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What the Bible says about Mary and Martha's Faith
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Matthew 5:4

This mourning is a meaningful, persistent grief over wrong, over something that is not right or good. But that wrong, whatever it is, is not defined here. Jesus does not tell us what we are to grieve over. He just says, "Blessed are those who mourn," who possess this deep, personal grief.

Commentators are of three minds about the wrong Jesus desires us to grieve or mourn over. The first is the result of personal, bitter experience, say, our reaction when a close loved one dies. It could be an extreme experience along the lines of what Job went through: his sorrow over the loss of his children, all his wealth, and his status. That is a terrible thing to happen to an individual all at once. His whole world just disappeared, and all he had left was a wife who nagged him and told him to curse God and die. Not a pleasant situation for him at all. The calamity made Job say things he really did not mean. It made him question God.

This wrong is the grief of loss and many powerful, negative shocks to the system. It is the grief of one's world falling apart. We could call it "common grief." It is the kind of deep mourning that everyone experiences at least once in his or her life because of someone very close dying. A biblical example is the grief of Mary and Martha over the death of their brother, Lazarus (John 11:17-19, 28-31).

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Those Who Mourn

John 11:21-27

Jesus and Martha were talking on two different levels. She understood in a way, but not what Jesus was really saying. Jesus was talking about a resurrection that would occur in just a few moments, while she meant a resurrection that will occur when God resurrect the firstfruits. They were speaking about the same subject, but their timing was off, so to speak.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Faith and Prayer


 




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