Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.Martha therefore said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
10 sermons cite this verse
… Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews came with her weeping, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Never once did Jesus say, how dare you talk to me that way? Who do you think you are? I'm God. You're not. No, he just cried with her. God can handle the hard questions. As we will see, he may not answer them the way that we might like, but he can handle the hard questions. He's got big enough shoulders to deal with your most raw, intimate emotions. The one person you do not need to sanitize them around is God. He's safe enough to process your feelings. In fact, why not process them with your creator. Who better in this universe is there to process those hard feelings and hard questions within God? …
… And then she stood before Jesus, verse 21, and she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. That's quite a statement, isn't it? Is it really true that Jesus had to be there for Lazarus to live? No. The last nine verses of John chapter 4 assure us of that. He healed an official's son when he was miles removed from him. He was in Cana, the son was in Capernaum, and Jesus said to the official, Go home, your son is alive and well. He doesn't have to be there to do it. That's human perspective. Lord, where were you when we needed you? Jesus could have answered, I was right there. with my heart on your needs. But I delayed for a purpose. And then she responded with sort of a bromide. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. It's as if she's saying, look, he'll give it to you, but he didn't give it to us. …
… Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Thank you. Translated, this is your fault because you could have kept this from happening. Look up here. And in this moment, we are all in the story. In this moment, this story intersects with my story. It intersects with your story. If you have ever leveraged tragedy to make the point that God doesn't care and God isn't there, if you've ever leveraged disappointment with God or something that's happened to someone you love and you step back and you say, you know what? If there is a loving God, that wouldn't have happened. God would have stepped in. If God could have, God would have. And since God didn't, God must not even exist or not the God I was taught to believe in and trust as a child. And Jesus, this is what's so brilliant. In this moment, Jesus goes out of his way on this occasion to draw a circle large enough to include you and to include me because we are all represented by Mary and Martha in the story with our disappointment and our frustration and our anger with the God who could have and should have, but didn't. …
… But then she says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. A bland statement of fact? Hardly. Hardly. Can you enter into that scene, everybody? Can you feel the reproach in her voice? Why weren't you here? We sent a message. You're the son of God. Why didn't you do something? How many of us at different times, I remember when my father was so sick, this was many, many years ago, but just before he died, and I prayed and prayed and prayed. I was one year ordained at the time. I was a young priest. Prayed and prayed and prayed. And my father died. Did I move into that space? You bet. You bet. What's going on? I mean, you're God. You could have acted. I asked you I sent word through my prayer But you didn't come See, Martha is meant to give voice here To a universal human Passion In the presence of God Whose ways are confounding to us I think that's why it's so important The story begins the way it does That Jesus is acting a little weird I don't know why he did that why he delayed two days. …
… and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him. But Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you would have 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 everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? She said, Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, The teacher is here and is asking for you. As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews …
… And she says to him, Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Can you feel the weight of that? she leaves her town, she hears Jesus is coming, she runs to him, and I don't even know, hands in the air, like, what happened? We sent word to you. And we asked you to come. We told you that Lazarus was sick. We asked you to come. We sent word in time, and you didn't come. Why are you just now getting here? If you would have come earlier, my brother would still be alive. her plea and many of you know what this is like is where were you we sent for you where were you she's not accusing got him of anything she's not blaming him of anything she just is grieving and confused where were you and why didn't you come if you would have come, my brother would still be alive. And Jesus responds back to her, your brother will rise again. And in verse 24, Martha answers, I know, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She's going, I know, I've read the stories, I've been to church before, I know at the resurrection of the last day, I know somewhere down in the distant future, I'm going to see my brother again at the resurrection of the last day. I know that somewhere way down there, that's going to …
… When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed home. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Now that was, in my view, an amazing statement of faith. I don't think Martha was thinking that Lazarus was coming out of the tomb, because later when Jesus says, move the stone, she says, you don't want to move the stone, he's been in there four days, there's going to be an odor. But she knows that Jesus is a miracle man. He didn't make it to town in time to do the miracle, but she knows he's a miracle man. And I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. And Jesus said to her, talk about Easter. Your brother will rise again. And Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. …
… she was coming apart at the seams. Does anybody care that I'm slaving? Does anybody care that I'm working? Does anybody care that I'm serving? Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. You missed it. There's been a switch. Tell somebody there's been a switch. When we saw Martha in Luke chapter 10, she was working off her list, But look what she says in John 11, verse 22. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. So she has learned the life lesson. It is his list, not my list, that matters in this season of my life. And I want to speak to everybody who has been living off of your list. You have been listing your liabilities, listing your limitations, listing your reasons to feel bad, listing your reasons to feel shameful, listing the adversaries that are against you, listing the disadvantage of your season. Shift your attention to his list. …
Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. And 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 again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord. I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear it. Please be seated. Father, as we give our attention now to this dramatic moment in the life of Jesus, I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to accompany this Word, that we may not be unmoved by it, that Your Spirit would penetrate between bone and marrow, that the truth of this testimony may come to life in us. …
… In any case, now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house, and Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. So here is Martha who was desperate for Jesus to come to rescue her brother from His illness, and then when He died, her expectations were not met. And she was not only upset by the death of her brother, but also upset by the failure, obviously, of Jesus to do for her what she had expected. And so she meets Jesus with a rebuke, saying, Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died. However, even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Now I don't know that we have any reason to believe in light of the following words of the conversation, that Martha was expecting Jesus to bring a resurrection to bear here. On the one hand, she rebukes Him, and on the other hand, she says, I know that, you know, whatever God wants is we're willing to accept, and whatever you ask of God, God will give to you. …