Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
This was most likely true. If Jesus had been there Lazarus would have been healed, a minor miracle performed, and a tragedy averted. But something greater would have been lost. Jesus' delay may have seemed inscrutable, but it was intentional. He told his disciples, "I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe" (see John 11:15).
We can imagine how our own responses would be in a similar situation. Most likely we would suggest to Jesus that he could help us develop our faith some other times and without such traumatic events. Couldn't he keep our lives smooth and comfortable and still get us to the place of belief he desired? Or is there something in us, our perception of value and importance, that is only online and functioning when, as it were, life is truly on the line? Maybe Jesus sometimes allows us to face difficult situations so that our abstract and theoretical faith in him can become a concrete choice. This is what seemed to happen to Martha. She wasn't happy or satisfied that Lazarus had died. But she was still able to continue with "even now I know". And maybe there are situations that our own faith can't penetrate until such even now eventualities. Naturally we pray for our good and the good of all of our loved ones. But we are meant to recognize that God can bring good even from the most difficult of circumstances. We have to learn that Jesus himself is a greater good than life. And he will do what he needs to do and allow what he needs to allow to bring us to that place.
Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise."
Martha said to him,
"I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day."
Martha may have thought Jesus was trying to comfort her with a fact about something that would happen at the end of the age, as though someone were to say to one of us that we would see a lost loved one again in heaven. Had Jesus been saying only that he might only have been a compassionate healer. But he was more. He possessed a centrality that was only evident precisely because Lazarus had died. The whole cosmic eventuality of the resurrection was not merely a reality distant and far removed. It was a reality that was present in Jesus himself. In some way, Jesus himself was the end of history. And he could bring the power of that resurrection to bear precisely in the "even now" of the most difficult of circumstances.
Jesus told her,
"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
The resurrection was not merely some indifferent and impersonal reality reserved for the end of time. Many Jews of the time had an expectation of such a reality. And perhaps the messiah they imagined would have been closely associated with it as the one who announced it and brought the present age of history to a close. But it was shocking to hear that Jesus himself was the one who would give life to the dead, and that the eternal destiny of all people would be based on whether they chose to put their faith in him.
Belief in Jesus would result in a resurrection to life. And that resurrection was something even greater than what he was about to do for Lazarus. On that day those who lived and believed in Jesus would never die again. He was not only the way and the truth, but also the life. Only he was victorious over death, his life revealed to be indestructible (see Hebrews 7:16), as it was impossible for death to have any power over him (see Acts 2:24). But this life that was his alone he desired to share, giving it to those who believed in him through the faith they possessed.
Even before Lazarus was raised Martha learned a greater lesson than one about a man who was dead returning to life for another few years or decades. She learned the true identity of her friend Jesus, coming to believe that he was "the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world".
Although Martha came to believe that Jesus was the Son of God before Lazarus was raised Jesus did not for that reason decide his reason for coming was not so important after all and leave Lazarus in the grave. Lazarus was his own friend and it had saddened him to let him die. It was true that what he could offer to these friends of his was not yet true eternal life, but he could give them more years of joy together. And, the lesson having been taught and understood, he was free to do so.
Jesus had told them that if they believed they would see the glory of God. This was clearly not meant only to refer to some future time. Rather even then and in that place Jesus decided to show his glory. He was the one who would give life at the end of time. But he longed to discover faith where he could bring that life to bear even then and there. He found it and Mary and Martha. May he find it in us as well.
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