After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ”The Teacher is here,” she said, ”and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ”Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
We have heard Martha’s statement of faith, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Now we are hearing Mary’s statement of faith. Mary firmly believes that if Jesus had seen her brother dying he could have stopped it from happening. Jesus would have been able to heal her brother and make everything okay again. Her words are, to my ears, a plaintive cry of lament.
Back in verse 4, we remember what Jesus said when he first heard that Lazarus was sick: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Somehow all of this will glorify God. Yet in between his retreat on the banks of the Jordan and his journey back to Jerusalem, Jesus has stopped in Bethany in the midst of deep and painful sorrow.
Let’s Discuss: Do you see a similarity in this story and the pain these people are going through to the story back in John, chapter 9, where Jesus is asked why a man had to spend his entire life being blind? (Jesus says, “…this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9: 3b)
I think that our God who created our world and inspired the Bible to be written put certain people in it so that we could see that he has the power to do miracles like healing blindness and evening overcoming death
Thanks John!
I agree. I think God inspires our lives, too, if we let Him, and when that happens His power is shown to us in amazing ways as well.
I do see some similarity. It reminds me that God has the long term in mind – the eternal long term.
We easily recognize this with other humans, but sometimes chaff against God doing the same thing. When a doctor tells someone they can’t take more than a certain dosage of a pain medicine or they’ll have horrible side effects later on they are doing something similar. Due to their knowledge they know that while it would remove present pain, in the long term it would hurt them further.
Yes, and I am comforted by a God who both cares for people and has the power to do something about it.
Amen to that! That He cares is amazing. That He is willing to touch us individually is absolutely incredible.