As we approach Easter, I cannot stop thinking about what Martha teaches all of us who have ever fallen to our knees and begged on behalf of someone we love. We learn what it is to bring a need to the Lord, to wait on his timing, to trust in his perfect provision according to his will. The story is so rich and so full of nuance.
When Lazarus falls ill, his sisters send a message to Jesus telling him that there is a need. They don’t specifically ask Jesus to come and heal Lazarus. They aren’t compelled to tell him how to solve the problem; it was enough to simply tell Jesus what the problem was and to trust him to take it from there.
In his account of this story, St. John reminds us Jesus loved these sisters. Still, he delays leaving to go to them and Lazarus dies. This delay is confusing to the disciples and to Martha. We know how the story ends, so we can see clearly that this test of their faith as they wait for him and suffer great sorrow was not a denial of his love. Three times in the Gospel of St. John, someone dear tasks something of Jesus and he responds the same way. He refuses to grant their request initially, and then he does. He shows them that he does things according to the timing and will of God, not man. Martha learns — and teaches us — that his delays are not denials. They are opportunities to practice the patience necessary to bring greater glory to God.
When he finally does arrive, Martha goes out to greet him. She honestly expresses her disappointment in Jesus’ late arrival, and she says that she believed that Jesus was able to heal her brother before he died. Then she expresses her hope and affirms her faith, even in the face of tremendous sorrow. She says, “Whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Her conversation with God is not a long list of things she wants him to do. She hasn’t scripted the perfect miracle for him. There is just quiet assurance that he is God and his will can and will be done. Martha is not sure that Jesus will raise Lazarus. She doesn’t assume he’ll do it, and she doesn’t ask him to do it. Instead, she says that she still trusts Jesus despite the fact that he delayed and despite the disappointment over her brother’s death. Here is where we take our cues for how to pray when it seems like God is taking a very long time to answer and things are getting worse, not better. Her petition is short. It does not assert her will, but assents to the good will of Christ. We learn a great deal from what Martha has omitted.
Jesus explains to her that to be fully alive is to be in a living, loving friendship with Jesus. If someone lives in such a friendship with Jesus and dies, the relationship continues with the source of life. He looks at Martha with love and asks her, “Do you believe this?”
In the waiting, in the dark place of deep sorrow, he searches her for a profession of faith. She tells him she does. She believes anything he says because she believes that he is God.
I love that Jesus asks Martha to remove the stone. It must have seemed strange for him to make such a physical request of a woman at that time. But we remember that Martha worships by doing. Her love language is acts of service. Jesus knows her so well. He knows that she will enter fully into this moment by serving him.
He doesn’t need her to move the stone. He doesn’t even need Martha’s faith in order to perform the miracle. Jesus was fully capable without it. But if she didn’t believe, then she would be denied the chance to see the glory of God. She would be happy her brother was alive again, but she would have missed the glorious blessing that is working with God toward the fulfillment of his perfect plan.
Sometimes, we send for his help with full faith that he is God, and he will always do good. He asks us to wait. And while we wait, our sorrow deepens, our griefs are multiplied, and the challenge becomes even harder. As we sit in the silence of those days when he is in the tomb and grief weighs heavy, know that he is preparing us for the glory. All in his perfect time.
Foss, whose website is takeupandread.org, writes from Connecticut.
