Sunday Readings: Ezekiel 37.12-14 Romans 8.8-11 John 11.1-45
Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would never have died. Even now I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask” Jesus replied, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Then Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though they die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha said, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world” (John 11.21-27).
Jesus grieves in Sunday’s gospel with three people he loves. His friends Martha and Mary believe Jesus could have saved their brother Lazarus, but he didn’t come in time. The gospel sets a scene familiar: two sisters stand at their brother’s grave with a friend.
The community that gives us John’s gospel believes Jesus is more than a wonderworker or an apocalyptic figure. In Sunday’s gospel Jesus calls Martha to this deeper faith. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he says. I Am. This is the name of God in the Old Testament. Martha affirms one of the ten I Am statements in John’s gospel, identifying Jesus as the preexistent Word who was with God from the beginning and was God.”
John’s community also sees Jesus as the messiah, the king greater than David that the prophets expected. Martha affirms in her confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the messiah. “Yes, Lord,” she says, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world.”
The raising of Lazarus manifests God’s same life-giving power that raises Jesus himself from the dead and makes the grave a threshold of divine promise for every Christian. Christians are companions in hope that the God who creates and sustains the world will raise us up. We are companions in hope that the new life Jesus promises will be our own.
We live in promise, not certainty. We walk with Jesus, who did not sidestep death but trusted the God he experienced beloving and inspiriting him; he gave himself in human unknowing.
Before what graves have you stood and asked as Martha and Mary do, “Why didn’t you save the one we love?” What answer do you live with?