After Lazarus died, many people came to Martha and Mary to mourn with them. Jesus had waited until this time to go to the household of these dear friends in Bethany, whom he loved with a deep human affection. The surrounding people knew that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were dear to Jesus, and wondered why he had not come sooner and healed Lazarus of his illness. Martha and Mary themselves carried this question within their hearts, but continued to hope in Jesus.
In this great Gospel text of John 11, Martha is led to a deeper faith; she is given the grace to recognize and confess that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior. When Jesus reveals himself to her as "the Resurrection and the Life," he addresses Martha's freedom: "Do you believe this?" When Martha says "Yes," she moves beyond her view of Jesus as a prophet within the context of Israel's hope for "the Last Day." Like Peter in Matthew 16, Martha expresses a new kind of faith in the presence of Jesus in her immediate history, that he is the Messiah, the hope of Israel and the world, the hope of victory over death itself:
"When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 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 of God, God will give you.' Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise.' Martha said to him, 'I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus told her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?' She said to him, 'Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.' " (John 11:19-27).
