June Trinity
John 11: 17-44
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| Sombart |
When Jesus got [to Bethany]
there, he found that he [Lazarus] had already been in the tomb for four days.
Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. Many Jews had come to Martha
and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was
coming, she went to meet him. But Mary remained within. And Martha said to
Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know
that even now God will give you whatever you ask.
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know that he will rise again in
the great resurrection at the end of time.”
Then Jesus said to her, “I AM the resurrection and
the life. Whoever fills himself with my power through faith, he will live even
when he dies; and whoever takes me into himself as his life, he is set free
from the might of death in all earthly cycles of time. Do you feel the truth of
these words?”
And she said, “Yes Lord. With my heart I have
recognized that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the
world.”
When she had said this she went and called her
sister Mary and said to her privately, “The Master is here and is asking for
you.” Jesus had not yet entered the town. He had stayed in the place where Martha
had met him.
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| Rembrandt |
When the Jews who were with her in the house,
consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her. They
thought she was going to the tomb to weep there. But Mary came to the place
where Jesus was, and when she saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been there, this brother of mine would not have died. “
When Jesus saw how she and the Jews coming with her
were weeping, he aroused himself in spirit and, deeply moved within himself, he
asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They answered, “Come, Lord, and see.”
Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved
him.” But some of them said, “Could not he who restored the sight of the blind
man keep this man from dying?”
And again Jesus, deeply moved within himself went
up to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. And Jesus
said, “Take away the stone!”
Then said Martha, the sister of him whose life had
reached completion, “Lord, there will be an odor [he has already begun to
decompose], for this is the fourth day.”
But Jesus said, “Did I not say to you that if you
had faith, you would see the revelation of God?”
Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes to the spirit and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I
knew that you always hear me; but because of the people standing here I say it,
so that their hearts may know that you have sent me. Then he called with a loud
voice: “Lazarus, come out!”
And the dead man came out, his feet and hands bound
with strips of linen, his face covered with a veil. And Jesus said, “Unbind
him, and let him go.”
3rd June Trinity
John 11: 17-44
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| Sombart |
When her brother dies, the ever-active Martha rushed out to
meet Christ. She gently rebukes him for his absence at her brother’s death,
while stating her faith that somehow He will fix things. To Martha Christ gives
the answer: Whoever fills himself with my power through trust, he will live
even when he dies. John 11:26 Christ reveals Himself as the
resurrecting power of life that permeates all of creation. And He probes her
heart for her sense of the truth of what He is saying.
It is then Martha who summons Mary. ‘The Master is here and
is asking for you,’ John 11: 28 she says to her. To Mary’s same
rebuke, that His absence has resulted in Lazarus’s death, Christ responds with
tears of compassion for the grief of loss. He moves to the tomb and commands
that the heavy stone be rolled away. And then, in concert with His Father, He
calls—Lazarus, come forth! And then, ‘Unbind him’. John
11:43
Martha and Mary are two sides of the human soul. Our more
active, Martha side arrives first, and responds in hope to conversation with
Christ. She summons the other side, the more inward, contemplative Mary side,
the side of deep feeling. Christ weeps with them both and then does battle with
death. Lazarus, the representative of the eternal human spirit, rises from
death to the call of Christ.
In the Act of Consecration of Man, the communion service, each side of our soul is activated. Our Martha side hurries us to the chapel to meet with Christ. She calls forth our more contemplative, Mary side to join in the deed of offering, so that our inner Lazarus, our eternal spirit, is called forth from the place of death. Every time the Act of Consecration of Man is celebrated, Martha’s words sound forth: The Master is here and is asking for you.
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