Pages

Sunday 25 January 2009

John 11:28-37

Jesus told Martha to go and fetch Mary. Jesus was seeking her out in her grief. In the midst of grief we can become so overwhelmed by the situation, but Jesus actively seeks us out in such situations. On hearing Martha's message Mary ran out to find Jesus.

Mary kneels down before Jesus. Like Martha, she reproaches Jesus for not being there to heal Lazarus. It then says that Jesus was greatly disturbed when he saw Mary weeping along with the Jews who were with her. Now apparently the Greek word used here can mean He was angry, or He was deeply moved with compassion. Kruse takes the line that Jesus was angry because of the lack of faith. Now I am not a Greek scholar, but with that caveat, I must say I find that interpretation highly unlikely, and I think it much more likely that Jesus was genuinely moved with compassion. This seems to fit much better with the passage. Moreover, Paul tells us to mourn with those who mourn. So what follows is based on that interpretation.

Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead in short while, yet He was still upset and mourned along with Mary and Martha. Now there are some pains that we go through that are totally unnecessary, anxiety is one of them (Matthew 6:25-34). But at other times very serious thinks happen. Now in the end Jesus will sort everything out. Here He was going to raise Lazarus very soon. In all things, at the last day every tear will be wiped away, but this does not mean that Jesus does not empathise with us now. The fact that God knows what He is going to do about a situation, does not mean that He does not care about the pain we may be experiencing in the meantime.

No comments:

Post a Comment