Sickness happens, and sometimes sickness leads to death. This is not how we want life to go. We prefer life, and then more life, and then even more life still, please. We want whatever is good and pleasing to increase daily, hourly, moment by moment—blessed multiplication!
Is this not what God intends for us as well? Has not Jesus promised us abundance? Is this not why we are his friends, the one who is the resurrection and the life? But the truth is, even for friends of Jesus, death strikes close to home,* and Martha wants more from her friend than, “Your brother will rise again.” She wants to hear Jesus say, “Your brother did not die at all.”
We want what we want right now, and we want what we wanted, too. We want not only a different present, but a different past. Change our now, Jesus, and then change our future, and while you’re at it, reach back and change all that has come before.
Jesus does not chastise Martha for her foolish request. He does not say, “What is done is done; move on.” He simply loves her. He weeps with her, weaving her grief into his own. Loss and grief come, yes, but these do not get the final word. They are rolled away, in the fierce solidarity of his love.
The losses add up and grief grows. Weep with me, Jesus, then turn me back toward life.
–Kayla McClurg, Passage By Passage, Year A
