jesus. lord, do you not care that my sister s left me to serve alone? instead of getting in her own sister s face, she gets in jesus s face and says, you tell her. and jesus s response is unexpected. martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. one thing is necessary, mary has chosen the good portion to not be taken away from her. the story is about priorities. even a woman has a right to prioritize, learning from me over reparing a meal. in john s gospel, martha and mary have a brother. lazarus. we don t know too much about lazarus, but there are some clues in the gospels.
on the outskirts of jerusalem, derived from greek, laz aryan, the place of lazarus. and it s believed to be the site where jesus raised his friend from the dead. the tradition tieing lazarus to this spot is strong. and it s not only a christian tradition, the muslim faith also venerates lazarus as having been here on this place. there is a record of worship here since the fourth century. today, the tomb believed to be that of lazarus is 33 feet underground. this chamber is actually built in a much later date after jesus, but it s built over this small place here, which is actually carved out of the bedrock. this is understood by tradition to be the tomb of lazarus. you in keeping with tradition, martha and mary prepare their
it must have been painful to delay and wait for god s answer and prayer that this was the time to do this. our friend, lazarus, has fallen asleep, but i am going there to awaken him. lord, he s fallen asleep. he ll be all right. lazarus is dead. jesus has a real sense of destiny in john s gospel. there s no way that he is going to allow even the most important requests from his close friends to interfere with the destiny with that path that god set before him. finally. jesus heads to bethany. and the home of lazarus, mary, and martha.
was in jerusalem. according to to the gospels, jesus is a regular visitor to bethany. jesus! you re here. come and sit. you must be tired. jesus has a very special bond with martha and mary. it s a very intimate relationship. he s going to visit people that he trusts. and people that trust him too. martha and mary are sort of like ying and yang. like many sisters. one introspective, one outgoing. i think they compromise the totality of ways of interacting with jesus. mary plays the passive role where she sits at jesus feet and listens. and martha plays the active role. ministering to people who come through in the household to hear
miracle can save their brother. is it surprising that when we meet lazarus, he is defined by his sickness. it shouldn t be. all throughout the gospels, we see jesus as a healer. mary and martha send out an urgent communique to jesus, the one whom you love is desperately ill. get yourself down here as quickly as you can possibly do it. you might be able to prevent this. jesus is far from bethany. beyond the jordan river. it does seem that mary and martha know where jesus and the disciples are, and how to get in contact with them.