2023/01/02

72. The Gate to the Destruction, part 2.

As we have examined, the path that led the Church to the present miserable condition was built by many who saw God, the true parent of man, in the image of matrimony.¹ To examine this path, we will continue to focus on Mary of Bethany in the Gospel of John from the previous article. The first purpose is to find in our biblical understanding clues for reflection. 

At the beginning of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, the Gospel of John says: "Now a certain man was ill, Laz'arus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair" (John 11:1-2), telling Mary's future acts in advance. This way of writing seems to be the same method by which the four Gospels foretell the tragedy of Judas Iscariot,² which means the author intended to equate Mary with Judas (cf. this blog № 71). If so, it is no coincidence that Mary's name is withheld in the later verse: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Laz'arus" (John 11:5). 

Jesus did not enter the village as soon as he arrived in Bethany because he was in danger of being caught. Among the crowd of Jews who had come to comfort Martha and Mary about their brother Lazarus,³ some must have been spies sent by the High Priest and the Pharisees and waiting to catch Jesus at his word.⁴ They wanted to hear how Jesus would plead his case to the sisters who had called him for help with Lazarus' illness. They had come to Mary, as is written in the later verse.⁵ That is why John the Evangelist deliberately stated, "When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house" (John 11:20). These people assumed that Jesus would come to the house because it had been four days since Lazarus was buried. Then Martha returned and whispered to Mary, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you" (John 11:28), which caught her off guard, and she "rose quickly and went to him" (John 11:29). Those who were with her did not grasp what was happening and thought she was going to cry at the tomb. 

Mary, when seeing Jesus, fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:32). Jesus did not answer her. Unlike Martha, who uttered identical words as soon as she greeted Jesus,6 Mary's words and behavior indicated that she shared the same thought with the Jews who had followed her. When Jesus saw her weeping in anticipation of his apology and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled, saying, "Where have you laid him?" (John 11:34). Jesus decided to raise Lazarus to life and wept to pray to his Father in heaven.⁷ For Jesus, all these events happened that his disciples would come to believe.⁸

[Reference] 1. this blog №58, № 59, № 61-65, № 69  2. Matthew 10:4, Mark 3:19, Luke 6:16, John 6:71  3. John 11:19  4. Luke 20:20  5. John 11:45-46  6. John 11:21-27  7. John 11:35, Hebrews 5:7  8. John 11:14-15

Maria K. M.