Is it not most worthy of note, and full of comfort to all who need comfort, that in this Gospel, and this alone, He is shown to us as a Guest at a wedding, rejoicing with those that rejoice? And is it not equally significant that in this Gospel, and this alone, He is also shown to us as a Weeper at a graveside? The wedding is the beginning of the home life, and may represent its most joyous period; the sealed grave is the close and the breakup of it, the darkest day of all. And the Lord, who came to earth to show to us the Father, was at both. And is there a day between the two when He is absent? No.

There are profound depths of spiritual meaning in these two incidents, and we should certainly seek these, but in doing so, do not let us miss that which lies clear and plain upon the surface. Jesus, who was the Creator, the only begotten Son of God, the revealer of the Father, associated Himself with His own in the joys and sorrows of their home life. Perish the thought that we may only know His presence at the meetings for prayer or worship, that He only connects Himself with what are known as religious services. If this were all, then our religion were artificial and dead, and our Lord useless to us in our trials, and scarcely of more value than the dumb idols of the heathen. But He comes into the home life when He is allowed, comes in all the plenitude of an inexhaustible grace, rejoicing if we rejoice, and Himself becoming the source of a joy that earthly circumstances cannot yield; and standing by us in days of stress and sorrow, to sympathize with and support the heart that looks to Him. How near this brings Him to us; how real it makes Him; how tender and accessible it shows Him to be!