Love, Death, Martha, and Belief – John 11:1-45

A text – John 11:1-45

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

²⁸ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

A reflection:

This is the final miracle reported in the Book of John. John calls them not miracles but signs because they point to attributes of the Kingdom of God – in this case that death has no power in God’s kingdom. There are a thousand things to notice in this story. It is long and filled with details of dialogue and deep emotion. Jesus delays coming to heal Lazarus’s illness, so that when he and the disciples arrive, Lazarus has already been dead four days, the amount of time Jews believed it took the soul to leave the body.

Martha meets Jesus and they exchange several remarks, the last of which is Martha confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. In the Book of John, Simon Peter does not say this. It is a woman, Martha, who makes this confession. And it happens to be the middle sentence in the exact middle of the entire book of John. All the signs lead up to this, and Jesus fate, even his road to death, leads out from this. Then Martha goes to find Mary and sends her out to Jesus, and then both women accompany Jesus, in great distress along with them, to the tomb. Jesus knows he will be next to be placed in a tomb – it will not be long. He experiences here for sure the depth of human grief at losing a beloved friend. And then comes the raising of Lazarus – just two sentences long.

What is the result of this final sign? Many believe in him. And the other result? It is not in this passage but comes a few verses afterward: “So from that moment on they plotted to take his life.” Soon after, the Jewish authorities add a second plot to kill Lazarus as well.

When we think of our Creator God taking human form and living a mortal life with us in this world, how often do we look past the miracles and love to the context in which he found himself? He dealt with 1st century religious and social politics. He worked to peel away layers and layers of legal requirements (not do away with them, but just pull them back a bit), which allowed people to see that what God wants is for us to treat one another with love and respect, all one another – every person – and to live close to God every day. His message, and Martha’s confession, was simple: He, the Son of God, had come into the world so that we could know God better, see God better, not hidden behind the 613 Jewish laws that had to be obeyed. Jesus brought God’s never-ending love for us right to us. Despite danger and threat and exhaustion and even death. What a Messiah – bringer of love that conquers death.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for Jesus’s journey among us ridiculous humans. Thank you for your unfailing love of us in the face of everything being stupidly complicated. Help us to remember that your love of us will break death for us and for everyone who realizes who you are. Amen.