Consolation or Comfort?

and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. (John 11:19)

Throughout the book of John whenever the term 'Jews' is used it usually is in reference to the Jewish leaders who entrenched themselves in opposition to the ministry of Jesus. With that understanding this verse seems to indicate a subtle reference to something going on beneath the surface besides just an honest desire to bring comfort to a grieving family.

Mary in particular was well known around that region for her rather colorful lifestyle. She had spent years in prostitution and I have long felt that she had a very magnetic personality. Based on the stories of these two sisters I also imagine that while Mary was very attractive her sister was much less so. Martha was more of a thinker and certainly had her own struggles to enter into the kind of saving relationship with Jesus that she needed, but she did not deal nearly so much with the kind of temptations that Mary faced because she did not have the same attraction for men as Mary.

In contrast I think that Mary was a very feeling oriented person. She responded to various situations much more from her heart and emotional reactions much more than with logic and Jesus related to her differently because of this. Yet Jesus was intent on drawing both of these sisters into close relationship with Himself as well as their brother. He spent many wonderful times relaxing in their home with His disciples forming bonds of deep friendship with this family. But this did not go unnoticed by His enemies in nearby Jerusalem where Mary's reputation and Jesus' close friendship with her family became a point of great interest among those seeking any way possible to undermine His reputation and influence among the people.

I also feel that it is entirely possible that Mary was also well-known among the religious leaders for more personal reasons because some of them may have taken advantage of her weaknesses themselves. It is quite possible that the woman dragged before Jesus to be stoned was this very Mary though that is impossible to prove from biblical text. The motives of the leaders in that story indicate a deep jealousy of Jesus and a desire to hurt Him in every way possible. And what better way to attack Him than through threatening one of His dearest friends and exposing her publicly while seeking to use His love for her to embarrass and trap Him with a 'sting operation' purportedly to clean up the morals of the people.

In that story it also seems clear that the Jewish leaders seeking to trap Jesus by dragging this woman (very possibly Mary) before Him for public execution for adultery well may have set her up for this very purpose. And in setting her up it is also very likely that one of their own had enticed her into committing this act with their participation, for there is no mention in that story about the man involved even though a strict observance of the law of Moses required that both the man and woman be punished. This convenient oversight belies the strong potential that they did not want their diabolical schemes directed against Jesus or their own lusts and hypocrisy exposed.

Now when Mary and her sister were hurting deeply and their faith in Jesus was under extreme stress because of the unexplainable delay of Jesus to come to their aid in a crisis, these Jews saw an excellent opportunity to exploit Mary in yet another perverted way, so they gathered around her to supposedly bring comfort and consolation to her. Again, I feel that many of these men internally had their own desires to take advantage of Mary and were controlled to a great extent by their own passions and lust while maintaining a pious exterior to keep up appearances and appear to be holy before the people. But all the while Jesus could see clearly the ugliness, hatred, lust and wickedness in the hearts of these men who claimed to represent God before the people.

What I see really taking place here was an intense competition between two representations of God, two belief systems about the truth about what God is really like. It was because religion in general and God's chosen representatives on earth in particular had miserably failed to represent Him anywhere near properly that Jesus came to this earth to do the job personally. Religion had degenerated into a mere external system of traditions, formalities and distortions thereby nearly completely obliterating the real truth about the love and compassion and mercy of our heavenly Father. As is often true today, those who most claimed to represent God exercised the greatest influence to distort and damage His reputation. This is one of the most effective schemes of Satan as he has sought since the beginning of sin to cause as many as possible to believe destructive lies about God while those claiming to believe in Him drive others away who might be attracted to the real truth about Him.

In this story these very men with lust in their hearts and hatred against Jesus piously show up in Mary's house to purportedly bring her consolation. They certainly found it attractive to hang around a woman with such charisma that stimulated their own perverted desires, but their motives were anything but noble. As can be seen in subtle references throughout this story, these men very likely had ulterior motives in their supposed consoling. What they really desired was to reinforce the already strong temptation to doubt Jesus on the part of these sisters. These men moved in like vultures to exploit the pain and weakness of these women just when they really needed encouragement and more faith. Rather than coming to strengthen their trust in the integrity and goodness of Jesus, these miserable comforters who had not long previously possibly sought to get Mary killed in their attempts to discredit Jesus now show up appearing to show sympathy for her. But what they really wanted to do was to amplify insinuations about Jesus' motives and infer that He did not really care for people nearly so much as people thought He did.

I believe this highly charged atmosphere of doubt and unbelief that oppressed the whole village of Bethany at this time was one reason Jesus did not enter into the village but remained outside when He arrived. The following dialogues that take place were at a distance from where all the 'consoling' was going on, for Jesus was not welcome to draw near to those who had such animosity toward His spirit. That is not to say that He did not want them to be changed in their attitudes toward Him or did not desire their salvation. But Jesus respects the choices of every person and when people harden their hearts against the truth about God that Jesus came to reveal, He has little choice but to leave them to the results of their choices while doing everything possible to rescue those being deluded by their influence.

I did some research on the Greek word translated here as console and discovered that it is generally used mostly in to human to human situations. It does not appear very often in the New Testament and is different from the word used more often for the kind of comfort that God seeks to bring to our hearts. For me this is an indication that John selected this word to distinguish between the intentions of the Jews surrounding Mary and Martha in contrast with what Jesus desired to do for them. An English word that might fit even better in this spot might be 'commiserating' rather than consoling. And the questionable motives behind the actions of these Jews seems to lend to this conclusion.

Jesus had desires for these sisters far beyond anything anyone around was thinking about. Martha came the closest to guessing what Jesus had in mind when she met Him outside of town upon His arrival. That is a most interesting exchange that I look forward to unpacking and is in stark contrast to the mixed motives of the Jews who had quite the opposite intentions in their hearts. Jesus came to bring life and joy and peace while these Jews focused on death and doubt and distrust. As the saying goes today, with friends like that who needs enemies.