Thin Permission

Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. (John 11:32-33)

Mary said the very same words that Martha had expressed but with one very important difference; she did not go the next step and express confidence that Jesus could do something to salvage this terrible situation. She stopped short of expressing a word of confidence that He might do something for her.

I have a growing conviction that Jesus needed human permission in the supernatural realm to be allowed to perform the miracle that He planned to perform on behalf of this family. The rules of engagement in the supernatural battle between good and evil have very specific requirements, many which we seem to be largely unaware of most of the time. But these rules are strictly enforced and applied by the supernatural beings involved in this conflict. Jesus was at the very center of this battle during His life here on earth and especially as He neared the time of His great sacrifice.

It is noted by the gospel writers that at times Jesus was unable to perform healings in certain places because of the unbelief of the people there. This is another very strong clue as to the restrictions of the supernatural laws governing the actions of both the divine and the evil forces. Jesus came to recapture this earth's governorship back from Satan who induced Adam into handing it over to him. Jesus came as the new Adam, the new representative of this earth in the councils of heaven. Of course Satan challenged Him at every single step of this contest and would not allow Jesus to do anything on this planet outside of what was allowed under the rules of engagement.

Raising a dead person back to life after they had begun to decompose was a very major event that would come under the closest scrutiny in the supernatural realm. This had never happened in all of history before and Jesus was to make an assertion about His authority through this miracle that would have repercussions throughout all eternity and especially among the religious community of His day. Satan had largely seduced the religious establishment into using force, fear, intimidation and deception as the main methods for maintaining control over people rather than following the methods God had laid out for their ancestors. Satan had hijacked religion to serve his ends, to deceive and discourage anyone seeking to know God and Satan had thus painted God's character in the darkest colors possible.

Jesus came to this earth for the purpose of reintroducing the clear truth about what God is really like and how He relates to people, especially sinners. (see John 18:37) Jesus also came to contend the authority that Satan had usurped from Adam and to legitimately wrest this earth away from his demonic control and abuse. This would be a fight to the death and Jesus knew it, but He never once flinched or was deterred in His plans to redeem humanity.

Without knowledge of this much greater context, Mary and Martha could only see what was going on in their own lives. But they had the advantage of having been instructed and mentored by Jesus Himself because they had chosen to welcome Him into their home and treat Him as one of their family. This had given them the potential of being used by Jesus to bring to the greater conflict one of the most telling blows against the tyranny of Satan's kingdom. Satan has relied on death and all things surrounding death as the primary means of maintaining control over people's lives and hearts with fear. Heaven does not rely on fear but rather on love as its basis of operation so the whole conflict between good and evil can be delineated by the stark difference between these two tactics.

As Jesus approached the village of Bethany to bring life and hope into the situation of His friends, from the supernatural perspective He needed to have human permission from someone involved in the situation to be able to complete His intentions for them. Jesus had spent many hours prepping both of these sisters and sharing with them vital truths that they needed to understand and grasp in order to partner with Him in His plans for them. Now the time of testing had come and both of these women were under intense pressure from opposite sides of the conflict to influence how they would perform and what choices they would make. They had enough information and experience with Jesus to cooperate with Him in His plans, but it was entirely up to them individually as to what they would do with what they had learned.

I find it interesting that it was Martha, not Mary who in this time of extreme pressure who was the one who gave Jesus the permission that He needed to continue His plans for them. I believe that if Martha had not added the words that she did after expressing her frustration with Jesus that He would have had to look elsewhere or possibly could have been prevented from going through with His plans for them. Some may disagree and find the idea strange that God cannot simply do whatever He desires to do in our lives. But it is a fact of reality that each one of us is the pivotal player in deciding which power will dominate and have permission to operate in our lives. God fiercely defends our right and freedom to choose even when we use that power to defeat His purposes and His good plans for our lives.

I am sure that Jesus was disappointed when Mary failed to express the same confidence in Him that Martha had expressed. Mary said the same exact words to start with which reveals that likely this sentiment had been the dominant idea over the past few days. In fact, I suspect that this phrase questioning Jesus' motives was the main focus of most of those who had come to purportedly console the sisters. Satan often seeks to get us to use sympathy to keep us stuck in depression and despair. In such situations it may be very surprising to learn that sympathy can often be a method of the enemy rather than a blessing to the ones supposedly being comforted. Sympathy often is used to reinforce lies about God rather than for bringing genuine hope and comfort to the grieving, hurting ones.

Obviously both sisters were hurting deeply and were full of questions about why Jesus had not come to save their brother from death. But Martha was the only one that went beyond the questions and handed Jesus the 'permission slip' so to speak that was vitally needed for Him to proceed. Mary could have chosen to do the same, but from the context it appears that she may have slipped so far under the influence of the negative Jews seeking to reinforce doubts about Jesus that she could not bring herself to trust Him that much in her pain. If this is true it is very sad, but Jesus already had the permission He needed from Martha to move ahead and He was in no way going to censure Mary.

Why does the text say that He was very troubled in His spirit? I believe it was because of this pervasive atmosphere of dark depression and unbelief being reinforced by these Jews intent on turning the hearts of Mary and Martha and many others away from their trust in Jesus. Their focus was on sadness and death and the elimination of all hope. They had a great deal of animosity against the ministry of Jesus who was bringing hope and light and life into the hearts of people listening to Him. His ideas were seriously undermining their ability to keep people in fear and bondage under their severe religious domination. The Jews were becoming very afraid of losing even political control and their methods for keeping their power were being weakened by what Jesus was doing. They were determined to reinforce the reign of spiritual terror and political fear that they had so carefully cultivated for generations.

This was the dark, foreboding atmosphere that caused Jesus to shudder and that disturbed His spirit. This was a concentration of the very darkness that He had come to dispel. And seeing His dear friend Mary being consumed by this very spirit and being sucked into despair produced by this darkness only added to His sadness and agitation.

It was the pervasiveness of unbelief that troubled the heart of Jesus. After three years of ministering to these people, teaching them the truth about His Father and seeking to bring light into their darkened minds, the fears and dark assumptions about God still remained deeply entrenched in nearly everyone's thinking. It is a titanic struggle to overcome the darkness created by the mass of lies about God that Satan has crafted for centuries. And it takes much time and enormous effort to counteract these lies and overcome the darkness with the advancement of real truth.

What is it at the core of this conflict? It is the implied question contained in the statements of both Martha and Mary. Does God really care about us and our problems? Jesus, do you care or not? If you really care about us why didn't you come when we needed you the most? Now there is nothing you can do about Lazarus when you finally arrive. Why don't your actions align with your claims that you genuinely care about us?

This too was the very issue that the Jews wanted to reinforce with Mary and Martha as seen in the next few verses. They wanted to convey very strongly to everyone that Jesus didn't really care about them as much as they thought He did. They were doing everything they could think of to strengthen suspicions about Jesus and the claims He was making about God. The God they presented to the people was not a caring God but an exacting God demanding stern obedience by using intimidation and threats of punishment against those not conforming perfectly to His demands. This is the picture of God that Satan has always sought to get people to believe and is the view of Him still held by most people today. A God of fear and threats and punishments is not a God our hearts can believe really cares about us at the deepest level. The popular portrayals of God all throughout history and still prevalent yet today is more descriptive of the character of Satan than of the real God in heaven.

Did Jesus really care about Martha and Mary's feelings? Was He concerned about their pain and suffering and grief? Of course He was. But the way He handled their situation seemed to demonstrate the opposite until the rest of the story transpired. It was not until the whole picture was revealed that they could look back and see that He really cared for them far deeper than they had ever imagined before. Their joy and faith were then so overwhelming after Jesus accomplished His plans in their suffering that their previous despair was nothing by comparison.

This story was written for our benefit. We are going to face similar circumstances where it seems that God doesn't care, that He is ignoring our cries for help. But this event was intentionally allowed by Jesus for this very purpose, to encourage us when all the evidence seems designed to drive us into despair. It is trusting in God when nothing seems to make sense that is an effective faith. It is choosing to grant God permission to act in our lives in the ways which He sees best that allows Him to do things for us far beyond our wildest dreams when it all comes out in the end. It is this kind of relationship, the one Martha chose by believing in Jesus in spite of her emotions, that transforms our sorrows into joy.

The Sovereign LORD has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison. He has sent me to proclaim that the time has come when the LORD will save his people and defeat their enemies. He has sent me to comfort all who mourn, to give to those who mourn in Zion joy and gladness instead of grief, a song of praise instead of sorrow. They will be like trees that the LORD himself has planted. They will all do what is right, and God will be praised for what he has done.

(Isa 61:1-3 GNB)