» M. 0. Albright, Tht dmrnon Heritage, 77
i
The Resurrection and the Life.
Literature.
Adams (J. C), The Leisure of Gody 129. Alford (H.), Quebec Ghapel Sermons j i. 285. Atwool (H. C), At His Feet, 107. Bickersteth (C), The Gospel of Incarnate Love, 17% Brookfield (W. H.), Sermons, 117. Brooks (P.), The More Abundant Life, 36. Campbell (R. J.), The Song of Ages, 239. Dawson (W. J.), The Evangelistic Note, 273. Drummond (R. J.), Faith's Perplexities, 195. Fairweatlier (D.), Bound in the Spirit, 295. Findlay (G.), The Things Above, 141. Horton (R. F.), The Teaching of Jesus, 267. Hull (E. L.), Sermons at King's Lynn, i. 1. Ingram (A. F. W.), The Gospel in Action, 232. Learmount (J.), Thirty Ghats with Young Folks, 22. Little (W. J. K.), Labour and Sorrow, 158. McClelland (T. C), The Mind of Christ, 133. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Esther, Job, etc., 43.
„ „ Jobn ix.-xiv., 81.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons, iv. S42, 356. Munger (T. T.), The Freedom of Faith, 273. New (C), Sermons in Hastings, 169. Ritchie (D. L.), Peace the Umpire, 54. Ross (J. M. E.), The Self- Portraiture of Jesus, 123. Snell (B. J.), Sermons on Immortality, 56. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxvi. (1880) No. 1568 ;
XXX. (1884) No. 1799. Thomas (J.), The Mysteries of Grace, 243. Vaughan (J.), Sermons in Christ Church, Brighton, 11. 106. Westcott (B. F.), The Revelation of the Father, 91. Whiton (J. M.), Beyond the Shadow, 31. Williams (T. LI.), " Thy Kingdom Gome," 59. Gh/ristian World Pulpit, xliii. 72 (Pierson) ; Ixvii. 377 (Ingram). Church of England Pulpit, xlv. 205, xlix. 15 (Headley) ; Ivii 210
(Hitchcock). dergyman^s MagazinCj 3rd Ser., xiii. 291.
4«4
The Resurrection and the Life.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. — John xi. 25, 26.
In order to appreciate the significance of these words, "I am the resurrection, and the hfe," let us look at the conditions under which they were spoken.
The revelation was granted to Martha, the bereaved sister, whose cheerful round of domestic activities was suddenly arrested and her heart torn open to its depths — depths hitherto perhaps unsounded — by the thunder-stroke of death. Our Lord uttered His greatest sayings often to very commonplace people. He spoke to Martha not as He might have spoken in an hour of serene communion with some elect and lofty spirit, but as to any of ourselves, to our common human heart chastened by bereave- ment, awed and awakened by the visitation of death.
Martha's grief was intensified by the fact that Lazarus was cut off in the midst of his days, his task unfinished, his goal unreached. Of all the perplexing problems of the grave this seemed one of the hardest. Why did it claim the man who had just come to the perfection of his powers and was abler than ever he was to perform his task ? It was lonely to be without her brother, it was chilling to think of his loneliness; but these griefs came home with double poignancy when she thought that he had not lived out half his days, and might still have been with them.
Once more, it seemed an accident that he died. To Martha it seemed cruel — so often He was with them — that Jesus should not be there when He was most needed. Oh, why did it happen that the Lord was not there ? It might so easily have been otherwise ; and the thought added to her grief.
But at last word was brought of a Visitor welcome above all others ; Jesus who had been so strangely long in coming was in Bethany at last. Martha met Him with a cry that was half
ST. JOHN — 30
466 THE RESURRFXTION AND THE LIFE
faith and half despair — " Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," and she was answered by the quiet words, "Thy brother shall rise again." I think her heart must have been for the moment chilled. Was the Master then going to offer the mere conventional consolation that every visitor of these past days had offered, until she was more than weary of it ? " I know," she said — and you can hear an undertone of disappoint- ment and rebellion in the words — " I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
She knew that her brother would rise again. But, like the Jews of her time, even like most Christians now, who inherit their resurrection doctrine more from the Jews than from Christ, Martha thought only of a grand and general resurrection- day far distant. Long ere that day she would be with her brother in the supposed place of expectant souls, waiting till the buried body should be raised and given back.
And then came the great words that have pealed through the ages, weighty with the Divine power which so soon sets its seal upon them, gentle with the human sympathy which meant them for healing to broken hearts : " I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth on rae shall never die."