What Did Martha Believe?

What did Martha believe?

Jesus asked her that.

Well, actually, He was more specific. He asked her if she believed, “everyone who lives believing in (Him) does not ultimately die at all.” Her reply? “Yes Master.” But she continued, almost as if to qualify her answer. “All along I have believed that You are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

Christ’s question appears to expect a simple “No,” or “Yes” answer. Why the qualification? Was she struggling with His claim that He could insure immortality to anyone? Her Brother believed in Him and he died. A person could understand her hesitation. Was she confused? Could she be wondering what the difference is between dying and dying “ultimately?” Was this claim bewildering to her; raising real questions of Jesus right to be saying such things? Believing that Jesus is “Messiah – Christ – the Son of God who comes into the world,” does not always fully answer the question, “Who is this Jesus?” Could her more than “yes” “yes” be the kind of emphasis she, herself, needed more than anyone else?

Not long before this Jesus followers affirmed their belief that He is “the Christ the Son of the living God.” Jesus praised Peter, their spokesman. “My Father has shown you this, Peter!” Still, when He told them He was going to Bethany to be with Martha and her Sister now, they were afraid. Thomas said, cynically, “Come along. We might as well die with Him.” They, like Martha, weren’t able to make the connection. They’d not, yet, seen how the true “Christ,” the authentic “Son of the living God,” present in their lives, could, and ought to be expected to take death’s fearsome power from it.

To be fair Jesus had told them His final trip to Jerusalem would end in crucifixion. Who wouldn’t be afraid to go to Jerusalem with Him now? He had also said that, “on the third day He would be raised up.” Did Thomas remember that? Was he thinking, "OK, if this is what it takes to experience the eternal life He’s been telling us about for the past three years let’s die with Him.” The cynicism evident as he voiced his resignation suggests his thinking was nowhere near such depths.

Our beliefs are often disconnected from what might be expected of someone who is a “True Believer.” James, Jesus Brother, wrote, “You believe there’s one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” Obviously their belief makes no difference in the way they behave.

Martha, and Thomas, and most of Jesus Followers, at the time, saw “Messiah” as the “Hope of Israel.” The next, final, Supreme David. They assumed material benefits. Secular outcomes would follow His triumphs. If immortality was a factor in any of their thinking it didn’t seem to have influenced their understanding of His Kingdom. Their deep attachments to things tangible, and familiar, the hopes and dreams they’d allowed to form around their sense of privilege as “The Chosen,” rendered them incapable of understanding how death could be anything but “ultimate.”

So now, Jesus has deliberately delayed going to heal Lazarus. He has let the illness take its fatal course. Now He’s about to give Martha, and Thomas, and many others, “new ground for believing;”greater knowledge of “Who” this Man, “Jesus,” really is.