John 11:3-5

There was here a relationship that was different from the relationship that He had with other people. Now why? One of the reasons is, as we find in other places, this was the family He stayed with when He was in the area of Jerusalem.

He had undoubtedly eaten quite a number of meals at their home. They had undoubtedly talked about the plan of God; undoubtedly talked about Mary's and Martha's and Lazarus' hopes and dreams, their problems, their trials, their difficulties. And Jesus counseled them. And there grew in that family atmosphere, as a result of that fellowship, an intimacy of thinking that He did not have with very many other people. Because it just does not say in the Bible all that often that He loved somebody the way He loved these.