Believe? - That is the Question
“…and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26 KJV
Martha and Mary were upset and rightly so. Their brother, Lazarus, was sick. They sent word to Jesus of Lazarus’ sickness in hopes that He would come and heal him. But, to their dismay, Jesus didn’t come. And so, Lazarus died.
Mary and Martha were devastated. How could this be? Why didn’t Jesus come? They were overwhelmed with grief and with so many questions. It was no secret of the power of Jesus. He had opened blinded eyes, healed deaf ears, delivered people from demonic spirits, and fed the thousands. They had heard the stories of the many miracles that Jesus performed. Yet for Mary and Martha, their miracle did not happen.
News spread that Jesus was near and Martha could not help herself. She had to go and meet Him. Martha, poor Martha! Like so many of us, she could not contain herself and she just had to say it, “…if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (vs.21) Martha’s heart was heavy. Her brother was gone. But in her conversation with Jesus, Martha told him with confidence that Lazarus would rise again in the resurrection of the last day.
Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
We live in a world with many different religions and/or faiths. And, in the United States, at least for now, we still have the freedom to believe whatever we choose. As for me, I count it a privilege to have been raised in a Christian home and to have grown up attending a Christian church. I didn’t just learn about Jesus at church but was taught about Jesus at home.
But even though I knew about Jesus, there came a point in my life where I had to decide for myself if I believed in Jesus as my Savior. I could no longer depend on my parents’ faith and what they believed. Just as Martha, I had to come face to face with the same question, “Believest thou this?”
I love Martha’s response to Jesus. You see, even though Jesus didn’t come immediately and Lazarus died, Martha did not hesitate to answer. There was no reason to pause. Martha believed in the Lord Jesus, and she answered, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
If you don’t know the end of this story, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus called to Lazarus, “Come out!” Lazarus responded to the voice of Jesus and walked right out of the grave. The Application Study Bible says, “Lazarus’s resurrection poses an important question: When you die, do you fully expect that your next conscious experience will be hearing the voice of Jesus call you by name?”
And thousands of years later, the question still stands, “Do you believe this?” Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that he came to this world, born of a virgin? Do you believe that Jesus lived as a man and died on a cross to pay the price for our sins? And then three days later, Jesus was resurrected providing the way for us to have eternal life?
No one can answer these questions for you. Only you.
