THE GRAVE STONE
"Take away the stone," He said. John 11:39
They have now reached the grave. It was a rocky
sepulcher. A flat stone (possibly with some Hebrew inscription) lay upon the
mouth of it. In wondering amazement the sorrowing group follows the
footsteps of the Savior. "Behold how He loved him," whisper the Jews to one
another as they witness His fast falling tears. Can His traveling thus to
the tomb be anything more than to pay a mournful tribute to an honored
friendship, and behold the silent home of the loved dead?
No! He is about, as the Lord of Life, to wrench away the
swaddling-bands of corruption, to vindicate His name and prerogative
as the "Abolisher of death"—to have the first-fruits of that vast triumph
which, ages before the birth of time, He had anticipated with longing
earnestness—"I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem
them from death. O death, I will be your plague; O grave, I will be your
destruction!"
Does He proceed forthwith to speak the word, and to
accomplish the giant deed? He breaks silence. But we listen, in the first
instance, not to the omnipotent summons, but to an address to the
bystanders—"Take away the stone," He said. What need of this parenthesis in
His mighty work? Why this summoning in any feeble human agency when
His own independent fiat could have effected the whole? Would it not have
been a more startling manifestation of Omnipotence, by a mandate similar to
that which chained the tempests of Tiberias, or the demoniac of Gadara, to
have hurled the grave stone into fragments? Might not He who has "the keys
of the grave and of death" Himself unlocked the portals preparatory to the
vaster miracle that was to follow? No, there was a mighty lesson to be read
in thus delegating human hands to remove the intervening barrier. The
Church of the living God may, in every age, gather from it instruction!
What, then, does the Savior here figuratively, but
significantly, teach His people? Is it not the important truth that, though
dependent on Him for all they are, and all they have, they are not thereby
released and exempted from the use of means? He alone can
bring back Lazarus from his death-sleep. Martha and Mary may weep an
ocean of tears, but they cannot weep him back. They may linger for days
and nights in that lonely graveyard, making it resound with their bitter
dirges, but their impassioned entreaties will be mocked with impressive
silence. Too well do they know that spirit is fled beyond their recall—the
spark of life extinguished beyond any earthly rekindling!
But though the word of Omnipotence can alone bring back
the dead; human hands and human efforts can roll away the adjoining stone,
and prepare for the performance of the miracle; and after the miracle is
performed, human hands may again be called in to tear off the cerements of
the tomb, to ungird the bandages from the restored captive, to "take off the
grave clothes and let him go."
This simple incident in the Bethany narrative admits of
manifold PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. Let us look to it with reference to the
mightier spiritual miracle of the Resurrection of the soul "dead in
trespasses and sins." Jesus, and Jesus alone, can awake that soul
from the deep slumber of its spiritual death, and invest it with the glories
of a new resurrection-life. In vain can it awake of itself; no human skill
can put animation into the spiritual skeleton. No power of human eloquence,
no "excellency of man's wisdom," can open these rayless eyes, and pour life,
and light, and hope into the dull caverns of the spiritual sepulcher.
"Prophesy to the dry bones! "—We may prophesy forever! We may try to wake
the valley of dry bones by ceaseless invocations, but the dead will hear
not! No bone of the spiritual skeleton will stir, for it is "not by might,
nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts."
But though it be a Divine work from first to last
which effects the spiritual regeneration of man, are we from this
presumptuously to disregard the use of means? Are prayer, and
preaching, and human effort, and strenuous earnestness in the work of
evangelism; are these all to be superseded, and pronounced unavailing and
unnecessary? No, though man cannot wake to life his dormant spiritual
energies—though these lie slumbering in the deep sleep of the buried dead,
and nothing but Lazarus' Lord can break the spiritual trance—yet man
can use the appointed means. He dare not be guilty of the monstrous
inconsistency and crime of willingly allowing impediments to stand in the
way of his spiritual revival which his own efforts may remove! He cannot
expect his Lord to sound over his soul the gladdening accents of peace, and
reconciliation, and joy, if some known sin be still lying, like the
adjoining grave-stone, which it is in his power to roll away, and at his
peril if he allows to remain!
Christ is alone the "abolisher of death," and the "giver
of life;" but notwithstanding this, "Roll you away the stone!" Do not
neglect the means He has appointed and prescribed. If you neglect prayer,
and despise ordinances, and trifle with temptation, or venture on forbidden
ground, you are only making the intervening obstacle firmer and stronger,
and willfully stripping yourselves of the gift of life.
Naaman must plunge seven times in Jordan, or else he
cannot be made clean. To cleanse himself of his leprosy he cannot, but to
wash in Jordan he can. The snake-bitten Israelite must gaze on the
brazen serpent; he cannot of himself heal one fevered wound, but to gaze on
the appointed symbol of cure he can. In vain can the weapons of war effect a
breach on the walls of Jericho; but the army of Joshua can sound the
appointed trumpet, and raise the prescribed shout, and the impregnable walls
in a moment are in the dust. Martha and Mary in vain can make their
voices be heard in the "dull, cold ear of death," but at their Lord's
bidding they can hurl back the outer portals where their dead is laid. They
cannot unbind one fetter, but they can open with human hand the prison-door
to admit the Divine Liberator.
Let it not be supposed that in this we detract in any way
from the omnipotence of the Savior's grace. God forbid! All is of
grace, from first to last—free, sovereign grace! Man has no more
merit in salvation than the beggar has merit in reaching forth his hand for
alms, or in stooping down to drink of the wayside fountain. But neither must
we ignore the great truth which God strives throughout His Word to impress
upon us, that He works by means, and that for the neglect of these
means we are ourselves responsible.
Paul had the assurance given him by an angel from heaven,
when tossed in the storm at sea, that not one life in his vessel was to be
lost; that though the ship was to be wrecked, all her crew were to come safe
to land. But was there on this account any effort on his part relaxed to
secure their safety? No! he toiled and labored at the pumps and rigging and
anchors as unremittingly as before; and when some of the sailors made the
cowardly attempt, by lowering a small boat, to produce their own
escape, the voice of the apostle was heard proclaiming, amid the storm, that
unless they abode in the ship none could be saved!
The true philosophy of the Gospel system is this, to
feel as if much depended on ourselves; but at the same time
entertaining the loftier conviction that all depends upon God. Jesus,
when He invites to the strait gate, does not advocate remaining outside, in
a state of passive and listless inaction, until the portals be seen to move
by the Divine hand. His exhortation and command rather is, "Strive",
"knock", "agonize to enter in!" We are not to ascend to heaven, seated, like
Elijah, in a chariot of fire, without toil or effort, but rather to "fight
the good fight of faith." The saying of the great Apostle is a vivid
portrait of what the Christian's feelings ought to be regarding personal
holiness—"I labored, . . . yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me."
As the Lord of Bethany gives the summons, "Roll away the
stone," His words seem paraphrased in this other Scripture, "Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure." You may feel assured that He will
not impose upon you one needless burden; He will not exact more than
He knows your strength will bear; He will ask no Peter to come to Him on the
water, unless He imparts at the same time, strength and support on the
unstable wave. He will not demand of you the endurance of providences, and
trials, and temptations you are unable to cope with; He will not ask you to
draw water if the well is too deep, or take away the stone if it is too
heavy. But neither, at the same time, will He admit as an impossibility that
which, as a free and responsible agent, it is in your power to avert. He
will not regard as your misfortune what is your crime. "If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
Oh! let life be, more than it ever has been, one constant
effort to roll away the stone from the moral sepulcher; carefully to remove
every barrier between our souls and Jesus—looking forward to that glorious
day when the voice of the Restorer shall be heard uttering the omnipotent
"Come forth!" and to His angel assessors the mandate shall be given
regarding the thronging myriads of risen dead, "Loose them and let them go!"