John 11:28-32 - Lord, if you had been there

11:28,29

We now come to the events just before the raising of Lazarus. Jesus has not yet reached the tomb itself and has had a private meeting with Martha, He now has a similar meeting with Mary. Martha goes to Mary and tells her that “the teacher is calling for you”. The events in the Bible are told with great economy of words (it is a pity that many a sermon does not follow the same pattern!), part of the reason for this is that writing was difficult, with the “strict word limits” imposed by the materials of the day. On hearing this Mary “rose quickly and went to Him”. We know from the incident in Luke that Mary was keen to learn from Jesus.

11:30-32

Jesus was still outside the village. However, Mary was to be denied a private meeting such as Martha had had. Funerals had professional mourners as part of the proceedings, and those consoling Mary went to follow her. They supposed she was going to the tomb and so felt it their duty to be with her. When she did get to Jesus, Mary’s words were almost identical to those of Martha, “if you had been here my brother would not have died”.