What does Jesus say in the midst of devastation? Who is he really, when the chips are down - not just standing on the hillside or in the city street teaching, but in our lives and in this world? Who is Jesus in the face of death and pain?
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
When faced with the terrible tension occasioned by the apparent failure of the Teacher whom we follow to act in our time of need, there are a variety of possible responses. Mary stays at home, sad for the loss of her brother. Martha goes out to meet Jesus, expressing faith that he could have saved her brother, but probably still feeling the sting as well.
Martha makes a bold statement, though. Even though she believes that Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying and didn't, she still chooses to voice her belief that "even now God will give you whatever you ask." Martha has an idea about who Jesus, an idea which includes wonderful teaching, miraculous healing abilities, and a special connection with God.
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Martha expects words of comfort from the Teacher. When Jesus states that Lazarus will rise again, she hears eschatological philosophy of the sort one would expect from a wandering rabbi/street teacher. She knows that Lazarus will rise with the righteous at the end of this age, but she is still left to deal with the pain of losing a loved one. She may even be grateful for the Teacher's presence and words of comfort in her time of trial, but nothing can take away the pain. She may even be glad to have someone to hold onto in such a disturbing moment in her life, but Martha is still operating within a framework based on who she thinks Jesus is. As he is often wont to, Jesus shakes up that framework a bit:
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
It becomes clear that Jesus' ideas about life and death are different form Martha's. The focus of Martha's understanding of Jesus to this point has been pastoral. Jesus points out that he did not need to be in Bethany any earlier than he was. Lazarus' death is a tragedy, but death is not the final word. Jesus reveals to Martha that death is powerless in the face of the Christ, God's anointed one. Against the Christ, death cannot even hold those whose bodies perish, and those whom it cannot hold will live forever. Like Lazarus, those who die will not be abandoned to the grasp of death forever. Those like Lazarus whom the Christ sets free from the power of death will live forever because the tentacles of death will never be able to claim final mastery over them.
Shortly after their conversation, Jesus literally resurrects Lazarus' body. Martha is at first taken aback that Jesus intends to brave the foul odor emitted by a dead body, but Jesus asks her, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" Jesus reveals himself to be not just a teacher and miracle-worker, but one whose power reaches even to the deepest parts of life - the pain and loss of death and the loneliness of the grave. He reaches down into the grave and defeats death in order to reveal to Martha and her family that through him God provides us with a life which cannot be destroyed. May that life abide in you today and every day.
Blessings,
Greg
(John 11:17-25, NIV)
