seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 11:17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 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.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 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.
32 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.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then 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?”
Oh what a sad, sad, sad set of verses. I have a couple of verses to point out. First... if you are required to memorize a verse out of the Bible.... you can say John 11:35 "Jesus wept". You won't be granted the most scholarly in the group, but someone will smile. They smile because it's the quickest easiest verse to remember. Then again, they may be smiling in a sarcastic way too! Pick your group carefully, you don't want anyone saying you are a lazy Christian.
Now, on to the meat. It says here that Bethany is just a couple miles outside of Jerusalem. I gotta say, I don't understand why someone didn't ask Jesus if the walk was too long for him. I mean, it's two miles... I walk a mile almost every morning. I know Jesus and the disciples walked two miles in less than an hour. So, Jesus wasn't traveling to Bethany for three days.... He was only a couple miles away! The other mourners had already moved in. So, He definitely chose to let Lazarus get stinky.
Martha, well she's always been the one who was handling the details. It doesn't surprise me at all that Martha was the one who talked about "the last day". It doesn't surprise me that she was the one who went to Jesus first. Maybe she needed the explanation before Mary caused all the emotions.
Mary, the one who washed Jesus' feet with her own hair, sounds as if she was accusing Jesus of letting her down. Yep He did. He could have walked the two miles to their home as soon as He found out. But He let her brother die.... and get stinky.
Now a point has to be made about verse 24. Martha says, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
People believed in the Resurrection. Pharisees believed in Heaven. Sadducees did not believe in Heaven. The followers of Jesus definitely believed in Heaven. Martha knew she would see Lazarus. Just as I know I will see some people when I get there too. So when Martha said "Oh I know he will rise" she was responding as the average person..... she had no clue what Jesus was about to do. I'll bet if you asked her... she would say she thought she would live a long time missing him before she saw her brother again.
I bet if this had happened yesterday.... Verse 36 & 37 might have been uttered sarcastically, like "Oh so NOW He cries... where was He three days ago when He could have done something about it."
I bet if there had been social media in those days, the reviews would have been sadness mixed with anger.
I think it's sad the human, Lazarus, and his sisters had to go through this.
Jesus had to let His friends suffer.
