Tag Archive | Mary & Martha

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 302

Oct29

Day 302 – Reading – John 11

Read and believe in Jesus!

John 11.

THIS Lazarus (brother to Martha & Mary) is not the same as the poor beggar, Lazarus, who sat begging at the rich man’s gate, died, and went to Abraham’s side, in yesterday’s reading.  This man is probably the youngest of the three siblings in a semi-wealthy family. Not rich by any means, but owning a house that could accommodate Jesus and His disciples. 

The Setting:  Jesus and His disciples are way North-East of the Holy City, on the other side of the Jordan River. Jesus had barely escaped being stoned to death for blasphemy in Jerusalem by the Jews. He was well aware of the events that must occur before Passover and His death, and He adjusted His ways.  He later referenced this when He said that the daylight was only for twelve hours each day, and He must “work” while it was light, before the darkness came.

Anyway, while there, a message comes to Him from Martha and Mary. “Lord, he whom You love is ill.” There was no demand for Him to come, although it was probably in their hearts.  Just a statement of need.

(Why aren’t our prayers so simple?  Why do we usually try to plan out all the ways God could answer our desperate needs?)

Jesus immediately tells his disciples that Lazarus’ illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, and so the Son may also be glorified through it. They rest at ease.  Jesus loved this family, but He deliberately stayed two more days where he was.  The disciples didn’t question Him.

Finally, another message arrives saying, “Lazarus is dead.” 

Without sharing that news with His men, Jesus announces, “Let us go to Judea again.”  This confounded them.  If He didn’t go when His friend was sick, why was He going now?  It was dangerous there.  He was a “wanted man.” 

“Rabbi!’ they cried. “The jews were just now seeking to stone you, and you are going there again?”

“Our friend, Lazarus, has ‘fallen asleep,’  but I go to ‘awaken him.’“

“Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover!” they cry.

“Lazarus is dead,” Jesus said plainly. “And for YOUR sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.  Let us go to him.”

Thomas, that melancholy disciple, looked around at his fellows and said with a sigh, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

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By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany (only 2 miles from Jerusalem), Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was near, she went out to meet him.  “Lord! If You had been here, my brother would not have died!” Then she steadied herself. “But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give you.”

Jesus: “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha: “I know that he will rise again… in the resurrection on the Last Day.”

Jesus: “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, THOUGH HE DIES, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?”

Martha: “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

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After proclaiming that truth, Martha went to Mary and told her privately (for there were many well-wishers around), that “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

Mary rose quickly and went to Him.  When she saw Him, she fell at His feet. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  (Surely the sisters had been saying that to each other for days.)

Jesus spoke to Mary much differently than to Martha.  He responded not in an intellectual way, as with Martha, but purely emotionally, like Mary herself.  He was greatly “moved” in His spirit, and wept with her.  “Where have you laid him?” He asked.  “Lord, come and see.”  

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Jesus was totally overwhelmed again when He arrived at the tomb with Mary.  Martha had gone there earlier. 

Jesus: “Take away the stone.”  (The tomb was a cave with a large stone rolled over the opening.) 

Martha: “Lord, by this time there will be a death odor, for he has been dead FOUR days.”

Jesus: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

Martha stared at Him a moment, and then commanded that they take away the stone covering the tomb’s entrance.

Jesus looked to heaven and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Then, He shouted ……. “Lazarus, come out!”

Breathless silence, then…..

The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. (a living mummy)

“Unbind him, and let him go,” Jesus said.

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Many of the Jews who had come to comfort Mary and Martha SAW what Jesus did, and believed in Him.  However, (HOW CAN THIS BE TRUE???) some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

The chief priests and Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “WHAT are we TO DO?  This man performs many signs. If we let Him go on like this … everyone will believe in Him…. and then the Romans will come and take away both our place, and our nation!”

Caiaphas, the high priest that year, coolly responded, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that …. it is better for you that ONE MAN should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”

(He didn’t realize that, as high priest, he was prophesying for God, that Jesus would die, not only for the nation of Israel, but to gather into ONE the children of God who are scattered abroad.)

And so, from that day on, they made plans to put Jesus to death.

Jesus, fully aware of His approaching trial and death, went with His men, about 12 miles north of Jerusalem, to a town near the wilderness, until it was time for His triumphal entry into the Holy City as the Messiah.

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Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, people were looking for and talking about Jesus. “What do you think? Will He not come to the festival at all?”

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2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 298

Oct25

  Day 298—We are in the TENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

    Day 298 – Luke 10 (the 72 sent out, unrepentant cities, good Samaritan, Mary & Martha)

Jesus now sends 72 of his followers, two-by-two, to “every town where He was soon to go.”  He tells them to enter a town and establish one house to stay in. They then are to give the message, “The kingdom of God has come near to you,” to the whole village and confirm it by healing the sick. 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. Therefore, PRAY earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” 

Jesus also tells them to take no extra provisions but “live by faith.” And any town that does not receive them they are to shake off its dust from their feet and go to the next.  “It will be more bearable on “that day” for Sodom than for that town.”  Indeed, Jesus says that it will be more bearable in the judgment for Sodom and Tyre than for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because it was in THESE towns that the Son of Man had ministered and taught in person. 

Sometime later, the 72 return with joy.  “Wow, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!”  Jesus tells them He saw their leader, Satan, fall from heaven.  This was either to encourage them that the devil and his demons have already been defeated OR to warn them against pride in their efforts against them…the very thing that made Satan fall. 

Jesus then rejoices in the Holy Spirit and thanks His Father for revealing the truth to His disciples.  “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” He tells them. “For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it!”

A scribe/lawyer approaches Jesus with the thought of testing Him: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life.”

“What is written in the law?” Jesus asks, right back at him.

The scribe responds by summarizing the law in Leviticus 19:18:  “Love God supremely, and your neighbor as yourself.”

“Do that and live, says Jesus.

“Yeah, but WHO IS my neighbor?” the man says, seeking to justify himself.

Jesus tells him the story of the “Good Samaritan.”   It’s about a man traveling through a very rough wilderness territory from Jerusalem to Jericho. A gang of robbers attack, strip him, and beat him up, leaving him naked and half dead.  First, a priest chances along, sees the injured man, and passes by on the other side of the road. (It’s too much trouble to help, and he might get “unclean” touching him.)  The same thing happens when a Levite (a temple worker) comes by.

Finally, a Samaritan… (Surely the lawyer objects to hearing this!!) …sees the man and has compassion for him. He binds up his wounds, pouring on his own oil and wine to cleanse them. He sets the fellow on his own donkey and takes him to an inn.  He pays for several night’s and promises to pay more if needed when he returns. 

“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the injured man?”  Jesus askes the lawyer.

“The one who showed him mercy,” he answers grudgingly.

Yep. “You go, and do likewise.”

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Later, they entered Bethany and the house where Mary and Martha (and their brother Lazarus) lived. Martha welcomed them and set about preparing lodging and a meal.  Mary, meanwhile, sat down at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him teaching. Out in the kitchen, Martha fumed.  ‘Why is she just sitting there?  I need some help!’  Finally, she went to Jesus.

“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Tell her to help me!”

Jesus looked up at the hard-working woman and said with tenderness, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen that, and I won’t take it from her.”

(NOTE: When I read this, I always wonder if Martha then pulled up a stool to sit by Mary, looking to Jesus for the “spiritual food” her sister was feasting upon. )

 

 

 

God’s Perfect Timing

Feb4

My Bible reading today was John 11:1-55, on Martha, Mary and their baby brother Lazarus.  It’s a picture of God’s Perfect Timing, among a lot of other things. If you are like me, you are impatient when God doesn’t move when and how you expect or desire Him too. Always it is for our own good when things don’t work out to our liking. God’s ways are so much higher and better than ours! If we will just trust him quietly we would see. But, no… that’s not in our nature. Well, not in mine.

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Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” (11:1-3)

mary-martha-lazarus-1104310-galleryThe sisters sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was REALLY sick. (It was just a statement, but it went with the unspoken assumption that Jesus would come quickly and heal him “before it was too late.”)

Jesus did not come.

In fact He waited two more days after receiving their message before announcing to His disciples that Lazarus was dead. It took a few more days to head back and finally arrive. By that time, the brother had been the grave four days and had begun to rot. (stink)

MARTHA (going out to meet Him): “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”

MARY (falling at His feet, weeping): “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”

RELATIVES & NEIGHBORS (whispering): “Could not He who opened the eyes of the man born blind also have kept this man from dying?”

If only! Oh, if only He would have come! Things would have been so different! Why did He delay till it was too late?

(Do YOU ever feel that way? I do. That if Jesus was HERE RIGHT NOW, my illness would be cured? If He was here, He could just say the word, lay hands on me, or let power flow from his robe when I reached to touch its hem…. But He didn’t come when I prayed. He was silent. My situation got worse. I wasn’t healed.)

Jesus was deeply moved and troubled in His spirit.  Seeing the grief and pain and unbelief and death that the wiles of the devil had caused to His creation through deception and sin, Jesus wept angrily.

“Where is he buried?” He demanded.

“Roll back the stone!” He commanded

“Father, I ask this so that the people around may believe that YOU sent me (to bring life and resurrection power over sin and death).” He prayed as He looked to heaven.

“LAZARUS, COME OUT!”  He shouted.

It was a shout of victory over sin and death, much like his own cry from the cross, “IT IS FINISHED!”

And… “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (11:44)

Three days after His crucifixion and burial, Jesus also would rise from the dead, though the grave clothes would not cling to Him.

“Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:22-24)

“I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus said to Martha and now to us. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” (11:25-26)

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

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And so….. because of the delay of a few days (so misunderstood and maligned by the sisters) a greater miracle brought glory to Christ and to the Father, and many believed. It was a crescendo of God’s power displayed, to remind them, and all of us, and perhaps even Jesus, of that ultimate miracle which would take place on Resurrection morning.

If you are desperately praying for God’s intervention right now. If you can see no way out. If it is almost too late. Remember this story.  God sees and knows exactly your circumstances. His plan for you is good. Trust Him. He is totally trustworthy.