Martha’s belief

She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

John 11:27

Jesus asked Martha a very direct and personal question: “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Jesus, claiming to be “the resurrection and the life” pressed into Martha’s grief with that impossible question. Don’t blame Martha for the theological answer during her pain. I think I would respond the same way. She is enveloped in sorrow’s tunnel vision. She is clinging to what faith she DOES have, not avoiding the question that Jesus asks. Frankly, I respect her honest answer.

Yet, Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. And every disciple who loses a loved one in Him still knows very real grief and sorrow. We don’t doubt His reality as our Savior and Lord. That deepens. We also don’t deny death’s very real separation. The thought of resurrection, though very comforting, is massively distanced by the cold reality of the death we know. We tend to hold to what we do know even as we are encouraged to hold out for what will come. But that future resurrection is a God task. Only Jesus can be the resurrection and life. Only He ends this agonizing separation. We believe, as we can, until He resurrects. Until then, with an arm around us during our tears, Jesus understands us, staying right beside us.