HER STORY: Leaders in the Cause of Christ, Martha of Bethany

Martha was a woman of bold faith and blessed service, who was able to leave the conventions of her old life and enter into the grace and freedom Jesus offers. #Martha #John11 #Bethany

Mary of Bethany

We might say Martha brought in the importance of right doing in her service to the Lord, and in right thinking as Jesusโ€™ developed her faith in knowing the truth about His divinity. Now enter Mary, who said few words, but whose passion and practice made a deep and lasting impact on Jesusโ€™ heart and our understanding of discipleship.

Martha

I think the way Martha would have liked to be remembered was as a woman of bold faith and blessed service, who was able to leave the conventions of her old life and enter into the grace and freedom Jesus offers

John 11: Jesus Develops Martha’s Faith

I read a book a while ago called, Where Is God When Bad Things Happen? Written by Luis Palau. As you can imagine from the title, the author talks about the traumas and tragedies that you and I experience in life, and why God seems to allow them. Where was God? What was God doing? What is God doing? Thatโ€™s what Martha and Mary were wondering in this story, and probably Jesusโ€™s disciples, too.

Gospel of John: A Leper’s Thanksgiving

She carefully placed the jar in the nest of linen cloths that lined its cedar container, closed the lid, and resealed it with her signet. At the banquet, she would break this seal one last time.

Gospel of John: Emergency Council Meeting

Faced with the same evidence, some were moved to belief, and some were hardened in unbelief. And yet Godโ€™s purpose for Messiah still advanced. Even with free will, no person can alter Godโ€™s divine plan. As one commentator put it, Nothing people can do will thwart or alter the sovereign will of God, and nothing God does ever sets aside the free choice of people.

Gospel of John: Lazarus! Here! Outside!

It is God Who creates new life within you and me, Jesus calls us by name and brings us out of death and into new life. Then God calls others to come help us unwind the old life from ourselves, all the things that had bound us in death.

Gospel of John: Belief on the Line

Faith involves doing hard things. And obedience to God reflects belief in God and Godโ€™s word. Martha would have to put her belief on the line in front of her sister, in front of all those religious dignitaries, in front of all their extended family and people who had come down from Jerusalem.

Gospel of John: Martha’s Faith

[In the Greek] Though Marthaโ€™s voice had leaned more heavily on the final catastrophe of death itself, Mary spoke from the devastation of personal betrayal, her voice leaning on the connection of her brother, the unspoken meaning clear: you said you loved me, and he was my brother.

Gospel of John: Revelation to Martha

Or are we living in active faith that Jesus is powerfully at work within our inward beings, transforming us, and is also at work in our physical world, bring shalom to all those around us, including the earth itself?