Percival. But here the Lord's tears are sacred—those caused by the anguish of bereavement. Christ knew that He was about to raise Lazarus from the sleep of death: therefore the Lord's grief must have had a deeper source than that of mere sympathy with mourners, whose sorrow was in a few minutes to be changed into joy. Christ probably saw in the grave of the dead, and the grief of the living, an image of all earth's misery—all the ravages caused by sin.
Seyton. The Lord may have thought of His own mother; so soon to be a mourner for Him. Christ Himself spake comfort to the sisters of Lazarus: but who would speak comfort to Mary in the hour of her great desolation?
Percival. The pang caused by bereavement must have come to the Lord, when He saw the death of Joseph, His foster-father; the guardian of His infancy, the friend of His boyhood. If Christ were at the time conscious of His own supernatural power (held in abeyance only for a time, until the hour appointed by the Father should come), it must have required a greater effort of submission not to have exercised it then, than when the Saviour, faint with hunger, refrained from turning stones into bread.
Seyton. Yes. If the Son of Mary knew that by a word He could still the rapid beating of the pulse; turn pain into ease; and make His mother's heart bound with delight—not to speak that word must have cost Him an agonizing effort indeed. What meaning do you intend to convey by writing at the bottom of your picture, "I have found a ransom"?
Percival. I wished to represent the Saviour as repeating, by a death-bed, those marvellous words from the Book of Job. Joseph, like the patriarch, had been a just man before his fellow-mortals: but how could he be justified before God? Christ, the Lamb of God, was in the world: but He had not yet suffered for sin; He had not yet borne the iniquity of all. Joseph, on the brink of Death's dark river, may have felt some natural fear: he may have reviewed his past life and seen how far his obedience had fallen short of that required by the Law.
Percival continued: "Joseph may—it is not improbable—have felt himself bound by the chain of his iniquities. But, on such a man as Joseph, a hope inspired by the words of an angel would shine like Bethlehem's star. I fancy I hear the dying one exclaiming, 'Oh, Jesus, I am a sinner! But it was told me before Thy birth that Thou, even Thou, wouldst save Thy people from their sins.' I have sought to depict the holy joy awakened by the answer, coming in the familiar words of Scripture, from the lips of the Lamb of God—'I have found a ransom!'"
Seyton. The exclamation of Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," might be changed by Joseph to "He liveth—He standeth beside me: it is His hand that supports my head! Yea, though my heart and flesh faileth, His love shall be my portion for ever!"
Percival. And so with the star-like hope above him, and the peace of God filling his soul, the poor carpenter is sinking to rest. And Christ will weep the natural tears of human love, and will mingle His sorrow with that of the widowed Mary; and He will help her to lay out a cold form for burial, comforting His own sad heart with the inspired Word: "I HAVE FOUND A RANSOM." * "I will ransom thee from the power of the grave; I will redeem thee from death. O death, where are thy plagues? O grave, where is thy destruction?" †
* Job xxxiii. 24 † Hosea xiii. 14. R.V.
