All Saints, Live!

This is a story about grieving people.

Not just Mary and Martha, but also their friends, and even Jesus.

People grieve in different ways.

There are stages of grief, but not all of those stages manifest or show up in order.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance

Mary and Martha are two very different people.

Martha – practical, aloof, precise, self-sufficient, and less expressive.

Martha had stayed inside possibly preparing for well-wishers, like Jesus

Mary – dependent, loving, sensitive, and demonstrative. She shared her intimate feelings, was gentle, tender, and self-giving.

Many people thought that Mary went out to cry at the tomb holding Lazarus, when she was really going out to meet Jesus and the other disciples.

A Tangle of Emotion

There must have been a tangle of emotion between the loss of their brother & Jesus’ arrival.

Both, Mary and Martha rebuked Jesus about his late arrival.

Mary’s grief affected Jesus deeply.

He loved all three of them, enough to think of their home as his second home.

Sometimes, it feels like no one is there to help us

when we need it the most.

Jesus wept that day at the graveside.

Jesus wept because he loved.

Not just humanity in a general sense, but he specifically loved Lazarus.

While he knew earlier that this sickness would not be his end, it did not take away the sting of his loss.

One could even say, because he knew that Lazarus could have been healed, it made his loss all the more painful.

Jesus’ weeping was a sign of his humanity.

Jesus could love, could hurt, could grieve, and could die.

Jesus’ weeping was also a sign of his divinity

Being involved in the struggle of good & evil over souls.

Jesus didn’t just mourn the loss of Lazarus, he mourned the lack of faith

Or the possibility of lost faith in despair (dispiritedness, dismay, sorrow).

Mary and Martha heard from Jesus in the way they could best hear.

Martha needed plainly spoken truths that she could ponder.

Mary needed simple, genuine emotion to be demonstrated.

Both, needed to see the power of God beyond their loss.

Jesus is the sorrowing & suffering Savior, and he is the Giver of Life.

Jesus called Lazarus, this friend and brother, back to life.

Later, when Jesus announced to his disciples that he must die, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet in intimate display with her own hair.

Having lost Jesus, Mary and Martha could have lost their faith in despair.

Because Jesus raised Lazarus, they believed it was possible that Jesus would rise to life again.

This is Resurrection Faith.

Raising people from the dead is what stoked the fire of disbelief that led to his death, but it was His Resurrection that literally sparked the fire of New Life for all who believe in him.

Jesus’ prayer over Lazarus had been a prayer of Thanksgiving, and then He commanded Lazarus could come out, as only God can.

That is what makes Jesus the Giver of Life and Sustainer of All, who spoke everything into being and restores all to God in the end.

God makes nothing into something and resurrects the dead to life.

God does this by speaking our language and act in ways we can perceive, getting our attention, calling us to life, and empowering us to overcome sin and evil in this world.

God asks us to do the same in return for someone else.

We will all be together with him at the end. That is our hope.

Say or do all the good that you can to point to the Giver and Sustainer of Life.

Do this with Resurrection Faith and you will be effective.