She
said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.” When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.” When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”
John 11:27-31
John 11 [25.] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11 [27.] She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”
John 11 [28.] When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.”
John 11 [29.] When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.” Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
John 11 [33.] When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?”
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus wept.
Meaning:
Jesus had just told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and asked her, “Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). These verses give her answer, one of the great confessions of faith in the Gospels, and then turn to her sister Mary, who goes out to meet Jesus with a crowd of mourners following her.
- “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe”
Martha does not claim to understand everything Jesus has said, but she trusts the one who said it. The form of her words points to a settled conviction: she has come to believe, and she still believes. Her brother is still in the tomb, yet her faith rests on who Jesus is, not on what she can see.
- “That you are the Christ, God’s Son”
Martha gives Jesus two titles. “The Christ” means the Anointed One, the promised Messiah, the King descended from David. “God’s Son” speaks of his unique relationship with the Father. Her confession echoes Peter’s: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), and his words in John’s Gospel, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).
Martha’s words also match the purpose for which John wrote his Gospel: “these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). In the middle of the story of Lazarus, a grieving woman says exactly what John hopes every reader will come to believe.
- “He who comes into the world”
This was a way of speaking of the one whom God had promised to send. After the feeding of the five thousand, the people said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world” (John 6:14). John had described Jesus as “the true light that enlightens everyone” who “was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Martha recognises that the long-awaited one has come.
- “The Teacher is here, and is calling you”
Martha went back and told Mary quietly. The house was full of mourners, some of whom had links with the leaders who wanted to kill Jesus (John 11:46), and she may also have wanted her sister to meet Jesus without a crowd. “The Teacher” was how the disciples spoke of Jesus. The words “is calling you” are tender. Jesus had said that the good shepherd “calls his own sheep by name” (John 10:3).
- “She arose quickly, and went to him”
Mary had stayed in the house, sitting with the mourners, but at Jesus’ call she got up at once. Jesus was still outside the village, at the place where Martha had met him. Perhaps he waited there to meet the sisters away from the crowd, and the tomb, too, lay outside the village.
- “She is going to the tomb to weep there”
The mourners assumed Mary was going to the grave, and they followed to grieve with her. Without knowing it, they were being led to witness the greatest sign of Jesus’ ministry. Many of them would believe in him because of what they saw (John 11:45).
The Significance of John 11:27-31
- Confessing Christ in the dark
Martha confessed her faith before her brother was raised, while her grief was still raw. Faith that holds to who Jesus is, even before we see his answer, is precious to God.
- Hearing the call of Jesus
Mary responded quickly when she heard that Jesus was calling her. The Lord still calls people personally, and the right response is to come to him without delay.
- God working through ordinary actions
The mourners only meant to comfort Mary, but God used their movement to gather witnesses. Our ordinary acts of kindness can become part of God’s greater purposes.
Cross-References:
Matthew 16:16: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter’s confession, echoed by Martha.
John 20:31: "these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," Martha’s words express the purpose of John’s Gospel.
John 6:14: "This is truly the prophet who comes into the world." The expected one who was to come.
John 10:3: "He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out." The shepherd who calls Mary by name.
Conclusion: Martha answered Jesus’ question with a firm confession: he is the Christ, God’s Son, the one who was to come into the world. She then quietly called Mary, telling her that the Teacher was calling her, and Mary rose at once to go to him. The mourners followed, thinking she was going to weep at the tomb, and so they became witnesses of what Jesus was about to do.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible