Quiet Talks on John's GospelGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks on John's Gospel
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
No: it meant this--that the Son of God was now actually going to _act as
Son of God_ to meet her need. Under His touch her dead brother was going
to live. The deadness that broke her heart would give way under Jesus'
touch. The Bethany faith doesn't believe that God _can_ do what you
need, merely. It believes that He _will_ do it And so the stone's taken
away that He _may_ do it. God has our active consent. Are we up on the
Bethany level? Has God our active consent to do all He would? Is our
faith being lived, acted out?
And the feast of grateful tribute that followed has an exquisite added
touch. The faith that lets God into one's life to meet its needs gets
clearer eyesight. Acted faith affects the spirit vision. There is a
spirit sensitiveness that recognizes God and discerns how things will
turn out.
Notice Jesus' words about Mary's act of anointing. There is a singularly
significant phrase in it. "Let her _keep it_ against (or in view of) the
day of My burying." "Keep it" is the striking phrase. What does that
mean? We speak of _keeping_ a day, as Christmas, meaning to hallow the
memories for which it stands. "Keep it" here seems to mean that. Let her
keep a memorial. Yet it would be a memorial _in advance_ of the event
remembered and hallowed.
It seems to suggest that Mary thus discerned the outcome for Jesus of
the coming crisis, and more, its great significance. The disciples
expected Jesus' power to overcome all opposition. She alone sensed what
was coming, His death and its tremendous spirit-meaning. And it is
possible that the raising of her brother helped her to sense ahead
another raising. For there is no mention of her at the tomb, as would
otherwise have been most natural.
Her simple love-lit faith could _see_, and could see _beyond_ to the
final outcome. This is the story of the Bethany faith, faith at flood.
This highest simplest truest faith, that had come in answer to Jesus'
patient persistent wooing for it, opens the way for the greatest use of
His power on record.
There's one story more in this true-blue faith list. It is the story of
the Greeks. At first it seems not to belong in here. There is no mention
made of the faith of these men nor of their acceptance of Jesus. But the
more you think into it the more it seems that here is its true place,
and that this is why John brings it in, not simply to show how the
outside world was reaching for Jesus, but to show the inner spirit of
these men towards Jesus.
Whether the term _Greeks_ is used in the looser sense for the
Greek-speaking Jews,[70] or for non-Jewish foreigners, or, as I think
most likely, in the meaning of men of Grecian blood, residents of
Greece, the significance is practically the same, it was the outer world
coming to Jesus. These had come a long journey to do homage to the true
God at Jerusalem. Their presence reveals their spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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