A Journey to Bethany and Back

To Bethany, a village the Lord often came
Where two ladies of much beauty and fame
Lived and loved him as friend with friend
In loving sought he to know and understand
How precious they were to his loving heart
And with their brother they stood apart
Martha and Mary their names are known
Sisters to Lazarus, who are his own

But death came knocking on their door one day
When their Lord was busy and far away
With tender messages the ladies sent word
That Lazarus was ill and so he heard
And knowing the better his Father’s intent
Tarried a while longer before he went
And in the span of two days of his wait
The man he loved thus suffered his fate

Against the dangers that before him lay
The Lord Jesus to Lazarus made way
Although many wondered at his going
For they knew that death had no undoing
As news of his coming to Martha came
She ran to meet him to proclaim
That her brother would have yet been alive
If early he had come to heal and revive

Yet he to his beloved friend he thus spoke
As the truth of the matter to her he broke
“I am the resurrection and the life” he said
“Men believing shall live forever instead.”
“Messiah!” she thus called upon his name
Her faith in the Lord Jesus anew became
Thereafter bade she her sister to him go
As Mary in haste made her way to him so

Before the Lord she fell at his feet
For her brother wept she to entreat
And it came upon Jesus in that hour
The bitter truth of death’s dark power
As trouble and sorrow gripped his breast
And tears of anguish by love so blest
Streamed from his eyes pure and swift
As so moved his heart to heaven uplift

Thus Jesus raised his voice above to pray
The tomb-blackened stone was rolled away
Calling his friend, “Lazarus, come out!”
Amidst the gathering unbelief and doubt
Over the crowd an unspoken silence lay
For none could imagine what saw they
With graveclothes on him wrapped round
Lazarus awoke from death unbound

The conqueror of death did death defeat
Yet while the victory was fast and sweet
Before him loomed a shadow that cast
A veil over his joy that was not to last
For unto him would come the final hour
When he would be subject to its power
In the cross his mortal fate was sealed
Until the day his glory would be revealed

For Lazarus was but raised for a while
Unbeknownst to the serpent’s guile
The greater hand had the Lord to win
To rescue the perishing world from sin
Crushing beneath him with death the twain
Endured the wrath of God and pain
Of cross and nails pierced him to bear
A twisted crown of thorns to wear

Would death’s power over him hold sway?
Would darkness triumph the light of day?
For the final victory by Christ was wrought
Beyond all man’s conceiving and thought
He wrested from death its sceptre by hand
And plucked the immortal burning brand
While in flaming its fire shall consume not
Eternally its beacon shines bright and hot

Thereafter is for all men thus found the light
Through faith in Christ Jesus, not by sight
Purchased our salvation for all the ages
Resurrection life through eternal pages
In death a hope beyond the grave
In living to us new life he gave
Through mortality immortality is born
Unworthy men the crown of life to adorn