The Resurrection and the Life

Notes

1. A glimpse of funeral customs among the Jews is given in the following extract: "The four days since the death had been sad ones in the little household. They had fasted all the day after it, and had since eaten nothing but an occasional egg or some lentils; for that was the only food allowed mourners for the first seven days. The corpse . . . had been borne to the grave after a few hours, an egg had been broken as a symbol of mortality, and the cottage left to the two survivors. The funeral procession had been sad enough, with its dirge flutes and hired wailing women; the two sisters and their relations following, and then the neighbors and friends; for it was held a religious duty in all who could, to attend a corpse to the grave. At the grave's mouth, the men had chanted the sublime nineteenth psalm in a slow circuit of seven times around the bier, on which lay the dead, wrapped in white linen. The long procession, headed by the women veiled, had stopped thrice on the way to the grave, while the leader spoke words of comfort to the bereaved ones, and tender exhortations to passers by,—'Comfort ye, comfort ye, ye dear ones! Lift up your souls, lift up your souls! Come to me, all ye who are of sad and troubled heart, and take part in the sorrow of your neighbors.' Once more in their desolate home, the sisters, with veiled heads, even in their own chamber, and with unsandaled feet, sat down on the earth, in the midst of a circle of at least ten friends or professional mourners with rent clothes and dust on their heads. None spoke until the bereaved ones had done so, but every sentence of theirs was followed by some word of sympathy or comfort, and by the wails of the mourners. And thus it would be for seven days, and had been for four, before Jesus arrived; for many friends had come from Jerusalem to comfort the two sisters."—Geikie.

2. "Jesus did not desire to meet the afflicted sisters in such a scene of confusion as their home then presented, so He stopped in a quiet place by the roadside, and sent a messenger to inform them where they could find Him."—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, p. 362.

3. "The main teaching of the miracle is announced in the words of Jesus: 'I am the resurrection and the life.' In this statement two truths are contained: That resurrection and life are not future only, but present; and that they become ours by union with Christ. . . . He assured her that in Him were resurrection and life; that all, therefore, who belonged to Him were uninjured by death, and had in Him a present and continuous life."

4. "Christ is the resurrection because He is the life. He has life originally in Himself; His essence is life; in His victorious conflict with that death which in our flesh He has power to taste for us (Heb. 2:9) life shows itself as resurrection. . . . Not because He has risen is He the Living; but because He is the Living, therefore has He risen. See Rev. 1:17, 18, R. V. It was impossible that He should be holden of death (Acts 2:24), for the very reason that He is the Living. And what Christ is, this He imparts to His believers. John 14:19. He is the resurrection of the dying and the life of the living.' . . . For all His believers is this precious word of Christ intended." Sight says, "In the midst of life we are in death;" but faith says, "In the midst of death we are in life."

5. "Jesus bade Martha call her sister and the friends that had come to comfort the afflicted women." "How beautiful is this! When thy Saviour has been offering Himself to thee to be thy consolation and light, thy resurrection and life, go thy way, call thy brothers and sisters who, like thee, are in need of help."

6. "In view of their human distress, and of the fact that these afflicted friends could mourn over the dead when the Saviour of the world stood by, who had power to raise from the dead, 'Jesus wept.' His grief was not alone because of the scene before Him. The weight of the grief of ages was upon His soul, and, looking down the years that were to come, He saw the suffering and sorrow, tears and death, that were to be the lot of men. His heart was pierced with the pain of the human family of all ages and in all lands. The woes of the sinful race were heavy on His soul, and the fountain of His tears was broken up, as He longed to relieve all their distress."—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, p. 361. He wept with me and for me.

Suggestions for Further Study.

1. The whole subject of the resurrection is naturally suggested by this lesson, and may be studied with profit. Observe that the two great truths emphasized in this lesson are inseparably connected with the person of Christ. So it is with other doctrines. Compare 1 Cor. 1:30. Thus have all doctrines become experience in Christ, that they may be known as experience by us. This is "the truth as it is in Jesus."

2. Is the second death implied in this lesson?

3. How is the time of the resurrection fixed in this lesson? Compare 2 Tim. 2:18. See also John 6:40.

4. Why could the statement in verse 22 be made unconditionally? Compare Matt. 26:53, 54.

5. How is life only in Christ taught in this lesson?