Memories of Bethany Part 1

Memories of Bethany.

by John Ross Macduff.

Pa.s.sAGES REFERRING TO BETHANY IN THE SACRED NARRATIVE.

I.

Earliest Notice of Bethany.

LUKE X. 38-42.--"And He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was c.u.mbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

II.

Bethany in connexion with the Sickness, Death, and Resurrection of Lazarus.

JOHN XI. 1.--"Now a certain _man_ was sick, _named_ Lazarus, of BETHANY, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was _that_ Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard _that_, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of G.o.d, that the Son of G.o.d might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was."

"And after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of His death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him."

"Then, when Jesus came, He found that he had _lain_ in the grave four days already. (Now BETHANY was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him: but Mary sat _still_ in the house.

Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of G.o.d, G.o.d will give _it_ Thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth, and believeth in Me, shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of G.o.d, which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

As soon as she heard _that_, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They say unto Him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died! Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been _dead_ four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of G.o.d? Then they took away the stone _from the place_ where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said _it_, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."

III.

Notices of Bethany subsequent to the Raising of Lazarus.

JOHN XII. 1-8.--"Then Jesus, six days before the Pa.s.sover, came to BETHANY, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's _son_, which should betray Him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of My burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but Me ye have not always."

MATTHEW XXVI. 12-13.--"For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did _it_ for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, _there_ shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

JOHN XII. 9.--"Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead."

JOHN XII. 12-15.--"On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had found a young a.s.s, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an a.s.s's colt."

MATTHEW XXI. 10-12.--"And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the mult.i.tude said, This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of G.o.d, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves."

MARK XI. 11-15.--"And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto BETHANY, with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, He was hungry: And seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not _yet_. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And His disciples heard _it_. And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves."

Verse 19-20.--"And when even was come, He went out of the city. And in the morning, as they pa.s.sed by, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots."

LUKE XXIV. 50-52--"And He led them out as far as to BETHANY; and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pa.s.s, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy."

ACTS I. 9-12.--"And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And, while they looked stedfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day's journey."

ZECHARIAH XIV. 4.--"And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which _is_ before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, _and there shall be_ a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."

"And it shall be in that day, _that_ living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one."

"And it shall come to pa.s.s, _that_ every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles."

MEMORIES OF BETHANY

I.

OPENING THOUGHTS.

Places a.s.sociated with great minds are always interesting. What a halo of moral grandeur must ever be thrown around that spot which was hallowed above all others by the Lord of glory as the scene of His most cherished earthly friendship! However holy be the memories which encircle other localities trodden by Him in the days of His flesh,--Bethlehem, with its manger cradle, its mystic star, and adoring cherubim--Nazareth, the nurturing home of His youthful affections--Tiberias, whose sh.o.r.es so often echoed to His footfall, or whose waters in stillness or in storm bore Him on their bosom--the crested heights where He uttered His beat.i.tudes--the midnight mountains where He prayed--the garden where He suffered--the hill where He died,--there is no one single resort in His divine pilgrimage on which sanctified thought loves so fondly to dwell as on the home and village of BETHANY.

Its hours of sacred converse have long ago fled. Its honoured family have slumbered for ages in their tomb. Bethany's Lord has been for centuries enthroned amid the glories of a brighter home. But though its Memories are all that remain, the place is still fragrant with His presence. The echoes of His voice--words of unearthly sweetness--still linger around it; and have for eighteen hundred years served to cheer and encourage many a fainting pilgrim in his upward ascent to the true Bethany above!

There, the Redeemer of the world proclaimed a brief but impressive Gospel. Heaven and earth seemed then to touch one another. We have the tender tones of a _Man_ blended with the ineffable majesty of _G.o.d_.

Hopes "full of immortality" shine with their celestial rainbow-hues amid a shower of holy tears. The cancelling from our Bibles of the 11th chapter of St John would be like the blotting out of the brightest planet from the spiritual firmament. Each of its magnificent utterances has proved like a ministering-angel--a seraph-messenger bearing its live-coal of comfort to the broken, bleeding heart from the holiest altar which SYMPATHY (divine and human) ever upreared in a trial-world!

Many has been the weary footstep and tearful eye that has hastened in thought to BETHANY--"gone to the grave of Lazarus, to weep there."

"The town of Mary and her sister Martha," then, furnishes us alike with a garnered treasury of Christian solaces, and one of the very loveliest of the Bible's domestic portraitures. If the story of Joseph and his brethren is in the Old Testament invested with surpa.s.sing interest, here is a Gospel home-scene in the New, of still deeper and tenderer pathos--a picture in which the true Joseph appears as the central figure, without any estrangements to mar its beauty. Often at other times a drapery of woe hangs over the pathway of the Man of Sorrows.

But _Bethany_ is bathed in sunshine;--a sweet _oasis_ in his toil-worn pilgrimage. At this quiet abode of congenial spirits he seems to have had his main "sips at the fountain of human joy," and to have obtained a temporary respite from unwearied labour and unmerited enmity. The "Lily among thorns" raised His drooping head in this Eden home! Thither we can follow Him from the courts of the Temple--the busy crowd--the lengthened journey--the miracles of mercy--the hours of vain and ineffectual pleading with obdurate hearts. We can picture Him as the inmate of a peaceful family, spirit blending with spirit in sanctified communion. We can mark the tenderness of His holy humanity. We can see how He loved, and sympathised, and wept, and rejoiced!

As the tremendous events which signalised the close of His pilgrimage drew on, still it is _Bethany_ with which they are mainly a.s.sociated. It was at _Bethany_ the fearful visions of His cross and pa.s.sion cast their shadow on his path! From its quiet palm-trees[1] He issued forth on His last day's journey across Mount Olivet. It was with _Bethany_ in view He ascended to heaven. Its soil was the last He trod--its homes were the last on which his eye rested when the cloud received Him up into glory.

The beams of the Sun of Righteousness seemed as if they loved to linger on this consecrated height.

We cannot doubt that many incidents regarding His oft sojournings there are left unrecorded. We have more than once, indeed, merely the simple announcement in the inspired narrative that He retired from Jerusalem all night to the village where His friend Lazarus resided. We dare not withdraw more of the veil than the Word of G.o.d permits. Let us be grateful for what we have of the gracious unfoldings here vouchsafed of His inner life--the comprehensive intermingling of doctrine, consolation, comfort, and instruction in righteousness. His Bethany sayings are for all time--they have "gone through all the earth"--His Bethany words "to the end of the world!" Like its own alabaster box of precious ointment, "wheresoever the Gospel is preached," there will these be held in grateful memorial.

The traveller in Palestine is to this day shewn, in a sort of secluded ravine on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives (about fifteen furlongs or two miles from Jerusalem), a cl.u.s.ter of poor cottages, numbering little more than twenty families, with groups of palm-trees surrounding them, interspersed here and there with the olive, the almond, the pomegranate, and the fig.[2]