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Gospel: Jn. 11. 1-45
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There was once an elderly couple married for seventy years. One day, the wife died and went to heaven.
Some years later, the husband died and was greeted by his wife at the pearly gates. She led him in and showed him all around – the flowing fountains, the golf course, the sun that never set.
In the middle of the tour, she stopped, overhearing her husband grumbling. “What are you complaining about?” she said.
“If it had not been for that darn oatmeal,” he said, “I could’ve been here years ago!”
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Heaven.
We all want to reach those pearly gates… Just not yet.
Mary and Martha know the feeling.
In today’s Gospel, their brother Lazarus is deathly ill. So, they do the only thing they can to save him – they call upon Jesus, the miracle worker, who “loves” them dearly.
Then they sit and wait.
Although we know how this Gospel passage ends – Lazarus is brought back to life – consider the gut-wrenching roller coaster this family endured before Jesus decided to act.
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First, there was the sense of helplessness that Mary and Martha felt watching Lazarus suffer. After calling upon the Lord, they waited patiently, but to no avail.
Lazarus dies before Jesus arrives.
Even after Lazarus dies, Mary and Martha wait another four days before Jesus shows up. What makes this so hard is the fact that Jesus knew Lazarus was sick, but did nothing about it. So, when she sees him, Martha runs up to Jesus, falls at his feet, and says tearfully:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
What a heart-crushing testament of faith. “Lord, if you had been here.”
The faith of these sisters is amplified a few verses later when Mary runs out and says the same thing: “Lord, if you had been here.”
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When Jesus sees their sobbing, he becomes “perturbed and deeply troubled.”
This word, “perturbed,” literally means to be, “angry within yourself.”
What was Jesus “angry” about?
While the Gospel does not tell us, we can imagine what might’ve weighed on his heart.
Perhaps Jesus was “angry” at death for stealing his friend, Lazarus. Maybe he was struck with emotion deep within himself, knowing that he will die next.
Or maybe he was “angry” about the lack of faith present among the mourners.
While Mary and Martha expressed their faith in the Lord’s power to heal physically, their words also reveal the limit of their faith. “Lord, if you had been here,” implies that Jesus can do nothing now; Lazarus is dead.
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In a dramatic escalation, Jesus commands the bystanders to take away the stone. Martha’s doubt intensifies as she warns Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”
Undeterred, Jesus exclaims, “Lazarus, come out!”
Suddenly, he wiggles his way to the tomb’s entrance, still covered in dusty burial cloths.
Finally, the Gospel states, “Many began to believe in him.”
***
It’s hard to imagine the emotional roller coaster these siblings – Mary, Martha, and Lazarus – just endured. First, Lazarus is sick. Then they wait. Then Lazarus dies. Four days later, Jesus shows up.
While he could’ve healed Lazarus while he was ill, Jesus waited and let his friend die because he knew that this experience of having Lazarus brought back to life would increase their faith, which will be of paramount importance as they approach the Cross on Good Friday.
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So many of us have felt like Mary and Martha. We’ve stood at the graveside weeping, saying, “Lord, if you had been here.”
But the Lord reminds us today, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me – even if he dies – will live forever.”
As we approach Good Friday, may we remember what happens to Lazarus today and prepare our hearts for what will come – the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.
And eventually our own.
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Image credits: (1) Pastor Mike, Road to Life church (2) Quora (3) The Gospel Coalition