John 12:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 12:2

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This supper has been called the revealing supper, or we might call it the momentous supper. It seems, if we understand the narrative correctly, to have been held at the instigation of the family of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Christ had a special relationship with them. He knew them from before, as we see from the record of Matthew and Mark, but we are particularly told how much he loved Lazarus and Martha and Mary. It appears that he had spent many special times with them.The supper was held – although John does not say so here – in the house of a man who was called Simon the Leper, which presumably means he had been a leper, and no doubt he had been healed by Christ. We may assume he had a larger house than Lazarus and Martha and Mary and so the supper was held there. There are at least fifteen people at this supper, and Christ the Lord is seated with them at the table. Only the men sat at table in those days. Happily, we do not do that today, but that was the custom and the culture of those times. The men sat at table, and the women waited upon them, and made the preparations and looked after the children. The supper was in honour of the Lord, and Martha served. Then you read – ‘but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.’ What is the ‘but’ doing there? Some versions have ‘and Lazarus was one of them’, as though it is quite incidental that the three persons mentioned here took different roles and performed different functions. But the King James translators are carefully reflecting the Greek, and they want us to know that there is co-ordination going on here. The ‘but’ calls attention to the fact that Lazarus did something quite distinctive from Martha. Martha served, but Lazarus took no part in that, he did something quite different: he sat at table. There is some coordination here; things are being done according to plan. They take distinctive because this is how they have made the feast. Martha for her part will undertake the main work of serving and honour Christ and the disciples who have got to go through so much. Lazarus will take his part at the table, and Mary will pour the alabaster box of oil over the head of Christ. The feet John says; the head, Matthew and Mark say: in other words, over the whole body.

Application

What the three members of the family did, taken together, is a picture of our worship and commitment. Martha serves him as the Son of God, and we serve him. Our lives are his. Martha shows that aspect of Christian commitment and service. But Lazarus plays a tremendous role as you reflect upon it. He honours the resurrection and the life. Do not forget he would be under threat of death too. Many people came to see him, just to see one who Christ had raised from the dead. And he no doubt spoke of what happened to him. His very living presence was a powerful testimony. We too witness to him. We have new lives. We tell of what he has done in giving us new spiritual life. We represent him. We help make him known. And soon Mary will honour Calvary and the death of Christ. All these three things will be in the supper at Bethany, and also three aspects of worship: the service of Martha, the witness of Lazarus, and in due course the faith of Mary.

This was preparing the disciples, because within days Christ would hang on Calvary and suffer and die. They would think everything had come to an end. But they should not have been so dismayed, because just days beforehand they had just sat at table with the man who was the resurrection and the life, and gazed upon one who he had raised from the dead. That should have been an enormous comfort.

Questions

Who took the most important role? Was it Martha, who made it all work? Was it Lazarus, who on the face of it appears to do nothing more than sit at the table? Or was it Mary, who seems to have wastefully broken a most expensive box worth a whole year’s wages over the body of Christ. The answer is they all did equally important things. They took different roles in a great and symbolic supper, that was to mean so much, and to honour Christ. They all did something equally important, and it was clearly premeditated. She had said in the previous chapter that he was the Christ, the Son of God. And she honoured him as such. We will have a supper for our dear friend, our Lord Jesus of Nazareth. He is going to his death; we are sure of it as a family. We have heard all the threats, but we know that he is going to allow it, that he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The disciples have not caught onto that yet, but this family appears to have.

What happened to Lazarus at death? Where did his soul go? Did it go to the paradise of Christ? Did he have experience of life after death? Four days in the grave. The Bible does not mention it. The apostle Paul saw amazing things without actually dying, and he was not allowed to speak of them. Did Lazarus see wonderful things? Was he likewise bound to silence by the Lord about the wonders and the privilege? Maybe his consciousness was kept asleep, because his death was not so that he could narrate an experience, his death was so that Christ could be glorified in raising him from the dead.

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John 12:2 Commentary and Bible Study