The Feast of St. Martha and Mary of Bethany 
Text: Luke 10:38-42 and John 11:1-44

Luke 10:38-42 38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” 

John 11:1-44 11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” 
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So 
they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
“I am the resurrection and life” was one of the powerful entitlements of Jesus. He told this to Martha when she had a dialogical discourse over the death of her brother Lazarus. Many heavily lofted theological constructs underpinning the divinity of Jesus is articulated in the Johannine text. It centers around the faith in Christ. As we are celebrating the feast of Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany, I would like to share a few things about Martha and Mary in today's study. 
In Luke, even though Martha complains about Marys’ insensitivity in sharing the household work in the preparation of food, Jesus appreciates Mary for choosing a better part in listening to Christ. He instructs Martha not to worry about the things that stress our daily life and wants Martha to be part of the faith community that listens to God and discerns the Will of God. Jesus’s movement is a faith movement that configures the resolution in uncertain life with the basic faculty of having trust in God. Many times, people in general worry about the things that are ephemeral and temporary and lose their connectivity with eternity. 
1. Questioning: Martha and her sister Mary, as for me, belongs to the tradition of questioning the realities which hamper the harmony of human life. Their faith in their master made them question Christ in a subtle way by saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I feel that they were questioning Christ for his absence and his late response to their call when Lazarus was ill. They had a strong faith to question Christ, because love always seeks truth and truth always leads to love and perfection. Questioning is a basic faculty of faith and it always clarifies the doubts for a constructive change and adaptability. However, Martha’s added statements envisage certain insights for us to ponder. 
2. Believing: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” - These words from Martha explicates her belief in the person of Jesus as a “Son of God”. She had a strong faith in Christ because even today we know that Christ is our high priest who constantly prays for us, (Hebrews 7:1-3) and he remains as our priest forever. Saint Paul entitles him as perpetual high priest in the priestly order of “Melchizedek” - (“melacha” means “King” + sedekah means righteousness in Hebrew). Jesus continues to pray for us and helps to deliver us from the impediments of this world. This statement fails not to say that she had a certain amount of belief in Jesus’s divinity and also with some shallowness about the imminent presence because there is always a struggle between reason and faith. Faith cannot be tested by reason completely because faith does cross visible boundaries and realities. We all vacillate between different polarities of life. 
3. Affirmation: while carefully reading the dialogue between Jesus and Martha, the following text: Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the Resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life; Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” 
This text exhibits her unequivocal affirmation about the Divinity of Christ. She was clarified by Christ that faith in Him will connect us to eternal life. Faith becomes complete only when there is action. Faith in God does not end in time; it's an everlasting bond and life with God. Even though Lazarus died again, this passage communicates that in-Christ we will live forever through faith. Death cannot prevail over the life in Christ. Let us continue to affirm the life in Christ and devote ourselves to live for Christ till our last breath. 
Amen 

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Text: John 20:11-18 
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Why are you weeping?” These were the first words from the resurrected Lord, Jesus. In the post resurrection accounts of John’s Gospel, Jesus first spoke to a woman. This narration exemplifies numerous theological shifts in the ministerial paradigm of the Christian/Jewish community. Even though women were considered second class citizens in the then Jewish community, Jesus’s teaching, life, and witness empowered and equipped women to affirm their place in creating an egalitarian society. 
As we are celebrating the feast of Mary Magdalen on this day, I would like to share some information on the personality of Mary. 
1. The nomenclature of Mary Magdalen gives us two names. The last name, Magdalen, is attributed to Mary based on the native identity: from the village of Magdalen. 
2. Some theologians believe Mary was healed by Jesus from her demonic possession, and some treat her with a certain derogatory past identity. 
3. She was one of the prolific disciples and supported the ministry of Jesus with material possessions. 
4. Based on the multiple propositions that are articulated to this personality, the traditional church strongly believes that she accompanied St. John, the gospel writer, to propagate the “good news” of Jesus. 
I’m not about to validate or invalidate the identity of Mary, but rather, I am interested in highlighting the qualities of Mary in relation to doing the mission of God. 
1. Consistency: The love for Jesus has never ceased in Mary, whether he’s alive or dead. The passage clearly projects the love of Mary for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mary tasted liberation in a new life experience in the movement of Jesus. The inclusivity of women in the movement established a new order and generated new identity to the marginalized people, to claim themselves as the Children of God. So the search of Jesus’s body in the tomb reflects the love of Jesus from Mary. Today, predominantly, people wear masks and their love seems fake because their love changes between the presence and the absence of a person. But Mary tells us to be consistent in our relationship and love for others. 
2. Search for truth: Mary displayed a great quality in searching for the truth behind the missing body of Christ. Even though the male disciples showed some negligence towards the missing body of Christ, we see Mary wrestling with the situation. She approached the disciples for help and peeped into the tomb to sort out her doubts, but she failed. The appearance of Jesus, the Theophanic experience, failed her in finding the truth. Finally, we were able to see the appearance of the Resurrected God, which also blinded her from seeing the truth. But she experienced the truth by the words of Jesus which were from a very personal and affirmative God. Even today, when we search for the truth, God is always near us, and he’ll tell us what to do. No other agency can tell us the truth except the broken body of Christ which was resurrected by the Power of God. Every broken body will tell the fullness and the abundance of God's life to be accomplished with the help of God, amen. 
God bless these words. 
https://youtu.be/ZFVQPq6e-68 

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Luke 7:18-23 

18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples 19 and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 20 When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21 Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 23 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at  me.”
A precise study: 
One of the consistent aspirations of the Israelite spirituality is connected to a unique theological paradigm called, “Messianic Expectation”. It's an expectation and a strong faith in the powerful intervention of God in human society. They waited for God to redeem the “people of God” in history from all the awkwardness and chaos of life. Israel, with many of their historical experiences failing them, still did not realize a society reigning with peace and joy. The turns and shifts in ministerial offices, such as priests, kings and prophets too, became failures as models to encapsulate the fullness of life. They discovered that all human paradigms were failures, so they placed their complete hope in God. They expected God to come to redeem them from all the miseries of life.

An uncanny belief in human leadership and the intense heroic claims attached to it, blinded them to discover their responsibility to practice the call of God to/in them. In today’s text, I feel Jesus’ befitting reply, profoundly elucidates the quality of leadership in a given society rather than romanticizing a leader (himself).
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The question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” is a point-blank question without any solecism. Instead of answering it with a “yes” or “no”, the description about the quality of ministry, abounds in words, and explicates in redefining leadership as a quality of life instead of attaching it with a leader/individual. More than a leader, Jesus’ focused on the quality of leadership which brings change to the lives of the needy and poor. I feel that it is only those who are sick that need the medicine. Is it only those who are poor that need the money? Is it only those who are powerless that need power! that brings an equilibrium in an unjust and disappropriate world? So, to realize the abundance and adequacy for all is the call to leadership. It is not about an individual, or a team. It's all about a quality of life in its fullness. The contemporary political domains seem to give more importance to individual leaders and even in democracy the traits of power, display the contradictions between the charisma of a leader and the content in the quality of life in all subjects. For example, I feel that the world’s largest democracy, India is experiencing a dictator in the name of democracy. The minorities, Dalits and those who live in poor communities, live in a shadow of fear and bigotry. “Modi” has become a political ideology and discards the constitutional fundamentals which guarantee the quality of life to all. However, history stands tall to tell us that the radiant light of true liberation comes from God and not from any individual. Leadership means to serve and not to be served. Leadership under Christ communicates the gravity of true leadership, transforming the valleys to mountains, dry lands to orchids, sickness into health, war to peace, division to unity, monopolization to decentralization, unjust attitudes to just ones, unfaithful acts to faithful ones, exclusivity to inclusivity, suspicion to trust, jealousy to complementary attitudes and hate to love; it's all about change and a new life in God.

One of the important mechanisms to set the wheels of democracy moving is the careful operation of the dynamics of equilibrium, in simple words checks and balances. On the other hand, the failure of the system as mentioned by Reinhold Niebuhr, “its collective egoism.” The rule of the powerful and might negates the quality of life to all. The prism of social justice gets corrupted when all are not treated equally in the context of inequality and oppression. Thus, the preferential discrimination and reservation policies are the justified acts to reach the appropriate justice and equality. To be involved in the active mission of God, one has to recognize the predicaments in society and a strong analysis will engage our responses to address each one with hopes for transformation.

Thus, Jesus, by quoting the issues of the sick, poor and the needy and his compassionate action, elaborates our understating to enlarge our vision. It also engages our mission to bring the quality of God’s blessing in all domains, to heal and restore God’s plan for all. This strongly demands the powerful and dominant in the society to relinquish their rigid boundaries of life as well as to be humble before God to join the hands of Jesus in helping the underprivileged to discover themselves to create a new world order, of which Jesus dreamt. The primary demand of the church is to realize another world without pain and suffering, abounding with love.
The pathos of the people is one of the true sources to discover the agenda of God because God in Christ wants to restore life in its fullness to all. As partners of Christ, let us continue to listen to the painful voices to discern and restore life is the expectation from God. Jesus’ message to John confirms that we need to act locally to build the kingdom of God, to see the presence of the true messiah in the neighborhood community. It is not limited to one community, but it is granted free to all in Christ.

A community with equal access to life in body, soul and mind demands our faith praxis to be vibrant in bringing change. Let us continue to affirm that we are one with God in Christ and continue to carry His mission to realize the messianic fulfillment in our context with courage and dedication.

God bless these words. Amen