Today, I am reading and commenting on John 10-11.

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Reading today’s passage I realized that we normally misread Luke 10:38-42 incorrectly as telling us that Mary was a more devout follower of Jesus than was Martha.  I am not going to go back and comment on that, but I realized that Luke does not say that.  In today’s passage it was Martha who went out to meet Jesus when word reached them that He was coming, while Mary remained at home grieving.  Further, while both Martha and Mart greeted Jesus with the same opening statement, Martha added that even after the death of her brother that God will give Jesus whatever He asks of Him.  Mary did not add that qualifier.  Martha, in her grief, reiterated her faith in Jesus.  I don’t want to make too much of this difference since when Mary heard that Jesus was calling for her she immediately rose and went to Him.  

In many ways the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is a microcosm of His disciples dealing with Jesus’ death and resurrection.  When Jesus said that Lazarus would rise again, Martha understood Him to mean the resurrection of all people to face judgement.  Even after Jesus clarified to indicate that He meant now, she didn’t really get it.  We know this because when they got to the grave and Jesus told them to roll away the stone, Martha objected that by now the body would stink.  Which brings me to the reason this event took place.  John recounts this event to dispel the idea that Jesus’ resurrection was just spiritual.  Just as Lazarus rose in the body, so did Jesus physically rise from the dead.

Finally I want to touch on the reaction of the chief priests and Pharisees.  They believed that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, but that did not lead them to believe in Him.  It did not even cause them to question their conclusion that Jesus was a problem to be solved.  They saw that God worked through Jesus, but their faith in God was less than their fear of the Roman government.  They valued their position of power under the Romans more than they valued doing God’s will.  Let us turn towards God rather than towards the government.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.