hand in order that the faith of His disciples, and more especially of His apostles, might be strengthened, and “that they might believe” and not doubt when they saw their Lord and Master in the hour of His abasement; and most of all to enable them to hope, when they saw His Body laid in the sepulchre, that He who had raised up Lazarus would Himself rise again.
The necessity of faith. “He that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live.” It follows, therefore, that he who does not believe will not attain to eternal life.
The causes of unbelief. The impressions produced by the miracle of the raising of Lazarus from the dead were very different. Many believed in Him now who had not believed before; and for them the miracle worked salvation. The Pharisees and their followers could not deny the fact of the miracle, but they believed none the more in our Lord’s divine mission, and the wonderful miracle only served to harden them in their obstinate incredulity — once more grace knocked at their hearts for the last time by means of this stupendous miracle which even they could not deny; but so blinded were they by their hatred and envy of Jesus, that they resisted and shut out the true knowledge of Him which was, as it were, forced on them. They had to admit that our Lord did “many miracles”; but this undeniable fact so increased their hatred, that they could not even bring themselves to pronounce His name, but called Him “this man”. Though they owned that He worked the miracles they did not draw the logical conclusion that therefore they must believe in Him, but, on the contrary, the illogical conclusion that therefore they must kill Himl However wonderful the miracles He might work, one thing was certain, they would not believe in Him! The Messias must die, or else their own 'position would be injured, and their hypocrisy unmasked! “If we let Him alone”, said they, “all men will believe in Him.” They even wished to put Lazarus to death, “because many of the Jews by reason of him went away and believed in Jesus” (John 12, 11). Pride, envy and love of power combined to blind these men, and destroy their souls by reason of their unbelief. Pride and envy are capital sins.
The chief doctrine of Christianity is the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. It was because Martha believed that Jesus was the Son of the living God that she also believed His words: “I am the resurrection and the life”, although she probably did not understand their full meaning.
The compassion of the Heart of Jesus. “And Jesus wept.”
The consolation of faith. The words: “I am the resurrection and the life”, are used at the service for the burial of the dead. They console us wonderfully for the loss of those dear to us, for they convince us that we shall all rise and meet again.
