Mother and sons shared in the spirit of self-seeking and self-exaltation.  But we must not forget that it was faith in Him as the Messiah, and in His coming “glory,” that led them to show it, though in a mistaken way.

In sorrow and tenderness, and pity for their ignorance, Jesus replied, “Ye know not what ye ask.”  While His eye rested on them, His thoughts were on another scene.  It was a cross with Himself upon it, and a malefactor on each side, instead of the brothers in their pride.  As John at last stood by it, did he recall the hour of his mistaken ambitious request, which had never been repeated.  There had been no need that the Lord should say to him, as to Moses, “Ask me not again,” yet like Moses, he was to receive a most glorious answer in another form.  In his pride, with an earthly throne in mind, he had asked, “Grant that I may sit with Thee in Thy glory?” Having conquered his unholy ambition there was fulfilled in him the promise of His Lord in glory, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.”

The time came when there was no longer occasion for the other ten apostles to be “moved with indignation concerning James and John,” because of their pride and ambitious seeking.  This John is the disciple whom, with all his imperfections, Jesus loved most of all; this the man known as the most lovable of men; this the one who well-nigh reached human perfection through his ardent and ever increasing love for Jesus; this the one who is called the Apostle of Love.

CHAPTER XVIII

John and the Family of Bethany

“He entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at the Lord’s feet, and heard His word.”—­Luke x. 38, 39.

     “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of
     Mary and her sister Martha.”—­John xi. 1.

     “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”—­v. 5.

     “Jesus ... said, ...  Lazarus is dead.”—­v. 14.

     “Jesus wept.”—­v. 35.

     “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.  He that was dead
     came forth.”—­vs. 43, 44.

     “As he (John) gives us so much more than the synoptists about the
     family at Bethany, we may infer that he was a more intimate friend
     of Lazarus and his sisters.”—­A.  Plummer, D.D.

In four sentences Luke draws an unfinished picture of a family group, whose memory has become especially precious because of what John has added to it.  His probable familiarity with the family made this possible.  No wonder if he felt that the original picture must be enlarged and retouched.  The place where that family lived had become to him too sacred a spot to be called simply “a certain village.”  Martha was more than “a certain woman,”