The Banquet at Bethany

A lesson developed from the writings of G.D. Watson and the book – Pure Gold

Martha, Lazarus and Mary represent three stages of Christian experience. Their lives help reveal the progressive steps that lead to a full revelation of Christ’s resurrection life. We will find that Martha served, Lazarus sat quietly and Mary poured out the anointing. (John 12:1-10)

Those born of the Spirit will begin their spiritual journey in the Martha life of diligent outward service. In this beginning stage, we strive in earnestness to serve our Lord. But it is not without some self-centeredness. In these early stages of our Christian service, we naturally compare ourselves with what others are doing. We also expect some form of reward for our service. While it may not be expressed, there will need to be some kind of recognition, or praise, or honor, to keep us motivated.

The Lazarus stage takes us through an inward sickness, a death, a burial and into resurrection life. This death and resurrection occurs after we have lost all hope in our own strength. It is then that we are prepared to sit quietly at the table with Jesus and learn how to live through Him.

Those who have truly learned to live through the life of Jesus will eventually enter into the Mary state where His love overflows into a display of sacrificial devotion. These are the saints who gladly and joyously break the most costly alabaster boxes for Christ’s sake and the good of His eternal kingdom.

The fullest enjoyment of this heavenly banquet feast with Jesus is found by passing forward into the Mary stage of spiritual life. Earnest souls will be helped by examining these truths and using them to search their heart.

1.) Martha served. Her outward service typifies a born again child of God. Service lies at the foundation of a real Christian experience. Unless these outward acts of service are entered upon, with the distinct determination of persevering along all lines of known duty, it is not possible to progress into a deeper life in Christ.

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all…so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness… (1 Thess. 3:12-13)

The Holy Spirit will be revealing needs all around us. He will also be testing our obedience by how we respond to these needs. It is in this sense that Jesus has only promised to manifest His Kingdom-life of holy love to those who obey the leadings of His Spirit. (John 14:21) We shall never reach the higher spiritual life typified by Martha’s brother and sister until we have chosen to serve the Lord with our current understanding.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Gal. 6:9-10)

Martha remained “worried and troubled about many things.” (Luke 10:41) Those who are attempting to do the Lord’s work in their own strength will have many things to be worried and troubled about. They will naturally become disturbed when others are doing things that are contrary to their own will. This inner turmoil, which often leads to upset feelings, will cause them at times to react in ways that are not Christlike.

It is this inward unrest and upset feelings that will eventually lead earnest souls to begin a more thorough search of the Scriptures to discover why they are not living in the fullness of life that has been promised in the Scriptures. They begin to see how there is a Sabbath-rest where God intended for each of His children to share with Him in His own righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is what prepares them to move forward into the next stage of Christian life.

2.) Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus. Lazarus presents us with a form of experience that is representative of death and resurrection. It is brought about when the believer has become very sick of his spiritual state. He begins to acknowledge his inability to consistently reveal Christ’s nature of love in the many difficult tests he faces. This is what prepares him to die. He sees how there needs to be a death, burial and resurrection before there can be a true participation with Christ in His heavenly life. “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5)

The death that Lazarus passed through made him a quiet and reserved man. Dying to the self-life always takes away the need for outward display and showiness. He also reveals how resurrection life results in a real freedom from worry, suspicion or hastiness. Those who live in the heavenly realms are no longer controlled by their circumstances.

Not one word from Lazarus is recorded. The old Adam is self-centered and self-exalting, and so it loves to hear itself talk. “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.” (John 7:18) But this self-exalting spirit dies when the old Adam-life dies a full death. It silences the tongue. While it is willing to be pleasant and fellowship with others, there is no longer a desire to talk about self.

Those who have entered this Lazarus stage where there is a real participation with Christ in His risen life, readily admit how little they know. They can begin to recognize how there is much to be learned as they see the infinite “light of life” stretching out before them. While there is a real enjoyment of a new heavenly life, they are not yet fully prepared to communicate to others what they have come to experientially know.

This is when the believer learns to live in harmony with God. He learns to listen to the Spirit and respond to every sway of God’s providences. He knows that all true life comes from above while walking in the Spirit. (Gal. 5:25)

God’s dealing with Lazarus, in allowing him to die, to be buried, to be raised to life, to be untrammeled from the grave clothes, and then to sit at the table with Jesus, is all representative of everyone who has entered into this second stage of the Christian life.

After becoming sick to death of himself, he passed through the valley of the shadow of death where the world and the ways of human wisdom faded away from his vision. It was then that he could begin seeing things from God’s eternal perspective. This death and resurrection is what makes it possible to begin sharing with Christ in the spiritual blessings that are found in His heavenly life. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Eph. 1:3)

God gives His Spirit to His children to prepare them to be taken through this death and resurrection. We all need to be prepared to add to our Martha service a death to the old self-sufficient, self-exalting and self-directed form of life. And we should not expect to be raised up until this old life has begun to rot in the grave. He never raises us up hastily. All hope in the old Adam-life needs to be completely lost. He permits this death process to run its full course in spite of all the pleas to have Him come quickly to provide help.

Lament and mourn and weep! Let your {carnal} laughter be turned to mourning and your {worldly} joy to gloom. Humble yourselves {sink down into the grave} in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (Jam. 4:9-10)

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. (John 16:22)

When the Lord finally came to raise Lazarus, Martha thought the decay of the body would render it too offensive to have the door removed from the sepulcher. That lovely brother who was once so full of worldly life had become painfully offensive in the grave.  Similarly, in a very significant manner, when we yield ourselves to be utterly crucified to the self-seeking and self-exalting ways of this world, this mark of death will become a fowl odor to the people who still depend on the world for their spiritual support. In fact, this way of dying to self to find life from above becomes so distasteful to worldly-minded people that even our loved ones will often keep their distance to protect themselves from the offensive aroma.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one {to those who do not know the ways of the Spirit} we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other {to the Spirit-led children of God} the aroma of life leading to life. (2 Cor 2:15-16)

Lazarus spent four ecstatic days in the third heaven. Anyone who comes through this kind of death and resurrection experience will find very little attraction to the things of this world. This is what brought him into that deep, unruffled stillness of soul with his reserved speech. Those who have had a taste of life in the heavenly realms find little interest in the typical conversations that take place in this world.

The act of quietly sitting with Christ at the table reveals great calmness and restfulness of spirit. Lazarus had gotten through the old wrestlings with self and human nature. Death and the grave had thoroughly conquered him. The old forms of self-righteousness, self-exaltation, self-seeking, self-expression, resentments and agitations were left in the grave. He was being turned into a deep, quiet, loving channel for the outflow of our Lord’s heavenly life.

In one sense our Lord’s banquet feast is now ready. The heavenly food is now ready to eat. Those who will follow Christ through this death and into resurrection life will know experientially what it means to sit at supper with Him. There is a heavenly spiritual food now being served that truly satisfies the soul.

This is the bread which came down from heaven… He who eats this bread will live forever. (John 6:58)

Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!… Come, for all things are now ready. (Luke 14:15-17)

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev. 3:20)

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (Isa. 55:2 NIV)

We are told that many of the Jews believed on Jesus because Lazarus was raised from the dead. Similarly, many today will begin to believe in the Christ who has come to establish His eternal Kingdom-life within the hearts of God’s children when they begin to see this resurrection life revealed before their eyes. The Christian who has been thoroughly crucified with Jesus and raised into this heavenly life will leave a deep and lasting impression on everyone who takes time to examine this miracle.

3.) Mary poured out her life. “Mary took a pound of very costly ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.” This outward display of self-sacrificing love presents a still higher form of the eternal life of God. It represents a service of love that begins to overflow with extravagant giving. It is the result of the “rivers” of Living Water from Christ’s life of holy love fully satisfying the soul and then pouring out of the heart. “As the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) It never considers the cost when it breaks the most expensive alabaster boxes.

Mary was the fitting character for this type of service. Her heart was utterly abandoned to Jesus. She was not concerned about what others thought of her or said of her. She seemed to be blind to all other things in comparison to her fixed vision on Him.

Mary did not reserve anything for herself. In fact, Mark tells us that Mary broke the alabaster box containing the sweet perfume to prevent it from ever being used for any other purpose. She had gotten beyond the Old Testament law of tithing. She did not need law to teach her to give. In contrast, Mary represents the life of a believer that has passed through death and into the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. It is an outpoured life that takes every resource and dedicates it to the service of God’s eternal kingdom so that nothing will be wasted on the personal kingdoms of this world. It is a life that is fully expended in the service of God—a service that never has reservations.

Those who plan to enter into this highest stage of spiritual life in this current age of the kingdom will need to be prepared to break every box that still holds personal treasures. Only then can we enter into the stage of holy love that was displayed by Mary.

Sometimes it is a box that holds an almost hidden reserve in the will. It can be found in a half timid, half fearful holding back in some line of suffering, or from some lonely and strange-looking path. Even in sanctified people you will sometimes find this scarcely perceived reservation that holds them back from entering into the Mary stage of Christian experience. Something in this world still has a grip on their heart. It is preventing them from making a complete abandonment of everything to God and the work of His kingdom. This is a box that must be broken before the fragrance of Christ’s heavenly life can be displayed through a mortal body in this world.

There are many who are still holding onto their social box. It is the box that gives us concern about what other people think of us. Every saint who ascends the spicy mountains of burning love and enters into holy unity with God will find at every epoch in their experience the necessity of snapping another social cord. God must become our All in All. Over and over again there will be this breaking of some beautiful white alabaster encasement of human esteem. It will be necessary to accept the critical judgment of dear friends and loved ones if we are to ever be in a position to love them through God’s life of heavenly love.

Mary lived to see that her alabaster box was a fitting type of the spotless body of Jesus, which was utterly broken. The spikenard of His life was poured out to the last drop for her redemption. It is an axiom that the very life of the infinite Christ is poured through us in the same proportion that we are broken and are willing to suffer for His purposes. We are “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Cor. 4:10)

We find that the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. In like manner, when Christ broke His alabaster-like body, the whole earth and all of heaven was filled with the perfume of His lamb-like spirit of self-sacrificing love. Similarly, as we break the boxes that contain the reserve for self, there is liberated from us the very odor of Christ’s heavenly nature.

Those who have gone to the greatest extent to count everything from this world as loss, become the most fragrant of Christian characters. But see, in wiping His feet with her hair the perfume came back upon her own head. What a world of truth is revealed here. Those who give all receive the most. What we pour out will eventually settle back as a sweet odor upon our own heads. The eternal soul receives its hundredfold return from the life of God in both this age and in the age to come. The way that God compensates His children with His spiritual life from heaven is minute in its detail, and as far-reaching as the white, shining years of eternity.

The last feature we note about Mary’s life is how it utterly shocked the conservative and calculating spirit of Christ’s pre-Pentecostal disciples. They began to find fault with Mary’s excess. Everyone who presses into this Mary stage of Christian experience and comes to know this heavenly love will find himself or herself being criticized by the colder members of the Church. Most Christians simply cannot understand the seeming waste that occurs when there is such an extravagant breaking of such precious and valuable things. And yet, this form of outpoured life on all lines for Jesus, just as He did for us, ends up being the very wisdom of God. It is the true radiance of Heaven. And as Jesus has indicated, it will be recognized and retold as the sign of full salvation wherever the real Gospel message is preached. (Matt. 26:13) This is the last and sweetest stage of the Christ-life in this age on the earth.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)