21-22Martha said, "Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you."
23Jesus said, "Your brother will be raised up."
24Martha replied, "I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time."
25-26"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" (The Message)
If you would have, can quickly become, why didn't you Jesus?
Sometimes it doesn't seem like enough to have Jesus with us we want him to fix things. Martha and Mary are caught between being glad to have their friend with them and wishing he would have showed up sooner so that maybe things would have turned out differently. They had seen Jesus do a number of very powerful miracles and they were wondering if he didn't have one for them as well. Could they still believe even when things didn't go the way they had wanted them to? It is a question that many of us are left dealing with in our own lives because even when miracles do a cure they aren't always all we want.
Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:
- What do you think were Martha's first thoughts when she saw Jesus?
- How do you think Martha's faith in Jesus might have been tested by the reality that she was experiencing?
- Have you ever wondered where your miracle was when you have seen the powerful work of God in other places?
- If you focus upon the story prior to Lazarus being raised from the dead what do you relate to in your own life story?
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