{"id":3933,"date":"2008-10-04T01:29:32","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T06:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/ch-spurgeon\/john-122"},"modified":"2008-10-04T01:29:32","modified_gmt":"2008-10-04T06:29:32","slug":"john-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2008\/10\/04\/john-122\/","title":{"rendered":"John 12:2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.” 
              — John 12:2 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve, but better to
be Lazarus and commune. There are times for each purpose, and each is
comely in its season, but none of the trees of the garden yield such
clusters as the vine of fellowship. To sit with Jesus, to hear his
words, to mark his acts, and receive his smiles, was such a favour as
must have made Lazarus as happy as the angels. When it has been our
happy lot to feast with our Beloved in his banqueting-hall, we would
not have given half a sigh for all the kingdoms of the world, if so
much breath could have bought them. <\/p>\n

He is to be imitated. It would have been a strange thing if Lazarus had
not been at the table where Jesus was, for he had been dead, and Jesus
had raised him. For the risen one to be absent when the Lord who gave
him life was at his house, would have been ungrateful indeed. We too
were once dead, yea, and like Lazarus stinking in the grave of sin;
Jesus raised us, and by his life we live-can we be content to live at a
distance from him? Do we omit to remember him at his table, where he
deigns to feast with his brethren? Oh, this is cruel! It behoves us to
repent, and do as he has bidden us, for his least wish should be law to
us. To have lived without constant intercourse with one of whom the
Jews said, “Behold how he loved him,” would have been disgraceful to
Lazarus, is it excusable in us whom Jesus has loved with an everlasting
love? To have been cold to him who wept over his lifeless corpse, would
have argued great brutishness in Lazarus. What does it argue in us over
whom the Saviour has not only wept, but bled? Come, brethren, who read
this portion, let us return unto our heavenly Bridegroom, and ask for
his Spirit that we may be on terms of closer intimacy with him, and
henceforth sit at the table with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.”                — John 12:2 He is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve, but better tobe Lazarus and commune. There are times for each purpose, and each iscomely in its season, but none of the trees of the garden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}