Do You Believe This?

“Jesus said to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?’”  (Jn.  11:25-26)  It is Jesus’ own announcement of the resurrection.  “I am the resurrection and the life.”  And just as important as what he said about it is to whom he said it.  Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary.

Martha is better known for another appearance in the Gospels, the story about Martha’s frustration with her sister Mary’s failure to help with the serving when Jesus was a guest in their home.  (Lk. 10:38-42)  Leaving aside what all that is about for now, Martha appears in one other event, a story again about Jesus being a guest in her home.  (Jn. 12:1-8)  All it is recorded is this:   “Martha served.” 

I think the overall message is that that is all one really needs to know.  Martha served.  And it is to her, the server, the one sometimes distracted by all the doing, that Jesus proclaimed the reality of the resurrection:  “I am the resurrection and the life. . . . Do you believe this?” 

The believing Jesus is talking about as essential to life is not something you do with your head.  It is far too easy to say even that it is something you do with your heart, although that gets closer to the idea.  The believing that leads to resurrection is much more active than something to keep on the inside.  Rather, it shows forth in the work of the hands.  It shows forth in walking with Jesus along the way of including the outcasts and healing the sick.  It is active in proclaiming release to the captives.  The life of the resurrection is not something that has to do with what one thinks.  It has to do with what one does.  It has to do with what one invests because of what one hopes.  It has to do with acting.  That is the only sort of belief that matters in a Jesus sense.   

Belief in the resurrection is about acting on that belief.  That’s the sort of belief Jesus said would defeat even death.  And that’s why, I believe, he picked Martha to share this good news with.  Servant that she was, she had already shown her believing abundantly.

Peace,

The Motive of Faith

The seminal story of faith in the Bible is that of Abraham.  It was the lens through which the early church came to understand Jesus.  Paul put it this way:  “For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’  To one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.”  (Rom. 4:3, 5)  It’s pretty important stuff.

The Old Testament lesson this week is the very beginning of Abraham’s story, from a time when he was still known as Abram and not yet as Abraham. 

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. (Gen. 12:1-2)

There are three points to note.

First, God told Abram to go.  He was to leave home, all that was familiar, and journey to a place as yet unknown to him.  Abram believed God, although there was no evidence to say he should, and risked everything.  God said go.  Abram went.  Faith requires action.

Second, Abram took the risk of acting out of self-interest.  God promised that if Abram did as instructed, he would become a great nation.  That’s what was in it for Abram.  Abram’s motives and intentions were not selfless at all.

Third, God did not need Abram’s motives or intentions.  I don’t think God much cares about intentions.  God does care about behavior.  What matters is that we act and not much why we act.  God cared that Abram acted on God’s call.  That was enough.  God took that, whatever the motives that might have been behind it, and made Abram’s action a blessing. 

The movement is always outward.  Go.  And the movement is always for blessing.  Perhaps motives or intentions are just irrelevant.

Peace,