 |  |
"After two days He will revive us, and the third day He will raise us up, and we shall
live in His sight" (Hos. 6: 2).
There is an ever widening circle of influence exhibited in the development of the sign.
Starting from the centre of all we have the glory of God, and the extreme circumference
reaches to "the people that stand by". This may be better seen as follows:--
1.
The glory of God (11: 4).
2.
The glorifying of the Son of God (11: 4).
3.
The faith of the disciples (11: 5).
4.
The faith of Martha (11: 25-27, 40).
5.
The people that stood by (11: 42).
6.
Many of the Jews (11: 45).
When Martha met the Lord she said:--
"Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died, but I know that even now,
whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee" (John 11: 21, 22).
Vaguely Martha seemed to feel that even now in some strange way she need not
abandon hope. When the Lord put her unshaped thoughts before her in the simple words,
"Thy brother shall rise again", Martha's faith recoiled, as it were, for she said, "I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day". This was not, however, the
secret hope that had prompted her first words. The Lord recalls her mind from the "last
day" to Himself and the present. Knowing something of the feeling of human
helplessness in the presence of death, we can in some small degree appreciate the majesty
and the triumph of the Lord's reply to Martha:--
"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live: and whosoever is alive and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou
this?" (John 11: 25, 26).
The Gospel of John contains a wondrous series of statements made by Christ
characterized by the expression "I AM". In Himself the Lord Jesus is the great "I AM".
"Before Abraham was , I am" (8: 58).
"I am; be not afraid" (6: 20).
To the woman of Samaria the Lord revealed himself:--
"I that speak unto you am" (4: 26).
To the Jews the Lord said:--
"If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins" (8: 24).
"When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am" (8: 28).
At the time of the betrayal the Lord again refers to this great title (13: 19); and in the
garden of Gethsemane the mere utterance of the words caused those who were about to
take Him to fall backwards (18: 6).