READ IT AGAIN
By Professor EM Blaiklock MA D LITT
XXXV.
MORE ABOUT MARTHA.
John 11.
Does not this chapter suggest that Mary stood higher in the Lord's esteem?
No. He rated differently the service of the two sisters, and Mary on one occasion won the greater share of His approval, but nowhere in the record can we find in Christ that weakness which determines all our human likes and dislikes.
"He knew what was in man,'says John. We do not. Hence our prejudices, our misunderstandings, our hero-worship and irrational affections. He knows us, knows our faults, and loves us equally.
Even the phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" implies no lower ranking for his fellows. John's quick apprehension and spiritual insight reached closer to Jesus' heart and won him the favour which love and faith can win, and it was on this basis that the Lord chose the inner circle of His fellowship. There are no degrees in the everlasting love."
There are differences in our reception of it. Consider the quiet affection of the Lord's reply to Martha, and consider a very significant phrase in the last Gospel to be written. John was an old man when he closed the canon of the New Testament with his Gospel. He had doubtless heard much misunderstanding of the incident we have considered. And so when his story came to Bethany he wrote with some deliberation the words, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.