I-AM - the Resurrection

The Death and Resurrection of a Man – Five Sermons

Part 2: “Martha”

(John 11:17-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 28, 2009)

Q: How did Jesus identify Himself to Martha at the death of her brother?

A: Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)

Four days (17-20)

Lazarus was dead. We don’t know what happened to him, but we do know that Jesus had a plan, a plan that involved a delayed return to Bethany. Jesus could have healed His friend Lazarus from wherever He was when He heard the news that Lazarus was ill, but He did not do that. Though His disciples did not understand what He was saying about His plans, it is very clear to us now that He intended to come to Bethany after Lazarus was in the tomb, and to call His friend back to life right from the grave.

When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in that above-ground tomb for four days. Lazarus and his sisters lived about two miles from Jerusalem. We are told this detail so that we will understand the fact that “many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.” This family was apparently well known, so there was a crowd there comforting the family.

Today we are particularly examining the interaction between one of the sisters, Martha, and Jesus. Martha had heard that Jesus was coming, and so she went out to meet Him. Mary stayed in the house. People react to tragedy in their own way, but these two women were different not only in their grief, but in other ways as well. We don’t all have to be the same to be followers of Jesus. In Luke 10, it was Martha who welcomed Jesus into her house. She was working hard, and asked the Lord to tell Mary to help her. Mary was just sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to His teaching. But Jesus said that Mary had made the better choice. In any case, they were different women.

So Martha went out to see Jesus, and it must have been with a heart that was supremely disappointed that she took each step. Surely she had prayed to God about her brother’s illness. She had sought God for the healing that her brother needed. She and Mary had even sent messengers to Jesus to urge him to come. None of this had worked, and she had to wonder why. What went wrong here? Something had gone wrong. Her brother was now four days in the tomb, and she and the others were probably just beginning to come to the realization of what had happened.

If you had been here… (21-23)

It is hard enough for us when we pray to an unseen God with all the faith that we can muster, and He chooses not to grant our request. We must yield to His wisdom and His ways. What else can we do? But Martha was walking out to meet a Man whose face she knew. She had sent for Him with the words, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” The messengers returned with the news of what Jesus had said, “This illness does not lead to death.” They must have assumed that this was an assurance by the Man who was the Christ, the Son of God, the Man who did all kinds of miracles, and who knew all kinds of things that no one else knew, an assurance that their brother would not die.

So Martha asked the obvious question, the question that was on everyone’s mind, the question that Mary would soon ask. To be precise, she did not actually ask a question at all. She made a statement that had an implied question attached to it. She said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The implied question attached to it was this, “Lord Jesus, why did you not come when I sent for help.” This is still our question when something devastating happens to us, and it does not appear that God is going to answer our prayers. We say “Why, Lord?” “If you love me Jesus, if you loved Lazarus, why didn’t you come?”

Martha went on to make a statement of faith. “I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” This fact would not solve every problem. Would not God give Martha whatever she asked from Him? Apparently not. Martha had asked God to give Lazarus healing. Lazarus was dead. It would seem that it was just too late. What could God give now? He could comfort them in their grief. That’s a very good thing. He could help them to get through this tragedy. He could make something good come from their grief. He could help them to move ahead with a new life. Was there something more that Jesus could do and would do? How did He respond to Martha?

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” This is a tremendous comfort. It was in accord with the promises of the Scriptures. But did Jesus mean more than the general resurrection that Daniel spoke of, that resurrection that would take place at the final judgment? Daniel had said that those “who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” This was a great promise, but Martha’s comment to Jesus used the words “even now.” “Even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” God would give Jesus anything that He asked for now. Jesus had responded with the words, “Your brother will rise again.” He couldn’t mean that he would rise again now, could He?

The resurrection (24-26)

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Martha believed in the teaching of the Scriptures. She believed in the resurrection of the dead that would happen at the final day of this age. She believed that a life that just ends in bodily death with nothing beyond that life, could not possible fit with the promises of God (Read Psalm 103:1-3). She believed that there was a day coming when those who are in heaven now would return with the Messiah. She took the comment of Jesus, “Your brother shall rise again,” and she fit this comment into her understanding of life. Whatever resurrection was, and I doubt that she had a real strong understanding of what resurrection was, it would only come at the very end of the age. She did not press this any further. But Jesus would not drop the subject.

He said, “I-AM the resurrection and the life.” What do you believe about the resurrection? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that there really was an empty tomb, and that he really appeared to his disciples and gave many proofs (Acts 1:3) of the reality of his own resurrection? Do you believe that Jesus is the divine I-AM, that He is the source of all being here and in heaven, that He is the resurrection and the life, and that to be in Jesus is to have a secure promise of a blessed eternity? This is what He was plainly placing before Martha that day, as she was surely reeling from the death of her brother. The reason Jesus was going to be able to call Lazarus from the tomb after these four days was because this Jesus is the resurrection, and whoever believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live. Jesus did not deny that our bodies die, but He was insisting to Martha that we still live. It is in this life that He gives to us that the one who believes in him shall never die.

The Lord has revealed Himself to Martha, and then He challenged her with this question: “Do you believe this?” Well, the fact is that we have trouble believing this, and the Lord knows this. He was about to call a man back from the dead in front of a large crowd of witnesses. He set this situation up for His own glory. He delayed His return so that Martha’s brother would already be long dead when He arrived. He would call Him out of the grave, and He would come walking out. That fact would be so undeniable, that those who were against Jesus were going to seek to kill Lazarus, in addition to Jesus, because the obvious resurrection existence of Lazarus was such an embarrassment of truth to them. Does that help you to believe in the resurrection of Jesus?

I believe (27)

Martha did not have the benefit of that particular miracle yet. But even before Jesus called her brother’s name, and said, “Come out,” she professed her faith in Jesus. Jesus was Martha’s Lord. He was Martha’s Christ, the Messiah, the One who represented the many, and Martha knew herself to be part of that many. Martha knew that Jesus was more than a Man, that He was the Son of God. Jesus was the coming One. Martha believed that Jesus had not only come, but that He would come again in connection with this resurrection that the Law and the prophets promised.

There is a resurrection coming at the end of the age, and that resurrection is closely connected to this one Man, the Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God, the coming One. He is the resurrection and the Life. He demonstrated this by calling Martha’s brother out of the grave in front of many witnesses, including some that were very unhappy to see Him alive again, because it made Jesus look so good, and they did not want that. But He had one more demonstration of His power beyond His call to Lazarus. Jesus Himself rose from the dead, and on the strength of that one event, many lives were changed, and the Christian movement was born, and women like Martha believed.

Application: The Perfection of the Object of our Faith and Not the Believer

I say women like Martha believed, but the fact is that all types of women believed. It won’t help you much to focus on Martha or Mary, as if their faith came from their own personality or goodness. You will be able to profess faith and grow in that faith best by keeping your eyes on Jesus, the Resurrection Man, the object of Your faith, and not the believer, whether Martha, Mary, or yourself. Martha was not perfect, and she really did not understand everything. I think that she was afraid to believe that Jesus might take her pain away by giving her brother back to her alive. Like everybody else she did not entirely get what was going on that day. But she believed. She trusted her Savior and not herself, and that was the content of her profession of faith. Martha was not perfect. Jesus is.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What do we know about the death of Lazarus and the four days that followed?

2. Did this death have to take place? Why did this happen? Was it worth it?

3. What are the different things meant by the word resurrection in this chapter?

4. What is it that Martha said that she believed in? What do you believe in?