighty things as Lazarus's need not utter a word, yet his whole being proclaims Christ loudly, so that many believe in Jesus because of him. The fact that Lazarus sits and eats here reminds everyone of the power and glory of Christ. This is the greatest ministry of all.
"For this cause many of the Jews believed in Jesus" (John 12:11) Why? Because the power of Jesus was visible in Lazarus. Could it be said of you that many of them believed in Jesus? Isn't it the opposite? That many - oh so many - you have temiattad do not believe in Jesus Christ. For example, your children, or your wife, or your boss. Because they don't see in you the power of Christ over sin, but they see that you, the Christian man, are just as irritable, anxious, unloving a soul as anyone else! If the power of Christ is not visible in the lives of believers, it is no wonder this world denies all that is invisible! If the power of Him in whom you believe could be seen in you, it would be the case today that many would believe in Jesus!
So this is how the Bethany brothers and sisters serve Jesus with great joy. Such are the different ways of serving the Lord out of gratitude. One is through the work of two hands, like Martha. The other by the sacrifice of his most precious possessions, like Mary. The third is simply by being there before the world with your being recreated by Christ, silent and speechless, like Lazarus. Either way, all who have anything to do with the Lord serve! How do you serve the Lord? Do you serve Him at all? Do you have anything to thank Him for?
Yes: That is the main question: do you have something to be thankful for? These three brothers also had something to be thankful for, because the Lord brought one of them back from the dead. But is there a reason to be thankful for someone who has been languishing for years under a cross that the Lord refuses to take down? What is there to thank such a one? Or when he has not given back a brother, a child, a spouse, as Lazarus has done here, can one give thanks?
The Lord Himself answers these painful questions when He says to Judas, "Leave him alone; he has reserved this for my burial." (Jn 12,7) From the past, as it were, he directs the gaze of the Bethany friends to the future. As if to say to them: are you grateful that I raised Lazarus from the dead? Well, the real gift, which is the real gift, which commits you to eternal gratitude, you will receive from me afterwards. The death and resurrection of Lazarus is only a hint of what is the main thing, the main thing for you too: my death and resurrection! What the brothers and sisters in Bethany are giving thanks for is a trifling, small gift compared to the true, great gift of Calvary and the opened Easter tomb! Don't try to be thankful to the Lord for something small, when He wants to give you the greatest gift of all: the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, in Him the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, His full and unconditional grace! A greater gift than what Lazarus and his brothers received there in Bethany! For there, Jesus called a man back from the grave to this earthly, miserable life - and we who believe in Him are saved and redeemed to eternal life through His death and resurrection. Lazarus had to die again, even though he came out of the tomb; but he who believes in Christ, even if he dies, lives! And that is much more! He owes a greater debt of gratitude!
Who can repay that? Are you at least trying to repay him with something? How? He also gave quite practical guidance on this when he said: "The poor are always with you, and I am not always with you." (John 12:8) Do you want to thank Jesus for His grace, His redemptive work, His love? It is possible. Just as Mary once lavished her sacrifice of gratitude on Him, following the same example, helping the needy, you can always do the same for Him. And when Jesus says, "The poor are always with you, but I am not always" - it sounds to my ears now like an urgent warning: what you can do today, don't put off until tomorrow! Because tomorrow, the patient you can visit today may be dead, the situation you can take advantage of today may change, the money you can do good with today may be lost. If you have anything to thank the Lord for, think of someone you can show your heart's gratitude to His glory through as you leave the church.
Brothers and sisters, bless the name of the Lord in this way, you who serve him! Thus praise him, you who are servants of his call. Who stand there in His house, and walk here in His porch. Let us confess this by singing verse 1 of our beautiful psalm:
Praise the name of the Lord, ye who serve him!
Praise him, ye who are his servants,
Who stand in his house, And walk in the porch.
Psalm 135 verse 1
Amen
Date: 25 February 1951.
Lesson
Jn 12,1-11