When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” (John 11:31–37)
Life isn’t as simple as dissecting facts and information. The scientific process only helps as much, but every sane and honest man knows that life is more than a mere conglomeration of facts and details. We know that people matter. Our friends, our family, our loved ones. They’re more than entities defined by “facts.” Our world is, also, a world that revolves around feelings.
When our friends betray us, a family member passes away, a relationship broken — we know we couldn’t contain these situations into mere “description” of events. Our loved pet, for example, is not just an animal. It is a friend. And when our pet dies, our heart goes with it. So are our loved ones, and people who are close to us. They are real, and by real, it means that they emotionally affect our being.
When Moses commanded the people to love God with all one’s “heart,” it implies that religion — worship to God — in the general sense involves, and must involve, our feelings. The Israelite King David, in his psalms, would pour out his heart to God. Since God is a person, we must approach him as one. He knows, he feels, he cares. He doesn’t despise the brokenhearted.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalms 34:18).
We cannot, therefore, detach the so-called “mind” from the “heart” (I say “so-called” because these are modern categories), and these two are fundamentally intertwined with each other. People close to you aren’t defined by facts, they are defined by feelings. You love them. You treasure them. You grieve when you lose them. This is the brutal irony of life. We enjoy, and we suffer.
The Town of Bethany
One of the most fascinating portions of Scripture, and to some even scandalous, is the story of the death of Lazarus. This man was a good friend of Jesus. He was brother to both sisters Martha and Mary, siblings whom Jesus himself loved.
These three siblings were staying in a place called Bethany, some east of Jerusalem. What’s interesting about this town is its seeming unimportance in the historical record. Considering its proximity to Jerusalem, why don’t we read much about it in secular history?
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. (Matthew 26:6)
In the account of Matthew, we read about Jesus’ visit, while on Bethany, to the house of one Simon who was a leper. Leprosy, in biblical texts, is defined by a wide range of skin diseases that were rampant in ancient times and were believed to be contagious.
During the 1st Century A.D., there was a religious sect of people called the Essenes (or so historians call them). They lived an ultra-strict and secluded life away from the day ins and day outs of ordinary people. They were also apocalyptic-minded, that is, they’ve always looked forward to the day when the Messiah comes to rule and redeem his people.
Near the end of the 20th century a translation of the so-called “Temple Scroll” was published by archaeologist Yigael Yadin. This text was one of the many texts discovered just previously in Qumran cave, east of Jerusalem — one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. In these caves (there are many) are various ancients texts ranging from portions of Scripture to other extra-biblical materials. This Temple Scroll is of importance to our topic at hand. Although not Scripture, it contained various verses from biblical texts, especially from the Torah, and other practical instructions detailed by the Essene community.
Regarding the town of Bethany, biblical scholar Bargil Pixner writes,
Yigael Yadin, in the first edition of The Temple Scroll, was of the opinion that the village of Bethany was one of three places east of Jerusalem that the Essenes allocated for people who, because of ritual impurity, could not enter the Holy City and the temple. Later, Yadin wrote… “Bethany is situated at the eastern edge of Jerusalem, on the eastern slops of the Mount of Olives, and would fit the requirements of an isolation centre for the sufferers of leprosy.”
If this observation is correct, it would mean that this town called Bethany, where the siblings Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived, was actually an isolation camp for people who had skin diseases.
Aside from being potentially contagious, we learn from the Law of Moses that such diseases make one ritually impure, and therefore unfit for worship in the Jerusalem temple. It disqualifies them from temple worship. Not only that, it will also mean that people would shun the place since impurity is basically contaminating: anyone that touches an impure thing likewise becomes impure (Leviticus 5). This explains why history finds the place unimportant. It’s not a place people usually go for a visit.
But not Jesus.
The Lord would occasionally, especially when visiting the Temple during its festivities, pass through Bethany and meet with the siblings. He loved them. Why they had a special place in his heart we don’t know. But love he sure did. An unimportant place with unimportant people wasn’t a hindrance to the love of Jesus.
That the siblings stayed in this place doesn’t mean they were in the same way lepers. No hint from the text of John suggests that. As to why they are there, one can only surmise. And wait, did I mention that it is quite weird that by all appearances the siblings Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were all… unmarried?
Voluntary Celibacy?
The Essenes, as just mentioned, lived a life of strict (even at many points extreme) form of religiosity. There were various Essene groups all around Judea. Some of them adhered to “Celibacy” — the practice of not marrying for religious grounds — probably under the belief that sexual intercourse is somewhat inherently evil. Not all Essene groups adhere to this particular practice. But it isn’t beyond the reach of imagination that some among them would personally decide, voluntarily, to devote themselves likewise.
Whether the siblings were voluntary celibates we cannot know for a fact. Whether they belonged to an Essenic community or something which resembles it is also a matter of conjecture. But what we do know with relative confidence is that they were unmarried and that they lived in a town where lepers are found.
Jesus Loved Them
Jesus all throughout his public ministry would lodge at different houses as he travels with his disciples. When going to Jerusalem, the siblings’ shelter was home to Jesus.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:5)
The writer of the fourth gospel saying that Jesus “loved” the siblings implies a very close bond between them. Jesus enjoyed their company. They were people who feared and worshiped God. Not only that, they received and believed in Jesus, when all others were rejecting him. The devotion can be seen, for example, in the account of Luke where Mary is said to be sitting at the Lord’s feet while she was listening to his teaching (Luke 10:39). For sure, these people loved the Lord, and the Lord loved them the same way.
So when Lazarus dies, Jesus visits Bethany. And no, there were no automobiles back then, and they had to walk approximately 3–4 days on fast walking pace from the Galilean countryside to Bethany.
When Jesus reaches the place, people were weeping.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. (John 11:19)
Verse 19 and its foregoing implies that Jews from Jerusalem visited Martha and Mary to mourn with them. If so, why they had to do that is an object of interest. We can surmise that Jerusalem Jews, then, knew the siblings very well. They had at least earned the heart of people. But why?
A plausible explanation would be that people knew that the siblings were doing a benevolent service. This will lend credence to the proposal that the name Bethany is derived from the Hebrew בית עני bet ani — “house of [the] poor.” If so, the siblings were devoting their lives to acts of charity.
Here, outside the walls of Jerusalem were two sisters and a brother, refusing the enjoyments of marriage, and instead doing the service of helping the poor and the sick. The siblings cared about the poor and the needy — those who are being avoided by the rest of the crowd.
My Brother Would Not Have Died
When Jesus arrives, he is met by Martha, the older of the sisters. She believed in Jesus. So when she sees him, she expresses her feelings — a mixture of faith, despair, and disappointment.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (John 11:21–22)
This is normal. I mean, if we are to be honest, our griefs contain a mixture of faith and disappointment. We believe that God’s will for us is always “good,” but deep inside a part of us complain as to why we even suffer. Martha was being honest, “Lord, if you have been here…”
Worshipers of God were always honest. It only shows that we trust God with what we feel, the same way we trust our closest friends with our secrets and the things we feel. Honest prayer is real prayer. Beyond the confines of formalities is a prayer that God looks after — honest and sincere. A prayer that pours its heart out to God.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
The book of Psalms is a collection of songs and prayers of God’s people. It contains praise, but it also contains lament. The psalms express both honor and honesty. We humble ourselves before God, but we also pour out our hurts and grievances to him.
But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? (Psalms 88:13–14)
Son of God, Son of Man
Christian theology teaches that the Son of God bore the image of humanity: “Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7). As a man, he lived like us, among us. He felt hungry, he suffered pain, and he grieved like the rest of us.
In God’s wisdom, he showed how he loved and cared for us. Like us, he felt pain, emotional pain. He was “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3). He did this to connect with his people. This is “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), sharing even our deepest pains. That’s why the author of the book of Hebrews urges us to approach him, since,
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses… Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)
Jesus sympathizes with us. He is able to because he has been like us, among us. He feels us. “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18).
Jesus Also Cried
It might appear scandalous to some, but the author of the fourth Gospel wasn’t ashamed of this particular fact.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” (John 11:33–36)
The tears of Jesus showed that he loved Lazarus. He cared for him. Like Lazarus’ bereaved, who were weeping for his passing, Jesus wept, too. Moreover, he was affected by the tears of Mary, and the people around her. Their tears brought tears to his eyes. He felt their grief.
An interesting observation can be made about dramas on television. Sad scenes excite emotions, and it is exacerbated when actors start to cry. Someone so entrenched with the scene is naturally affected by the tears, and is also likely to cry along.
This is quite an interesting phenomenon; the workings of the human spirit, the bond of humanity. The Son of God, who is in the same way “Son of Man,” likewise connects with us. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things” (Hebrews 2:14). He shared our humanity, and so he shared our pains.
Since this write-up’s getting longer I’ll put this to close. But I would mention that later in the story, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38–57). Martha believed in Jesus, but she didn’t allow the possibility that Lazarus can be raised back to life. Maybe, on the last day, the Resurrection, she says (John 11:24), but surely not now. He’s already dead, right?
Everything is possible with God. That which men think is impossible is never impossible in God’s eyes. By faith, we know, that at the end of the day, joy, happiness, and bliss, will eventually accompany us.
Jesus cares for us. So when we’re down and hurting, let us approach him, with humility and with total honesty. We can pour out our pain to him, he listens, and he feels. Honest prayer is real prayer.
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18)
