Jesus the resurrection and the life

 

Distress at the graveside        v28-37

Mary was more reserved than her sister, but she came at the call of Jesus and bowed at His feet.  Three times Mary appears in scripture, and each time, she is at His feet:

·      Luke 10v39   She waits at His feet, “She had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard His word.”

·      John 11v32   She weeps at His feet, “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at his feet saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died.”

·      John 12v3    She worships at His feet, “Then took Mary a pound of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”

By her actions she said the same as her sister said in words, and she repeats Martha’s words “Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died.”  There was a feeling of anguish about the place, as there always will be in circumstances of unexpected and untimely death.  When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping who had come to console them, it says “He groaned in His spirit, and was troubled.”  We're about to witness absolute Deity, in His power over death but right now we see His tender humanity.  The word for groaned-which also appears in v38, is embrimaomai which means more anger and indignation than it does sympathy.  Its usage in the Greek language is of the snorting of a horse as it enters into battle, with vehement anger against the enemy.  Picture the scene, He is amongst friends whom He loves very dearly, and they are very distressed.  The one emotion that emerges Is a deep anger as He contemplated the awful consequences of sin and the suffering it was brought to humanity.  He was angry for the distress of His friends, it tends to hurt more, the closer we are to people.  He was angry at the consequences of sin that had reduced humanity to despair.  He was angry at the deception of Satan who had pronounced in the garden, “Ye shall not surely die”-Genesis 3v4.  He was in angry outrage at the monstrosity of death in God’s world and was deeply moved.   It was not the emotion of uncontrollable grief, but of irrepressible rage.  We learn here of the pain in the heart of God when utter helplessness and despair besets us…Jesus wept!  The shortest verse in the Bible, with the deepest possible meaning.

Our tears are His tears; our sorrow is His sorrow; our pain is His pain, but it is tempered with indignation and a firm resolve to meet head on the power of death, which for long has held sway, and which He will destroy as the great enemy of mankind.