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February 5, 2025 |
| What Martha Said | ||
This study deals with the conversation that Martha had with Jesus after the death of Lazarus. She says something to him that is especially interesting to us, but the whole conversation has a lot of value in it.
The Bible shows us the Sadducees didn't believe in a resurrection, but what did the normal Jew on the street believe? The key verse in this study comes from John 11:24, where Martha says to Jesus, "I know that Lazarus shall rise in the resurrection in the last day."
These words come as part of this conversation she's having with Jesus. We are going to dig into what they say and what they mean by what they say.
We'll see that she is correct in what she says, but there is a problem with how she says it.
If you think that you've never heard this verse before, or you don't remember Martha ever talking about a resurrection, there's a reason. It never gets preached in any churches, and there's a reason for that. It conflicts with the majority church view that people go to Heaven when they die.
I'm going to show the whole conversation first, and then we'll break it down.
And Martha said to Yeshua, "My Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that as much as you ask God, he gives to you."
23 Yeshua said to her, "Your brother shall arise."
24 Martha said to him, "I know that he shall rise in the resurrection in the last day."
25 Yeshua said to her, "I Am (the living God) the Resurrection and the Life; whoever trusts in me, even if he dies, he shall live." 26 And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
27 And she said to him, "Yes, my Lord, I do believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, who has come into the world." (John 11:21-27)
It isn't a long conversation, but there are plenty of things going on. Jesus is going to teach Martha three things. The first one involves the entire context, so we'll deal with it now before we break it down.
I've highlighted the places where the words "I know" and "believe" appear so you can see something. Martha says, "I know," and "I know." That seems to concern Jesus, because he starts saying "trust" and "believe." Then Martha uses the word "believe."
The message is that Martha does not know that Lazarus will be in the resurrection. She can't possibly know that for sure. It is overconfident and arrogant for her to say she knows such a thing. She is not the judge, and judgment day has not come.
What we have heard about such things comes from God, and Satan's minions have had their say as well. All we can say is that we believe in Jesus, and therefore we believe what he said. We don't know any of these things as facts, as things we have witnessed for ourselves.
That is a distinction that isn't made in Christianity. Many people become overconfident and claim to know things, and forget that everything is by faith, and thereby we believe but do not know.
The Old Testament says:
Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
Instead of the word "lean," some translations say "depend," or "rely," which mean the same thing and may be clearer.
Our passage begins with Martha speaking. She has a question that she would like to ask Jesus, but it wouldn't be proper to do so. Instead, she's going to hint at it.
And Martha said to Yeshua, "My Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that as much as you ask God, he gives to you."
23 Yeshua said to her, "Your brother shall arise." (John 11:21-23)
With "if you had been here," she is putting a little guilt on him. Why weren't you here? You should have been here. Lazarus was a close friend of yours; you could have gotten here sooner.
Martha knows, in that overconfident way, that Jesus would have healed Lazarus if he had been there. She doesn't know what God is up to.
Martha has great confidence in what God can do through Jesus. Perhaps she has seen him raise someone from the dead.
When Martha says "died," she shows that she believes people are only bodies. So the condition of Lazarus is dead. It was commonly believed then that nothing survived death, despite multiple references in the Old Testament that indicate something survives in Sheol. Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees believed that the body would rot away and be gone, and the person would cease to exist. Even now, there are people who believe that. The Sadducees had taken it a step further by saying there was no resurrection of the dead. Jesus corrected them on that.
So her idea of resurrection, and that of the Pharisees, has the old body being restored to life.
She also says, "even now," which means, even in this desperate condition he's in, where his body is rotting away, he can still be raised up.
She also says, "as much as you ask," meaning Jesus only needs to ask, and God will give. She is hinting for Jesus to ask for Lazarus to be brought back to life."
She is wrong about Jesus asking. Jesus would never ask God to do something that he didn't know God already wanted him to do. We are supposed to be in that same model, where we would only ever ask the Father to do the things that we know the Father would do for us. We're not so good at that. Jesus was much better at that.
Jesus says Lazarus will come back to life. Hw must have said this with a "don't worry" tone because she thinks he refers to the future resurrection of God's people. He doesn't say the words that she wants to hear. He doesn’t say he will request Lazarus be raised now, which is what Martha has been hinting at.
Martha said to him, "I know that he shall rise in the resurrection in the last day."
25 Yeshua said to her, "I Am (the living God) the Resurrection and the Life; whoever trusts in me, even if he dies, he shall live." 26 And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:24-26)
Martha says that she knows, in that overconfident way, about the last day resurrection, "I know that … (but)" she wants more.
Martha has said "I know" twice now, and Jesus says "trust" and "believe." I talked about this at the start.
Instead of responding to this push she gives him, Jesus says something really mysterious here.
First, Jesus talks about who he is, beginning with, "I Am." This is the form of "I Am" that was reserved for God and kings. No ordinary person would dare be so arrogant as to use that form of "I Am." So he begins with a claim to being God.
Second, he says he is "the resurrection" and the "life." This is difficult for us to understand because we would say it differently in English. Jesus said things like this about himself quite often, for example, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
He means that he is the source and the cause of these things. When he says I am the resurrection that means "I am the source of the resurrection" and "I am the cause of the resurrection." I am the one who will be making it happen and also the source of the life that comes after the resurrection.
Martha knows there will be a resurrection. Now Jesus tells her who makes it happen and where it comes from. Therefore, he is also the authority on the topic.
This is leading towards a correction that he's going to give her. She doesn't fully understand what she thinks she knows all about.
I've trimmed the verses above down to the bare bones here.
whoever trusts in me, even if he dies, he shall live. 26 And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)
Jesus is doing something complicated here. I can't imagine that it was possible for her to understand all of what he meant in these verses just by hearing them. I think she would have had to think about it more later on.
He's using the words "live" and "die," but he's really talking about resurrection and life. He uses the word "die" in the two places I've highlighted, but he uses a different meaning for each one.
In the first case, he says, "if he dies, he shall live," where "die" means dying of the body. So he means, "If a believer dies bodily, he will live again at the resurrection." This is how Martha understands death and resurrection. If you've died in the body, you will again live in a body.
In the second case, he says, "if he lives and believes, he will never die," where "Die" means cease to exist as Martha understands death. Jesus is telling her that a person, like Martha, who believes, will never die.
Jesus has said that a believer both dies and never dies, which appears to be a contradiction. Jesus doesn't help her resolve the contradiction, but we know the answer is that a man has a body that dies and is a spirit that never dies, in the sense of non-existence.
When she figures out how to resolve that contradiction, Martha will understand that Lazarus was not dead in the way she understood. Yes, his body was dead, but his spirit was alive. This is the correction he has for her.
She may also be able to understand that, when Jesus says "he who lives and believes […] will never die," he is saying there is eternal life. And when he says life, he doesn't only mean being alive forever but also having the fullness of life. The opposite of life is not death.
What Jesus says here is not really different from what he said to the Sadducees when they talked with him about the resurrection. In that case, he said Abraham, Issac, and Jacob were still alive. Here he says that believers never die.
And she said to him, "Yes, my Lord, I do believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, who has come into the world." (John 11:27)
As I mentioned before, I don't believe she fully understands what Jesus just said. I couldn't, and I don't know anyone who could. Unless Jesus is "opening her eyes" to understand what he just said, she'll have to think about it.
I think we have evidence that she doesn't understand it all. Jesus told her that complicated "die, never die" thing, and then asked her, "Do you believe this?" Here, she says, "I believe you are the Messiah." That isn't an answer to Jesus' question. What I think she means is, "I know who you are and believe in your word, but I need to think about what you said because that was complicated stuff.
Martha said to him, "I know that he shall rise in the resurrection in the last day." (John 11:24)
Martha's words show that she understands some things:
Martha’s hope is in the resurrection. She does not believe Lazarus went to Heaven, nor does Jesus tell her that.