John's Obsession, Martha's Confession, And Jesus' Death-Defying Question (Part 2)

So in the three 'synoptic' gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all thought to be working loosely from Mark's manuscript) the key question surrounding Jesus is his identity. Thus, the central question out of Jesus' mouth in each is the famous: "Who do you say that I am?" issued to his disciples.

But in John, the central theme is belief. Who believes in Jesus, who doesn't, and what it means to have authentic belief worked out in real-time are something of an obsession with John and how he tells his story.

So it makes sense, then, that the most critical question posed by Jesus in the book of John is not about identity, but about belief.

The second question driving the Jesus-raising-Lazarus story raises just that issue.

After waiting a couple of days and talking to his disciples about walking by light v. walking by darkness, Jesus heads to see his dead friend and his family. Martha, the most kinetic of Lazarus' two sisters, rushes out to meet him.

The dialogue upon their meeting is full of emotion and power. Martha proclaims that if Jesus had just been there, Lazarus wouldn't have died. Jesus offers that her brother will rise again. Martha replies in the affirmative, "on the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

There it is: the belief question. Jesus arrives late to the dead-man's party, he's let him die on purpose and he's arrived to "wake him up." But he's got work to do before he gets there. He's going to press people on this issue of belief: I'm the resurrection, I'm offering you life, do you believe this?

"Our lives run on the rails of our beliefs," Dallas Willard writes. What we believe about human flourishing, personal happiness, the role of state and church and family and employees and employers and God all drive much of our lives--whether we realize it or not. Our lives run on the rails of our beliefs.

Jesus, of course, knows this. And so he presses Martha (and us) to deal with him in relation to the most critically devastating part of our existence: death. If we can trust trust Jesus as we stare down into death, we can trust him anywhere. If we can't trust him here, we will trust him no where.

Jesus has a lot of nerve, pressing a grieving sister to answer this caliber of question at such an emotionally intense time. But here's what matters most. If she cannot or will not trust Jesus to be the resurrection life that he claims to be, she will not know life herself.

And so Mary responds with what I consider to be the most profound and simple confession of Jesus. Uttered, I think, with less bravado and enthusiasm and more of a gently submissive voice, full of faith mixed with a humble resignation:

"Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

Would that I would do so well in my times of sorrow as this.