Follow Mary, She’s On The Move !
Please Read John 11:28-45
After Martha’s conversation with Jesus, she went to Mary (secretly) and told her that “The Master is come, and calleth for thee. And as soon as she (Mary) heard that, she arose quickly, and came to him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.” John 11:28-31 KJ
I love that part (verse 31). I have this picture in my mind of all these sheep running after the shepherdess. It’s very interesting to me that whatever Mary was doing, or did, was so important to those comforting her. Perhaps they saw something in her, that drew them to her.
Verses 32 - 37 say, “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she FELL down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the SPIRIT (refers to Jesus’ personal spirit), and was troubled. And said, ‘Where have ye laid him?’ They say unto him, Lord, come and see. JESUS WEPT. Then said the Jews, Behold how he LOVED him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?”
What was it that caused Jesus to be brought to tears? I read a comment (unknown author) about why “Jesus wept”. “Was it Mary and the Jews mourning that caused Jesus to weep? It didn’t make sense for Jesus to be upset over Mary and the Jew’s mourning, or Lazarus’ death, because he (Jesus) knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was upset because of their unbelief.”
Could be true. But, I believe that Jesus is perfectly capable of shedding tears of compassion. I can see that Mary knew just where to be…at Jesus’ feet. I really believe that the Jews with Mary were sincerely mournful about Lazarus’ death. And, they saw something in Mary that drew them to her ( they stayed with her, even when Martha left, and then followed her to meet Jesus. Certainly Jesus knew of their lack of understanding (unbelief). As we read the account of “Jesus Brings Lazarus Back to Life”, we will see again that Jesus reinstates the reason for ”the rise” of Lazarus. “That they may believe that thou hast sent me and so they may see the Glory of God.” Please remember, Jesus ‘Agapao, compassionately loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
COMPASSION
I can close my eyes and see Mary sitting on the floor, weeping and waiting for Jesus to come. When Martha whispered to her, “the Master has come and he is asking for you”, I imagine her immediate response to go to him. And when she saw Jesus, she fell at his feet, crying out to him for mercy. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews weeping with her, he also wept because of his great compassion for his friends. It is a mental picture for me of Mary’s intimate relationship with the Lord (Teacher and Disciple). Because we too are his disciples, we can fall at his feet. He wants that from you and I, and he will be touched by our weeping as he was with Marys’. We can cry out for mercy, comfort, the grace and the peace that only he can give us. We can be totally dependent on Jesus. Because of the compassion that we receive from Jesus, we are to be compassionate toward our fellow human beings. One of our priorities, as Disciples of Jesus Christ, is to BE compassionate, to love as Christ loves us.
The Heart of The Matter
John 11, verses 38-45
Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus and said, “Take the stone away“. Martha heard this and said, “wooee, he’s been dead for four days and by this time he stinketh (I know, she didn’t say it that way!)”. Then Jesus said, “did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”, and they took away the stone from the grave.
At this point, Jesus lifted his eyes and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You know, that I know, that you always hear me, but I said this (aloud) to these people so that they would believe that you have sent me to them.” Then He said, “Lazarus, come out of that grave“. And to all of their eyes appeared Lazarus. He was bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound with a napkin. Jesus said, “unwrap him and let him go“. Verse 45 says that “many of the ‘Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.”
Answer the following questions.
1. What is the point of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead?
2. What does this have to do with being “The Disciple” of Jesus Christ?
The “Heart” of the matter is that Jesus is the one who gives life, and He did this to cause those, who heard and saw, to “believe”. I think that it is important for you and I as “The Disciple” to believe just that…that Jesus is the One who gives life. We know that Martha had some “heart” issues with the belief thing, from the content of Jesus’ conversations with her. If Mary did, it’s hard to see. From the content of the conversations Jesus had with Mary, I believe that Mary’s “Attitude of Heart” was quite different from Martha’s. Did you know that the Bible speaks (approx.) 765 times, as to the condition of the ”Heart”?
Thought to ponder: The attitude of our heart is continuously changing, as we build our relationship with Jesus. Place yourself at His feet, often.
Scripture to ponder: John 12:1-8
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
