John 11:19 And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. I. A MISSION THAT COULD NOT BE ESCAPED. The mourners must not be left unvisited, however awkward and vain the condolences may be. Such visits may indeed be looked upon as often having somewhat of evil in them; but the evil is not a necessity, whereas the good is always a probability. And in certain circumstances, where everything is favorable, where Christian character belongs alike to the departed, the mourners, and the comforters, such a mission may have in it the highest good. Sympathy, though it be no more than silent companionship, is the demand of humanity. II. A MISSION SUCH AS HAD BEEN PERFORMED INNUMERABLE TIMES. That very day, all over Israel, people would be setting out on similar errands. Condolence would be reduced to a system. The very words would get stereotyped. III. A MISSION SUCH AS IN MANY INSTANCES WOULD ONLY INTENSIFY THE LOSS. When people are mourning for their dead, nothing the unaided intellect of men is able to devise can lighten the blow or heal the wound. Too often there is an incongruity between the words that must be spoken and the real feelings. We cannot sorrow for the bereaved as they sorrow themselves. If we could watch the vast majority of people so as to observe from what occupations they go to condole, and to what occupations they return, how we should be impressed with the inconsistencies of human life! A man may go visiting the widow and the fatherless in the afternoon, but that will not keep him from the convivial circle in the evening. To go from the house of mourning to the house of feasting is all in the business of the day. The visitor heaves a sigh or' relief when he has got the necessary formality over. And this is plainly what must be, according to the limits of nature. To feel the pain of bereavement as the bereaved feel it would make life intolerable. IV. A MISSION WHICH JESUS OFTEN UNDERTAKES IN HIS OWN WAY. Jesus has done for few, very few, what he did for Martha and Mary. But, after all, we must not exaggerate the act whereby he comforted them. The resurrection of Lazarus was not as the resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus twice knew the pains of death. It was the mortal body into which he came back. But to all mourners Jesus would come with the plain, unvarnished truth. He would not say, "Comfort! comfort!" when there is no comfort. He would have his people understand that the only guarantee of abiding relations is that there should be a spiritual element in them. Mere natural relations soon break up when there is nothing better in them. Jesus virtually tells all so to live that, when they are gone, survivors may not be driven to delicate hypocrisies concerning them, as it were whitening their sepulchers to please the bereaved. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. |
    |