Fifth Sunday of Lent John 11 1-48

Resurrection of Lazarus

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Raymond

Sent: Sun, 10 April, 2011 16:59:20
Subject: MARTHA AND MARY

HE WANTS TO SEE YOU.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead is perhaps the climax of all Jesus’ healing
miracles.  It comes at the climax of his public life; it is the most
dramatically performed of them all – we might even call it the most theatrical,
with all the crowds gathered round and the sisters in tears and even Jesus
himself weeping and groaning.  Then the command to remove the stone; then the
loud cry: “Lazarus, come forth” and so on.  But for me there has always been one
little detail in that story, a detail I have never understood, yet it always
strikes me as very strange and very significant. Why did Mary stay at home when
Martha ran to meet Jesus?  Why did Jesus have to send Martha back to tell her
that he wanted to see her?

In fact I have always found that if there is anything strange, anything
puzzling, in a passage of Scripture, then there is a meaning hidden there. The
Gospels, like all of the Scriptures, are like a kind of Divine Crossword Puzzle;
full of strange sayings and events that are all really clues to the truths that
God is trying to impress on us.  God knows the human mind and its workings and
he knows that we all love to solve a puzzle. We are all intrigued by a mystery
and like to work out the explanation.  So, although he tells us things clearly
in one place, he puts them obscurely and in a puzzling way in another.  In this
way he draws our attention to focus more strongly on the truth that he wants to
impress on us.  Our Newspapers, for example, in their own way, do exactly the
same thing: they always contain a crossword puzzle.  They know how intriguing
they are and how some people buy the newspaper mainly because they enjoy doing
the crossword-puzzle in it.  So let’s try to work out just why Mary stayed at
home when Martha ran out to meet Jesus.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick he waited for two whole days before
setting off for Bethany.  He knew that Lazarus would die and he knew that Martha
and Mary had trusted that he would come and heal him.
And he knew how disappointed in him they would be; He knew how hard it would be
for them to understand.  But he also knew the depth of their faith and their
trust in him, in spite of all appearances.  He knew that nothing could shake
their certainty of his love for them.
When he did arrive, eventually, four days after Lazarus had been laid in the
tomb, it was Martha, as we have been considering, who ran to meet him.  Mary
stayed on at home.  Why?  We might have thought that Mary, being the
personification of the contemplative soul, the one whose love prompted her to
anoint the Lord’s feet with precious ointment and wipe his feet with her hair;
surely she would be the most eager to run to meet him.  But no, it was Martha
who ran first.  Not that Martha’s first words to Jesus were any different from
those of Mary when she did come: “If you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have
died.”  So we are left with the puzzle: Why did Mary stay at home?
We might understand Mary’s behaviour if we consider her as being the more
contemplative and introvert of the two sisters.  Perhaps therefore, although
she might feel the grief more keenly, yet she was more able to support it and
bear it with her own inner strength.  Martha, on the other hand was more
extrovert; she wore hear heart on her sleeve.  If she was angry she just had to
show it: “Tell my sister to help me instead of just sitting there!”  If she was
heartbroken and uncomprehending she just had to run and tell the Lord.  “If only
you had been here my brother would not have died!”
Surely there is a deep meaning in all this. Surely God has something important
to teach us in this.  In the first Martha-Mary story it is Mary who comes out
tops.  She is the one who chose the better part, but in this story it is Martha
who comes out tops.  The lesson Jesus wants to convey is seen best in Martha
and, as in the first story, it is precisely the contrast between the behaviour
of the two which brings out the lesson.
From this point of view the climax of the story, the punch line of the lesson,
is contained in the words of Jesus to Martha when he tells her to call Mary
because he wants to see her. “Jesus is here and He wants to see you!”, Martha
told her.  From these words Mary learns that no matter how heroic and accepting
she is of Lazarus death, Jesus wants her to understand that it is better for her
to give full human expression to her grief.  She is not an angel, but a human
being of flesh and blood.  There are times when we must wear our hearts on our
sleeves and give full expression to our grief before the Lord.  He doesn’t mind
if we let him know how hurt we are.  It brings us closer to him.  He doesn’t
mind if we complain and ask him why this has to be.
This lovely little story is Jesus’ way of saying to Mary and to us all: “There
are times when you mustn’t hide your feelings from me; no more than you would
hide them from your dearest friend on earth.  Am I not your friend indeed? 
Treat me as such then and tell me just what you feel.”  “Unless you become as
little children………..”.  In the first Martha-Mary story it was Mary who chose the
better part, but in this story it is obviously Martha who chose the better
part.  In the first story it was Mary who best understood the heart of the
Master; in the second story it was Martha who best understood the heart of the
Master.
Let us remember then when our grief is more than we can bear; let us not hide it
in our own hearts like Mary, but let us run like Martha to the Lord and tell him
just how we feel.  Let us wear our hearts on our sleeves.  Let us even be bold
enough to reproach him as Martha did: “If you had been here…..”.  In sending
Martha to tell Mary that he wanted to see her he lets us know that he want to
see all of us come to him with our burdens.