We are all familiar with the story in John 11 of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11 and the little conversation that Jesus had with Martha before He raised Lazarus.
Here is how I have usually read John 11:39-44:
Scene: [Mary and Martha are upset with Jesus because they had sent a message to Jesus that Lazarus was sick (John 11:2), and Jesus had not come. Now, four days after Lazarus has died (John 11:39), Jesus decides to finally show up. Mary couldn’t bear to face Jesus, but Martha went out meet Him (John 11:20).]
Martha: Too bad you didn’t get here five days ago … when Lazarus was still alive … when we called you to come. I’m angry at you, but I still believe that God is with you (John 11:21-22).
Jesus: Your brother will rise again (John 11:23).
Martha: (Rolls her eyes and thinks, “What a terrible thing to say at a funeral. How does that help me now?”). Of course he will, in the future resurrection along with everyone else (John 11:24).
Jesus: I’m not talking about the future resurrection event. I am talking about me. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies physically, will then live physically, and will never die for all eternity. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).
Martha: Absolutely! Of course I believe that (John 11:27).
Scene: [Jesus goes and raises Lazarus from the dead. Big party ensues (John 11:41-44).]
Is that pretty much how you have understood this event, and especially the answer that Martha gives to Jesus in John 11:27?
Recently, I have begun to wonder if I have been reading this text wrong all along.
John 11:27 and John 21:15-17
What got me wondering is the little conversation Jesus has with Peter at the end of John, where Jesus asks Peter three times “Do you love me?” and Peter answers three times, “Yes, you know that I love you” (John 21:15-17)
We all know, of course, that the first two times Jesus asks Peter this question, Jesus uses the word “agape” for God’s divine love, but Peter answers with “phileo,” which is brotherly love. The third time, Jesus uses “phileo” also, indicating to Peter that he knows that Peter’s love will never be perfect, and that’s okay.
But what got me thinking was that with the first two questions, even though Peter said “Yes” what he was really saying was “No.” Jesus asked, “Peter, do you agape me?” and in saying, “Yes, I phileo you,” Peter was actually saying, “No, I do not, cannot, and will not be able to agape you. But I do phileo you, and that’s the most I can honestly offer.”
The night of Jesus’ crucifixion gave Peter a glimpse into his own soul, and he knows what resides there, and so he answers Jesus honestly.
Anyway, the fact that Peter says “Yes,” but actually gives a modified “No” made me wonder if Martha wasn’t doing something similar in John 11, for if you look at the text carefully, she does not say that she believes what Jesus asks her. Instead, she states her belief in something else entirely, and in fact, a few verses later, when Jesus tells her to have some men roll away the stone, she proves that she did not believe what He said, because she argues with Jesus about rolling away the stone! This is where Jesus reiterates to her what He told her previously, that He was the resurrection and the life. If she had truly believed Him, she would not have argued with him later in the chapter.
A New Reading of John 11
So now, I am wondering if John 11 could be read this way. The setup is the same, but the results are much different:
Scene: [Mary and Martha are pissed off because they had sent a message to Jesus that Lazarus was sick (John 11:2), and Jesus had not come. Now, four days after Lazarus has died (John 11:39), Jesus decides to finally show up. Mary couldn’t bear to face Jesus, but Martha went out meet Him (John 11:20).]
Martha: Too bad you didn’t get here five days ago … when Lazarus was still alive … when we called you to come. I’m angry at you, but I still believe that God is with you (John 11:21-22).
Jesus: Your brother will rise again (John 11:23).
Martha: (Rolls her eyes and thinks, “What a terrible thing to say at a funeral. How does that help me now?”). Of course he will, in the future resurrection along with everyone else (John 11:24).
Jesus: I’m not talking about the future resurrection event. I am talking about me. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he dies physically, will then live physically, and will never die for all eternity. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).
Martha: That’s kind of crazy talk. Look, I believe you are the Christ, the promised Jewish Messiah. Isn’t that enough? (John 11:27).
Scene: Jesus says nothing, but looks at her with love filled eyes. They travel to the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus weeps. The people wonder why Jesus, if He loved Lazarus so much, couldn’t have healed him from his sickness (John 11:37).
Jesus: Take away the stone from the tomb (John 11:39a).
Martha: Are you okay Jesus? He’s dead. If you wanted to say your final goodbye, you should have done that four days ago when we called you. By now he stinks. Let him rest in peace (John 11:39b).
Jesus: Didn’t I tell you that I am the resurrection and the life? You didn’t really indicate that you believed me, but now I am going to show you that it’s true. Tell them to roll the stone away (John 11:40).
Scene: [Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Big party ensues (John 11:41-44).]
There is something compelling to me about this reading, but the main problem I have with it is that it messes with my understanding of John 20:31.
But what about John 20:31?
In the past, I used to think that John 20:31 was teaching that believing that Jesus is the Christ was the same thing as believing in Jesus for eternal life. But now I am not so sure.
Maybe, if this alternative reading of John 11 is true, then an alternative explanation for John 20:31 is also required.
Maybe John 20:31 is not teaching that believing that Jesus is the Christ is the same thing as believing in Jesus for eternal life, but rather, believing that Jesus is the Christ helps lead a person to believing in Jesus for eternal life.
This, after all, seems to be what happened to Martha.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will have eternal life. Do you believe this?”
She said, “No, but I believe you the Christ.”
Based on this belief, Jesus went on to show her that as the Christ, she could also believe in Him for eternal life.
Remember, at that time, most Jewish people thought that the Messiah, the Christ, would just be another human being with a special connection to God. They did not believe the Messiah would actually be God incarnate. Maybe Jesus is trying to move Martha from belief in Him as the Messiah to belief in Him as God in the flesh?
This also may explain why the apostles went about preaching what they did in book of Acts (see Acts 5:42; 9:22; 17:2-3; 18:5, 28).
Anyway, I am just curious what all of you think about that. Let me know!
She believed He could do all of what He claimed because she believed Jesus is God.
Jeremy–You do not understand because you do not realize that God and Jesus Christ have seperate wills.
Jesus did not go to Lazurus until God said “go”
Jesus was not omnipresent. After Lazarus died, Jesus told his disciples, “I am glad I was not there” (John 11:15).
The attributes of God are what make Him God, just as there are certain attributes that make a man what he is. There is a common saying that “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.” This could easily be applied here. God “walks and quacks” like God. Jesus “walks and quacks” like a man, and Scripture says very clearly that he is a man. We assert that the Bible is clear in its teaching about who God is and who Christ is, and we ask Christians to carefully consider what they believe and why.
We also think that believing that Jesus is God, “the Holy Spirit” is God, and the Father is God actually demeans the only true God. Making God one of three co-equal “persons” takes from Him His exalted position as the only true God, the Creator of the universe, the Author of the plan of Salvation, the Father of Jesus Christ, and our one God.
Besides robbing God of His exalted position as God supreme, believing that Jesus is God also demeans him. One cannot appreciate how great Jesus really was until you make an effort to live like he did for even one day. His courage, mental tenacity, love and great faith are unparalleled in human history. His true greatness is lost if you believe he is God, for “with God all things are possible.” Believing Jesus is God also demeans God because Jesus himself said, “my Father is greater than I.”
Believing that Christ is God also means that he could not have sinned [which makes sense given that “God” cannot sin]. Christ must have been able to sin, for Scripture says he was “tempted in every way just as we are.” Christ went through life like each human does, with doubts, fears and concerns, and with the possibility of sin. To believe that Jesus could not have sinned makes it impossible for us to identify with him.
By restoring the Father to His unique and singular position as God, we give Him all the worship, credit, respect and awe He deserves as the one true God. By restoring Christ to his position as the man accredited by God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, the Last Adam, the one who could have sinned but voluntarily stayed obedient, the one who could have given up but loved us so much that he never quit, the one whom God highly exalted to be our Lord, we give Jesus Christ all the worship, credit, respect and awe that he deserves, and we can draw great strength and determination from his example.
I love you’r comment.
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Emilio,
I think you may have fallen into the old Arian heresy which denied that Jesus was fully God.
Regardless, I think you have misunderstood the question of my post. I am not asking if Martha knew that Jesus was God. I am asking if Martha believed Jesus Jesus when He said “I am the resurrection and the life.” Note as well, that I do not think that when Martha said, “You are the Christ” she was saying “You are God.” Nobody at that time believed that the Messiah would be God incarnate.
Heresy is such an unpleasant word. It implies, “I know the real truth, and you don’t.” Christians have never agreed on what is the “real truth”; they didn’t even come close to agreeing on common dogmas for centuries. Fallacy may be a better term, but in the end, who is to judge?
I think that Arius was probably right in many respects. What are your thoughts on the position given here: http://www.biblicalunitarian.com/verses/matthew-28-19?
Heresy is an unpleasant word. Not real biblical either.
Also, as you say, Arius was right in many respects. I am not a unitarian though. I don’t find the arguments persuasive. If God is relational, then I believe God was in relationship for all eternity, even before He created anything.
I find the concept of relationality to be an unnecessary theological construction. The Creator obviously is in relation to the creation. But before anything was created, there was nothing for God to be relational to. A son comes after a father. If “the Son” existed throughout eternity with the Father, then “Son” is a misnomer. So Logos and Christ are words that must refer to something else, not simply to Jesus the man.
I think the concept of “God’s only begotten Son” was applied to Jesus as a result of misunderstanding his divinity and believing it to be deity.
I’m not a Unitarian either. I agree with a lot of their theology but I avoid labels and pigeonholes. But I think their commentary on Matthew 28:19 points out just one example of how scriptures may have been edited to support the beliefs or interpretations of the editors.
My take: Mary didn’t grasp that Jesus could and would raise Lazarus then and there. Even if she grasped that was what Jesus was saying he would do, she doubted that was going to happen. She had to see it happen to believe.
In a similar vein, some of us doubt that Jesus will raise us and that we shall live forever. Guess we’ll have to see it to believe it. Just as Mary thought Jesus didn’t really mean what he was saying, we too wonder if Jesus really knew what he was talking about regarding our future eternal life.
I’m not convinced that believing that Jesus is (or was) the “Christ” is the same thing as believing in him for eternal life. Maybe this Christ person was just spouting nonsense and can’t do what he promised.
Sam,
Thanks. Yeah, I think I believe the same thing about this passage. Which is a change for me. I need to consider it further.
So does that prove we both have the “right beliefs”, or that we’re both heretics? 🙂
My question is: what difference does it make as to whether or not I or another agree or disagree with you. ultimately, how would either help me in my faith walk, in other words. what is your point in your viewpoint? Not trying to be a wise guy, really would like to know.
Thank you,
Yvette
I think Jeremy is saying that once he thought that believing that Jesus was the Messiah was sufficient to have eternal life (john 20.31), but his reading of 11.27 has led him to think that it a step on the way to gaining eternal life. I would ask what does ‘believe in’ mean.
Thank you so much,,,clears it up… makes good sense…and I agree with him 100%.
God bless.
Brian,
Yes, that is basically what I was saying. Thanks for clarifying!
Yvette,
First, I am not asking anyone to agree or disagree with me. In fact, did I actually state a personal opinion anywhere in this text about what I believe?
Instead, I am inviting people to study the Scriptures with me, and especially a Scripture about Jesus Christ. As we talk about Jesus and learn about Him, this helps us become more like Him, which always helps us in our faith walk. How can you walk in faith if you do not know the Person you are following?
Infact, I got the similar prompting from the HolySpirit and it was a new revelation to me though I read this passage many many times..Martha doubted Jesus but Mary believed by Heart. We need to move from head belief to Heart belief and this will give us the meaning of true resurrection which we can have even when we are here on earth…good message .
Jeremy, I’ve always felt a very similar idea about Martha-her faith had shades of doubt, just like in Mark 9:24 ‘And straightway the father of the child cried out , and said with tears , Lord , I believe ; help thou mine unbelief . ‘ do we not ALL have unbelief in the midst of our faith. Believing in Jesus, has benefits that we may not believe in (crowns come to mind) but we still will enjoy them.
Yes, I think that in the midst of things we believe, we all have things we do not believe. Thanks!
I think Martha is thinking in terms of eschatology and the Biblical teaching concerning a future resurrection; this is what she is believing that Jesus is promising her concerning her brother. Jesus is saying to her something like since I am the resurrection and the life, and you believe I am, I will show you (and the mourners at the tomb) proof now of who I am. Martha had to see her brother raised as a demonstration that her belief in Him as the resurrection and the life is a certainty (11:40). I think the bigger picture though is that since this is a very public event, it was instrumental in bringing about belief in Jesus for eternal lfie to those gathered there (11:41-42, 45). Lastly, even though this sign demonstrated His power as God’s Son, some still did not believe in Him (11:46) but were looking to the Pharisees. This miracle resulted in the plot hatched by Caiaphas to kill Jesus (he also unknowingly prophesied about Jesus sacrifice on the cross).
Yes, I think Martha was definitely thinking in terms of eschatology.
But Jesus brought her back into the here and now.
I hadn’t considered it, but maybe that was Jesus’ point.
Which raises the issue for people today whose minds are always and only one “the end times.”
if you think about it starting in Matthew 16:13 peter Got the right answer this is where Jesus asked the disciples Who do yu say that I am but Peter or none of the other disciples never really understood who Jesus truly was until after the resurrection Thomas said show you hands and side and when Jesus showed Phillip he said Mly Lord and My God
Three Sundays ago I have preached exactly the same in my church, somewhere in a small town in an EastEuropian country. And the congregation was very amazed by this interpretation. Someone just couldn’t believe it.
It was a very exciting one, that Sunday.
I appreciate this interpretation. I have struggled with the issue of Martha’s doubt and I lean to the same understanding as your ending paragraphs imply. I don’t think that she truly understood who Jesus is. After all this was a new concept to the people of that time. I knew that someone had to at least recognize this possibility besides me. Thank you.
Thanks for the comment. Good to know others are thinking along the same lines!
According to the Bible, how many Old Testament prophets raised people from the dead? Answer: Two. Elijah and Elisha. That’s it. And they only did it three times. (For details, read here.) So the act of raising someone from the dead would have been seen as a very, very big deal. It was not like healing someone of a disease or casting out demons. Lots of people, it seems, could do those miracles. Nope, raising someone from the dead was the big kahuna of all miracles! Is there any instance in the Bible of a false prophet or a prophet of another god raising the dead? I haven’t done a thorough investigation on this particular point, but according to my brief search, there is no evidence in the Bible that anyone but a true prophet of the Hebrew God could raise people from the dead. Please correct me if I am wrong.
In the Gospel of John chapter 11, we are told that Lazarus had been dead for four days. His body was decomposing to the point that he stunk. Lazarus death and burial were very public events. His tomb was a known location. Many Jews had come to mourn with Mary and Martha and some of them were wondering why the great miracle worker, Jesus, had not come and healed his friend Lazarus; essentially blaming Jesus for letting Lazarus die.
Bethany was a suburb of Jerusalem. It was not an obscure village in the outback of Galilee. If a great miracle happened in Bethany, everyone in Jerusalem would know about it, and according to this passage, that is exactly what happened. Many Jews believed in Jesus due to his miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead; so many that it greatly disturbed the Pharisees and the High Priest when they were informed of the miracle.
Let’s step back and look at the facts asserted in this passage: Only two OT prophets had raised people from the dead, and these two prophets were considered probably the two greatest Jewish prophets of all time: Elijah and Elisha. If this story is true, the supernatural powers of Jesus were on par with the supernatural powers of the greatest Jewish prophets of all time! If this event really did occur, it should have shocked the Jewish people to their very core—a new Elijah was among them! This event must have been the most shocking event to have occurred in the lives of every living Jewish man and woman on the planet. The news of this event would have spread to every Jewish community across the globe.
And yet…Paul, a devout and highly educated Jew, says not one word about it. Not one. Not in his epistles; not in the Book of Acts. Think about that. What would be the most powerful sign to the Jews living in Asia Minor and Greece—the very people to whom Paul was preaching and attempting to convert—to support the claim that Jesus of Nazareth himself had been raised from the dead? Answer: The very public, very well documented raising from the dead of Lazarus of Bethany by Jesus!
But nope. No mention of this great miracle by Paul. (A review of Paul’s epistles indicates that Paul seems to have known very little about anything about the historical Jesus. Read here.)
And there is one more very, very odd thing about the Raising-of-Lazarus-from-the-Dead Miracle: the author of the Gospel of John, the very last gospel to be written, is the only gospel author to mention this amazing miracle! The authors of Mark, Matthew, and Luke say NOTHING about the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Nothing.
Do a google search on this topic and you will find some of the most bizarre excuses made by Christian apologists for the absence of this miracle in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. One such excuse is that the authors of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written during the time that Lazarus and his sisters may have still been alive. The authors of these Gospels may have left out the Lazarus story to protect Lazarus and his sisters from retribution by the Jews and others. Since the Gospel of John was written near the end of the first century, or even early in the second century, the author of the Gospel of John could safely mention this miracle without endangering the lives of Lazarus and his sisters.
Really, dear Christians?? Come on! This story is a blatant fabrication. It never happened!
Come on! Let’s call a spade a spade! This story is a blatant fabrication! It never happened. It is a supernatural tall tale for the very purpose of propping up yet another supernatural tall tale: the magical resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead. It is a story of magic told in an attempt to convince superstitious, gullible first century people of the veracity of the new religion—Christianity. It…is…not…true!
http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2016/01/the-story-of-lazarus-is-blatant.html
IT IS IN A CAPSULE THE GREATEST STORY ABOUT ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST’S PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE VIA THE CRUCIFIXION!
6 yrs on.. Thank you for the labor. My comment is simply an observation that there is quite a mindset shifting all over Christendom concerning how Scriptures and the new testament passages have been taught and received. It seems to me that God is effecting a kind of Reformation in the way the Gospel has been handled in the past several decades …. Jesus is being Lird indeed and the church is being freed from religion and many errors.
Jesus’s conversation with Martha indicates to me there are several cluster beliefs for salvation. Jesus basically told the woman at the well that she had to draw only one time from His well for everlasting life. Repentance, baptism, and good deeds were not mentioned. In other words, one act of faith, or belief, in Jesus resulted in everlasting life. Since death and resurrection at the cross was yet in the future, what was Jesus asking the woman at the well to believe? That He was the Messiah, as they discussed earlier, since the cross was a future event? Certainly, we must believe we are sinners, or we would not even need a savior? What else must we believe? So, the story of Martha at her brother’s death, and the story of the woman at the well begs the question, “how many beliefs do Christian’s need, to truly be saved?” Is belief in the cross enough?
I am late to the discussion but I read the text earlier today and I had similar thoughts. Martha did not understand what Jesus was saying about Him being the resurrection and life. This was made clear when Jesus told them to role away the stone from the tomb. Martha’s outburst clearly reveals that she did not fully comprehend what was transpiring at that very moment. This I believe had to do to the teaching leading to the beliefs of that time. In short, Martha was not anticipating Jesus raising up her brother who was dead for four days, decaying and his spirit is now departed according to how she believed was the truth of the situation. But it was not the truth just some facts with conjecture thrown in for good measure.
Same thing now. We are taught that if we believe in Jesus that we will live forever but that is not what the Bible says. According to the verse it says we will have eternal life not that we will live forever. The essence is Jesus is eternal life. We who believe and accept Him is given His eternal life so no it is not us living eternally but Christ in us for we have been crucified with Christ so I no longer live but Christ lives in me.
We need to stop coming to the Bible with what we think, believe or have been taught and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the Word to us. I believe that is the aim of the author of this post. I commend him for his honesty and vulnerability in taking this step towards seeking truth. Besides, the Holy Spirit write the book and has persevered the Bible thus far in spite of everything. Jesus did say the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth let’s us wholeheartedly trust the Holy Spirit then.
I believe Jesus waited on purpose ,to glorify the father in Himself ,to prove His diety or identity as the only begotten son of God ,He waited on purpose to produce a miracle ,so they belive in Him (works of God displayed ) like in john 9:3 when Jesus healed the blind man ,everything He did ,He did it to glorify the Father ,just like when we become born again and recive the Holy Spirit ,Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts (miracle birth ) to wittness to us in the Scriptures by taking the veil off and bringing true understanding ,wisdom in the Knowledge of God ,about our old nature (sin) and revealing to us our new nature in Jesus finished works in the death ,burial , resurrection ,how to connect with the Holy Spirit in the scripture and be taught by the Spirit of God through revelation in scripture and how to walk in the Spirit by overcoming our Oldman desires and submitting to our new desires (task ) that God gives us ,to put off all confidence in the flesh and put all confidence (depending) on the Spirit of God in all life’s circumstances