Have You Lost a Loved One?

Believing in Jesus is not a rule in the sense that God arbitrarily plops it down and says, “do it or you will die.” Don’t think of it that way. Rather, be open-minded and look at it this way, at least for a moment or two: the instruction to believe in Jesus is like a how-to technical instruction on what we must do in order to live. Believing in Jesus and Jesus alone is the substance that is life, and life eternal.

You’ve no doubt heard the saying, you have to eat to live. Well, when you believe in Jesus, you live forever.

In John 11:25 Jesus is responding to Martha. Martha and Mary’s brother Lazarus, a dear friend of Jesus’, died because, according to Mary, Jesus did not arrive soon enough when he was called to heal her brother. Clearly, Martha’s sadness cuts deeply. She is hurt. She is shaken. She is probably angry. Have you ever lost someone you love? Have you ever hurt so much, and were so scared by what seems to be the immediate uprooting of your belief in life and the truths that you hold dear? Everything seems broken, all torn away, stripped from you, because of this deep pain that the apparent reality of death shouts into your soul?

I sense Martha even harboring some resentment. The object of that resentment is Jesus. Have you ever lost a loved one, and whether you admitted it or not, whether you confronted this feeling or not, deep down, or not so deep down, you resent God for letting them die? Perhaps, you even blame God because they died. Again, it all seems so unfair. Just bring them back to me. NOW!

When people close to you die, people sympathize with you. They cry with you. They mourn with you. They bring you food. They say they will be there for you. It kind of makes you feel better, knowing you are loved and supported, but it does not give you what you really want. What you really want is you want your loved one back. When we are in the shock and throws of losing someone we love to death, we tend to think that ever seeing and or being with that person again is not a reality, regardless of how many times we have had supper with the Lord, served Him, either by cooking and cleaning, bowing down to him, spending intimate time with Him or even watching our friends and loved ones washing his feet.

We know God and we know who He is and what He says. But do we believe Him? Mind you, it’s not a feeling thing, belief isn’t.

Life seems so impossible when death strikes deeply at your heart by stealing your love away like a thief. What right does it have? How is this fair? How is this just? How could a loving God who calls me a son or daughter, who calls me friend, let this happen. It hurts.

Martha, I think, was going through those emotions during this discussion with Jesus.

Notice how Jesus responds. Jesus redirects Martha’s attention away from the apparent circumstances of the moment and toward the clearly less than obvious fact for Martha at that very moment.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying,” Jesus said.

Put yourself in Martha’s shoes for a moment. She just buried her brother. Now, in a state of mourning, Jesus finally shows up. Our Lord isn’t packing any apple pie or Shepherd’s Stew. He doesn’t have any apologies to offer. The first thing he says to her is not how sorry he is Lazarus has died, but rather, “Martha, remember whom it is you are talking to.” I think he is also saying to Martha, “You know how much I love Lazarus, and how much he loves me. We are friends. You know that he knows me, and that he knows this about me. Martha, you know this about me.”

In fact, Martha confirms her own belief in who Jesus is and what that means. She also confesses that she accepts Jesus, His identity and His word.

But, Martha’s confirmation comes in John 11:27, but only after verse 26.

In verse 26, Jesus says something I find both startling and revealing to Martha, especially in light of what he just said verse 26.

“Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

We already know Martha said she did believe.

“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” (John 11:27)

My question is how? What did the breath, the inspired spirit, behind Jesus’ words convey in that moment to Martha that in words only printed on paper or a computer screen appears to be a contradiction?

In verse 25, Jesus says clearly “anyone who believes in me . . . will live, even after dying. But, in the very next breath, Jesus says, “Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die.”

Keep in mind, Lazarus, Martha’s brother, lies in a tomb just across the way. Her response to this was to turn and call her sister Mary, who I am pretty sure was in a similar state to the one Jesus found Martha in upon his arrival. Grief and mourning.

Could it be that Martha wants Mary to confront the Lord honestly just as she just did so that her faith could be restored, built back up and/or fortified, too?

What we do know happened next from the scripture is that Jesus proceeds to call Lazarus, dead four days, out from his tomb in the witness of a whole town. As if awakening him, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But first he began with a prayer to God the Father stating His belief in God’s hearing his prayer saying he was saying the prayer out loud so all the people around him could hear, and then he called to Lazarus.

Lazarus heard Jesus and came out of the tomb.

Everyone – Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus – believed. And there was life.

Do you believe this?

Editor