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A Little Resurrection
“When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.”
John 11:28-29
Nestled in the richness of John’s account of the raising of Lazarus, we find this small moment. It’s been four days since Mary and Martha laid their brother, a beloved friend of Jesus, in the tomb. For reasons that the two sisters couldn’t understand, Jesus did not come when they sent word that their brother had fallen ill and was fading fast. This must have been debilitating to them. When Jesus does finally make His way to Bethany, Martha heads straight to Him and expresses both despair and hope. Martha proclaims to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
A curious detail in this story is the fact that Mary stays behind. She does not go with Martha to see Jesus when they hear of His coming. But why? Maybe she stayed behind because tragedy had left her paralyzed by the numbness of deep depression. Maybe she stayed behind because she was confused by circumstances that just didn’t add up. Maybe she stayed away because she resented the fact that the same Jesus who she had seen heal the blind didn’t bring that same healing power to her own brother. No doubt, Mary’s feelings were far more complex than this neat categorization. In this mix of complicated emotions, Mary was stuck – in some ways, I imagine a big part of her died when she saw her brother laid in that tomb.
But Mary didn’t stay that way. She came back to life. When Martha returned from her conversation with Jesus, she brought with her a vivifying word: “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” As the Gospel describes it, this word was like a sacred shock – a divine defibrillator restoring life to Mary. She quickly rose and made a beeline for Jesus. The Greek word for what Mary did – what the English translation conveys as “she quickly got up” – is more accurately “she rose.” It’s the same word every Gospel writer uses to describe what Jesus did on that first Easter morning! In the words of scholar Frederick Dale Bruner, Mary experiences “a little resurrection.”[1]
I am so struck by this grace-filled resurrection. Mary isn’t risen because she tried harder. Mary isn’t brought back from the pits of deep depression, confusion and resentment because she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. Mary experienced resurrection because of a Word spoken by her Savior and delivered by someone she loves: “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
This Eastertide, let’s rejoice that Christ’s resurrection wasn’t just a one-time event. His Word is still a divine defibrillator.
[1] Bruner, F Dale. The Gospel of John 2012.
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