Come to Jesus

The greatest command ever given to the people of God is also the simplest: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Every page of Scripture exists to teach us how to do this—how to love God more deeply with everything we are, and how that love overflows into the way we love one another. The whole of the Bible bends toward these two ends. And in John 11, we are given one of the most remarkable pictures of what it looks like when ordinary people—broken, grieving, even dead—come to Jesus and find their love for Him increased in ways they could not have produced on their own.

Before the story unfolds, John tells us something we must not miss: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). He names them in the exact order in which each one will come to Him. The love is already there before the crisis, before the death, before any of them take a single step in His direction. This is the ground beneath everything that follows. They do not come to Jesus because they have perfected their love for Him. They come because He first loved them. And in coming, their love is deepened.

Martha comes first. She hears that Jesus is near, and she goes out to meet Him. Her encounter is one of the mind—she reasons, she questions, she confesses. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she says, and then adds, “Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will grant you” (vv. 21–22). She brings her best theology, and Jesus does not rebuke it. He exceeds it. He gives her the extraordinary declaration, “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25). Martha came loving God with her mind, and Jesus increased that love by giving her a revelation she could never have reached on her own.

Mary comes second. She does not go out on her own—she is called. “The Teacher is here and is calling for you” (v. 28). When she reaches Jesus, she falls at His feet and says the very same words Martha said. But she adds no theology. She adds tears. Her encounter is one of the soul—wordless grief poured out at the feet of Christ. And something happens in Jesus that did not happen with Martha. He is deeply moved. He is troubled. He weeps. Mary came loving God with her soul, and Jesus met her there—not with an explanation but with His own sorrow. Her love was increased not by what she understood but by the presence she received.

Lazarus comes third—but he does not come at all. He is dead. Four days in the tomb. He has no mind to reason with, no soul to grieve with. He is body alone, and the body is finished. And yet it is Lazarus who receives the greatest act of love. Jesus stands at the mouth of the tomb and cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (v. 43). The dead man walks out, still bound in grave clothes, and Jesus tells the community, “Unbind him and let him go” (v. 44). Lazarus could not love God with his strength—he had none. So God loved his body back to life. Where Lazarus’s love was entirely absent, Christ’s love was entirely sufficient.

This is the pattern of the passage and the pattern of the Christian life. We are called to love God with all that we are—mind, soul, and body. But our love is never complete. It is always partial, always lacking, always insufficient for the command. And this is precisely where the gospel meets us. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). His love precedes ours, enables ours, and fills every gap our love leaves open. Martha’s knowledge of Jesus was deepened by a greater revelation: Jesus is not just; the resurrection later, he is the resurrection now! Mary’s soul was loved when Jesus reciprocated her mourning. Where Mary’s words were silent, her soul spoke with shouting, and Jesus comforts her soul with his, as he speaks to her soul in the same way her soul was speaking to him—with weeping. Lazarus’s body was raised by sheer grace. Unable to do anything, and for the great love that Jesus had for Lazarus, he raised him to life and unbound him from his death. In each case, Jesus gave more than they brought. Where their love was lacking, He increased it because of the great love He first had for them.

Come to Jesus with whatever you have—your questions, your tears, or nothing at all—and see what He will do with it.

Peace be with you,

Pastor Bruce