Welcome back friends!
I am so excited to have you join me this week as I talk
about Christ’s encounter with Mary and Martha after their brother, Lazarus, has
passed away. When we discussed this
story in class, my professor had some enlightening thoughts I had not
considered before, and after pondering on it this past week, I wanted to share a
few of these thoughts with you.
In John 11, we read first about Christ’s encounter with
Martha. Notice how Christ responds with her—He
engages her in conversation:
5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and
her sister, and Lazarus.
20 Then Martha, as soon as she
heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the
house.
21 Then said
Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died.
22 But I know, that even now,
whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
23 Jesus saith
unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
24 Martha
saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day.
25 Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection,
and the life:
he that believeth in
me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:
26 And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this?
27 She saith
unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son
of God, which should come into the world.
These verses are remarkable, especially in that this is one
of the greatest testimonies of Christ.
Martha is often spoken ill of because she was “troubled” about many
things (see Luke 10:41), but she was one of God’s most valiant daughters. Mary too is a valiant daughter of God. Notice in the following verses that her words
to Christ exactly match Martha’s, but Christ’s response changed.
32 Then when Mary was come
where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died.
33 When Jesus
therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he
groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
34 And said,
Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
35 Jesus wept.
In the first encounter with Martha, Christ spoke with her, because that is what she
needed to heal; she needed to talk through her grief. With Mary, when she saw Christ, she fell to
the ground weeping, and Christ wept
with her because she needed to have Him empathize with her pain.
I love these verses because they show us the Master as the
perfect exemplar, mourning with those that mourn, and comforting those that
stand in need of comfort, each in their own individual need and way. I know that Christ too will comfort us in our
trials. He knows how to best succor us
because He knows what we need and exactly how we feel. That is the miracle of the Atonement. It is retrospective and universal, but it is
also very individual. So, in whatever
trial you are going through right now, know that the Savior cares very deeply
about you and your needs. He loves
you. Stay strong friends, and keep
journeying on, knowing that you can turn to Christ in every moment of need.
Until next week,
Brianna
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