The Story

From Jerusalem we see paths climbing the Mount of Olives and disappearing over the hill. Following one of these paths nearly two miles over the ridge of the hill and out of sight of Jerusalem, we come to a little village, Bethany. It is on a sunny slope of the hill. No doubt it once had many orchards and gardens about it. Here two sisters, Martha and Mary, lived, and their brother Lazarus. The Lord loved this family, and they loved Him. He often stayed in Bethany, sometimes when He was coming up from Jericho to Jerusalem, and sometimes coming at night from Jerusalem after days of teaching in the temple.

We must read Luke 10:38-42. It tells about a visit of the Lord to this home in Bethany. How did Martha show her love for the Lord? And how did Mary show her love?

The Lord visited Bethany again. Lazarus was sick and the sisters sent a message to the Lord, asking Him to come. He was in the country beyond Jordan, where many people loved to hear Him. It was at least a long day's journey away. He did not come at once, but He spoke with the disciples about Lazarus and said that his sickness would be for the glory of God. Read verses 11 to 14. The Lord called death sleep and said that He would go to awaken Lazarus from sleep. The Lord then went to Bethany and the disciples with Him, although they thought that it was dangerous to go again among the Jews where so lately they had tried to cast stones at Him. Their journey took them across the Jordan and across the meadows and up the steep road to Bethany.

When the Lord had been telling of His gentle, loving care of His people, like the care of a good shepherd for his sheep, it seems most strange that the Jews should have been so angry that they took up stones to stone Him, and He had to leave Jerusalem and go to the other side of the Jordan River, near "where John at first baptized." (John 10:31, 39, 40) Many people came to Him in this quiet place, and loved Him and believed in Him.

So many times we are told of the Lord having to leave Judea because of the hatred of the Jews. It is pleasant to know of one home where He seems to have been always welcome; where He often went and was lovingly received and cared for. This home was in the little town of Bethany, nestled in a hollow near the top of the Mount of Olives. Two sisters were here and a brother. We are told their names and something about them. Martha and Mary were the sisters, and Lazarus their brother. The sisters served the Lord each in her own loving way; Martha caring that everything should be done in the home to make the Lord comfortable; Mary caring more to listen to His words and learn the lessons He would teach. (Luke 10:38-42) Still later on in the story, we are told of a supper in Bethany, when Martha served, and Mary came and anointed the Lord's feet with most precious ointment and wiped them with the hair of her head, showing her belief in His holiness, and her feeling that there was nothing too precious to offer Him. You remember that when those about found fault with what she had done, the Lord said, "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." (Mark 14:9) It is interesting to notice that later, when John wrote his Gospel, Mary is remembered for this act of love. We are told that the Lord loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.

A great sadness had come into this family; the brother Lazarus was very sick and seemed about to die. The Lord was not near them, but on the other side of the river, a long day's journey, at least, away. The sisters sent a messenger to the Lord saying, "Behold he whom Thou lovest is sick." The Lord knowing all things, did not go at once to help them, but saying, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby," He stayed still two days where He was. Then He said, "Let us go into Judea again." The Lord's words remind us of what He said before the healing of the man who was born blind (John 9:3, 4) and lead us to expect that His power is again to be shown.

The disciples were afraid when the Lord spoke of going again into Judea and reminded Him that only lately the Jews tried to stone Him. But the Lord said that if a man walk in the light he stumbleth not, but if he walk in the night he stumbleth, meaning that if one does what the Divine truth shows is right, the way is made plain, and he has nothing to fear, but if he goes his own way there is nothing to guide him and then he is in danger.

Then the Lord told them that Lazarus slept, and He was going to awake him out of his sleep. The disciples did not understand until He told them plainly that He meant that Lazarus had died. The Lord was teaching the disciples and teaching us, that in what we call death the man himself, the spirit, sleeps and awaits the awakening in the other world. Swedenborg tells us more particularly what happens; how the Lord sends His angels to be with people in this gentle sleep of death, and lead their thoughts toward heaven. We may often see by the sweet, happy expression of the face of the body, before the spirit has quite left it, the joy of the heavenly influence which has come to the sleeping spirit; and we learn that this gentle sleep is happier than any earthly sleep, the first taste of the happiness of heaven. (A. 168-189; H. 445-452)

1. Find the several places in the Gospels, which tell about the home in Bethany and the Lord's visits there:

2. How did Martha show her love for the Lord? How did Mary show her love?

3. What does the Lord call death? At what other time did He call it by the same name?

4. Tell me about the sleep of death; what kind of sleep it is; how long it lasts. Who awakens us from this sleep?

Spiritual Study

The Jews repeatedly tried to cast stones at the Lord. What is particularly represented by this form of violence? Stones in a good sense represent sure facts of eternal truth; and stones used as weapons of defense against an evil thing (like the stones with which David armed himself when he went against Goliath) represent Divine truths, like those of the Commandments used resolutely in resisting and condemning evil. (A. 7456) On the other hand, stones cast at the Lord in the effort to destroy Him represent false thoughts and words with which an evil person denies and condemns the Lord and the good and true things that are from Him. Stoning was the punishment prescribed by the Jewish law for blasphemy and for crimes which represented denial and perversion of truth, for the stoning truly pictured what those who deny and falsify truth are doing spiritually to themselves. (A. 7456, 8799; E. 240, 655)

The contrast between the denial which met the Lord in Jerusalem, and the loving welcome in Bethany, is beautiful. This village on the Mount of Olives, a little withdrawn from Jerusalem, represents a state removed from the learning and intellectual pride of the church, with more of simple love and charity. The welcome of the Lord in Bethany was typical of His welcome by the common people and the Gentiles, and of His welcome by all simple, loving hearts. Lazarus, whose name means "God is my help," is especially the representative of this charity and openness to the Lord in simple, Gentile hearts. The two sisters represent the interior and external expressions of that love, all precious to the Lord. The death of Lazarus, and his raising by the Lord, besides showing us the Lord's care for these friends, shows also His care for charity in all simple hearts, and His desire to revive this life of heaven when it languishes through the neglect and misguidance of the church. There never was a time in which the heavenly spirit of charity was more dead, than when the Lord came, and in which the heavenly affections were more desolate. Those who felt the goodness of the Lord's love, turned to Him, as the sisters of Lazarus sent to Him for help. We are taught that the beggar in the Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19, 20) was called by the same name as this friend of Bethany because he represents the same desire for good things in Gentile hearts. It is also said that the raising of Lazarus represents the raising up of a new church among the Gentiles. (A.2916; T. 215)

The Lord's waiting two days suggests the necessity for His waiting until the need for His help is full - until both in thought and desire, we are ready to be helped.

We have reminded the younger children of the sleep of death; how angels are near to protect one in this sleep, and how the Lord Himself awakens everyone from the sleep of death into the life of the spiritual world. It was the Lord who called death sleep. "She is not dead, but sleepeth," He said at the home of Jairus (Luke 8:52), and now, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." Older pupils should read the chapter in Heaven and Hell about death and resurrection, nos. 445-452. The purpose of the sleep is to make the transition gentle, and to bring one into the most favorable state for the awakening. Usually one awakens "on the third day after the heart has ceased to beat." (R. 153; T. 281) "After two days." (W. 390) Remember the example of the Lord's death and resurrection. It was Friday afternoon that He was laid in the sepulchre, and Sunday morning He was risen.

Note the statement in H. 447, that the separation of the spirit from the body is effected by the Lord alone. This wonderful truth is more strongly and more fully stated in D. 300, 322, 328, where it is said that the love and mercy of the Lord felt as a drawing or attraction is the sole means by which resurrection is effected. The Lord means this and more when He says, "I am the resurrection and the life."

When we turn from physical death to spiritual death in the individual or in the church, what meaning and comfort may we find in the Lord's words, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. . . . This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God"? They should remind us that often something of heavenly life lies dormant, as the remains of childhood's innocence for years are hidden from consciousness, to be called out by the Lord, in time, to take a place in character. They should remind us that when temptation and evil are permitted to enter our life, it is because it is possible for us to find warning in the experience, to become more resolute in resisting evil and more faithful and humble in following the Lord.

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