Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 11:5 ESV

When Lazarus fell ill, Martha sent a note to Jesus, letting Him know the situation and asking for Him to come. Martha had seen Jesus heal hundreds, if not thousands of people, so she felt sure that He would come to heal Lazarus as well. But Jesus didn’t do what Martha expected. Instead, He stayed right where He was, and while He waited, Lazarus died. In fact, Jesus was so slow, the Bible tells us, that Lazarus had already been dead for four days by the time He got there! When Martha heard that Jesus had come, she didn’t waste a minute. She slipped on her sandals and raced to the edge of the village to give Him a piece of her mind: “Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” John 11:21 ESV

Though Martha didn’t mince words, Jesus still patiently listened and then offered an answer that was far beyond anything she was expecting, “Your brother will rise again.”  Her conversation, like some of the ones that I have had with Jesus, tell us that she was looking for real answers to practical problems: “My wife has cancer, my grandchildren are lost, I wish our children would visit.” It feels as if God only likes some prayers, but not others. Yet, the Bible tells us that God hears all our prayers. He is undeterred by time, space, or the seeming impossibility of the situations we are in. He comes, He listens and then He gives a surprising answer: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Jesus wasn’t offering a Hallmark ending in Heaven for Martha. No! Jesus was right at that moment, in the nitty-gritty of her circumstances, the answer she desperately needed. Then Martha’s sister Mary came on the scene. Mary’s prayers are not original. She came with the exact same words as her older sister, yet with a difference. Martha stood eye to eye with Jesus, Mary fell at His feet. Martha received an answer, though at the moment she probably didn’t realize it. But the answer Jesus gave to Mary went beyond words. When Mary tearfully fell at His feet, the Bible offers us its shortest verse, “Jesus wept.” In that moment, Jesus pulled back the curtain on the heart of God. This was the heart that grieved over man’s violence, and selfishness before sending the flood. This heart went in search of Adam and Eve while they were hiding behind fig leaves in the garden and He is searching for you and I today. “He is touched by the feelings of our infirmities.” He comes alongside, He weeps, and then He sends an answer far better than anything we could imagine. He is God with us, listening, He is God for us, correcting, He is God, the Good Shepherd going ahead of us and leading us all the way home!