Article September 6, 1930 Issue

Opportunities, All

PROBLEMS and opportunities are inseparably associated. As the fruit contains the productive seed, so do our problems hold our opportunities—opportunities to overcome and so rise higher and go forward.

In the town of Bethany, not far distant from Jerusalem, dwelt Mary and Martha with their brother Lazarus. We know that upon occasion Jesus of Nazareth was a guest in their home; and from the tender picture which the Scriptures present of this association we gather there was a close bond between him and this household. When sickness befell the brother, it was natural that the sisters should send word of his condition to Jesus. Doubtless they longed for his comforting words and presence, and for the help which they recognized he could give under the circumstances. Yet, so far as the narrative discloses, the only message carried back to them was, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Under the circumstances, it may well have seemed a cryptic utterance, for how could an afflictive condition, such as this, redound to "the glory of God"? They may have wondered the more when the sickness ultimated in that which Jesus intimated should not actually seem to be credited to it, namely, the death of Lazarus.

Here was a problem in the experience of these friends, and the Master knew that it presented an opportunity for proof and progression for them and for others—in short, for revealing "the glory of God." He knew that man is spiritual, not material; that he lives in Spirit, not in matter, and can neither be sick nor die, since those conditions cannot be conceived of as applying to or touching God or His likeness. Jesus knew this, but it was needful that others should know it also; and though this experience seemed afflictive, and plunged those near and dear to him into temporary suffering and grief, still he saw in it an opportunity to demonstrate for them and for all generations God's presence and power exactly where every evidence of the material senses declared them absent. Where others, looking with material eyes, were blinded to "the glory of God," he saw an occasion for its revelation.

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