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# A Tale of Two Sisters
- URL: https://www.belonging.house/a-tale-of-two-sisters/
- Published: 2026-03-23T11:52:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-25T00:49:43.000Z
- Description: Do not miss the day of your visitation.
- Author: Christ John Otto
- Tags: Lent, Belief, faith, Podcast, #Migrated-1784940061448, #Import 2026-07-25 00:49

A Tale of Two Sisters

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Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedToday I want to share with you the tale of two sisters.  
John 11 is one of the most familiar stories in the gospels,  
and many people focus on the shortest verse in the Bible,  
"Jesus wept."  
  
Today I will answer the question  
why did Jesus weep,  
and also show why this story  
is where the plot turns  
toward the cross.  
  
We have to look at the details,  
and in John's gospel there are many details.  
John   
wrote his gospel somewhere around twenty years  
after the other gospels.  
And his gospel clearly references  
those other gospels  
and also "corrects the record."  
And if you pay attention to the lectionary,  
you will note  
that John's gospel   
is the one that takes precedent over the others,  
it is the one we read at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.  
This is the gospel that was held in higher esteem.  
  
In the other gospels,  
we get a sense  
that the event that sent Jesus to the cross  
was the cleansing of the temple.  
That it was about money.  
John  
presents another view altogether,  
a much more profound one.  
  
This story opens  
with Lazarus getting sick.  
John tells the reader  
that Lazarus is the brother of Mary,  
the unnamed woman in the other gospels  
who wiped the feet of Jesus with her hair.  
This is a very important detail,  
because John mentions this before the event  
happens in his gospel.  
This one sentence brings the blurry picture   
of possibly several women  
and focuses on one woman.  
We can piece together fragments  
and form a clear story,  
that actually explains  
why Mary is important,  
why Martha and Lazarus matter  
and why Jesus was so close to them.  
Mary  
once lived in Magdala,  
and she once had seven demons,  
and she may have once been a prostitute.  
And Jesus restored her  
to her own family.  
And in this restoration,  
the family essentially adopted Jesus,  
out of gratitude.  
In John, there is always a lot of information  
in the details.  
  
The next really important detail:  
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister,  
and Lazarus,  
so when he found out Lazarus was ill  
he stayed in the place where he was two days longer.  
  
Wait.  
What?  
He loved them  
so he delayed.  
So  
Lazarus gets sick  
and they have to watch him die.  
And then they have to go to the expense of burying him.  
This doesn't sound like love.  
Love  
is not about your comfort  
or you avoiding pain.  
Love is not about you avoiding hard things.  
Love   
is about   
walking into wholeness.  
And sometimes  
the path to wholeness  
will take you through hard things.  
  
Jesus  
then tells his disciples  
that Lazarus has fallen asleep,  
so now it is okay to go to see him,  
to wake him.  
  
They don't get it,  
so Jesus has to say it clearly.  
  
And of course,  
Jesus is in danger,  
and they have been hiding out in the desert for three months.  
At Hanukkah  
the Jews tried to stone him twice,  
and they have been out where John had been baptizing,  
just north the dead sea.  
They know  
that if Jesus goes near Jerusalem  
they are going to try to kill him again.  
And the disciples decide  
they are going to their deaths  
with Jesus.  
  
Now we come to the tale of two sisters.  
  
If you are Jewish  
it is customary if your father, mother,  
siblings or grandparents die  
to sit in shiva for seven days.  
It is a period of ritual mourning.  
You do nothing,  
and people bring you food.  
So a group of friends and relatives  
who live in Jerusalem  
have come to be with Mary and Martha.  
This is a really big deal,  
because Lazarus  
is the man.  
He owns the property,  
he makes the money,  
and without him  
Mary and Martha  
will have no future.  
  
Whenever John uses the term  
"Jews" in his gospel  
he is referring to the relationship  
between the first Christians and the  
official rabbinic Jewish authorities.  
By the time of John's gospel  
the Christians had been put out of the synagogue.  
The temple has been destroyed,  
and the Jewish community is in the process  
of regrouping  
around a religious system  
without a temple.  
The "Jews" in this sense  
were people  
in the Jewish community  
who rejected Jesus.  
And John has a living memory of this.  
It was his lived experience.  
So the Jews from Jerusalem,  
über-religious people,  
had come out to console Mary and Martha.  
  
There have been a lot of sermons   
about the story of  
Mary and Martha,  
and they always end up saying "don't be a Martha."  
I want to set the record straigth.  
Be a Martha, not a Mary.  
  
Martha,  
the sensible one,  
comes out to greet Jesus.  
And Mary  
sat in the house  
with all the religious people  
from Jerusalem  
who were making her feel better.  
  
And in the middle of this real life drama,  
where people are asking   
"Why did you let him die?"  
"God where were you?"  
"Why did we have to go through this?"  
"Jesus, when we really needed you  
you abandoned us."  
  
In the midst of this noise   
and disbelief,  
Martha  
says the boldest statement of faith in the New Testament.  
  
"If you had been here,  
my brother would not have died.  
Even so,  
I know that whatever you ask  
God will give you."  
  
And Jesus says,  
"Your brother will live again."  
  
And Martha speaks out the   
belief of most Jews at the time of Jesus.  
I believe in the resurrection of the dead.  
  
And Jesus says.  
"I am   
the Resurrection."  
  
And in this moment  
Jesus takes this  
from a discussion about theology  
to a call to being in relationship.  
The resurrection  
is not a thing.  
The Resurrection is a Person.  
The Sabbath is not a day,  
the Sabbath is a Person.  
The truth is not a series of statements,  
the Truth is a Person.  
Jesus is the center.  
Jesus is the resurrection.  
He is the life.  
He is the source,  
and that source  
is from the Holy Spirit in him.  
  
And Jesus looks at Martha  
in the face of all the noise,  
all the company from out of town,  
and a sealed tomb,  
and he says:  
"Martha,  
Do you believe?"  
  
And Martha proclaims:  
"Yes, Lord  
I believe that you are the Christ  
the son of God,  
who has come into the world."  
  
Martha had faith.  
It wasn't based in any feelings.  
In fact her faith took a "back seat" to feelings.  
  
And then Martha calls Mary.  
Mary  
is sitting in the living room   
with the box of Kleenex,  
and her cousins and aunts   
are bringer her plates of food  
and they are hugging her  
and coddling her.  
And Mary  
is loving it.  
  
Mary  
who had experienced  
the real miracle working power of Jesus  
first hand,  
has succumbed to her emotions,  
to the comfort,  
and the mindset  
of the people around her.  
She is listening to the voices   
all around her  
from Jerusalem.  
These are the same people  
three months earlier,  
were ready to stone Jesus.  
  
And she comes out,  
and Jesus sees  
that Mary  
does not have any faith.  
She is just like the others.  
And the others  
do not see him for who he is.  
And she is weeping  
and they are weeping.  
Martha has just declared the reality of the Kingdom  
is breaking into a world where sin and death have reigned.  
Mary has made it all about her.  
  
Mary was the lost sheep out on the mountain  
and Jesus was the shepherd that went out and found her  
and brought her home to her family  
and restored them.  
Mary has forgotten  
and is aligning with the spiritual forces  
set up to send him to the cross.  
He has lost  
the one he probably loved the best  
of all the ones  
he healed and delivered.  
  
And he wept.  
It wasn't about Lazarus.  
It was about Mary.  
And he is grieved  
and moved,  
not over a dead man.  
He already said that Lazarus  
is going to rise.  
He is weeping  
because the stage is being set  
for the crucifixion.  
  
Mary's state  
was the first of the many betrayals   
he was going to experience.  
  
Those dear friends of Mary and Martha   
run off with lots of news,  
gossip,  
about Jesus raising the dead.  
And they go to the Pharisees,  
and the Pharisees go to the high priest.  
And Caiphas  
says Jesus has to be stopped.  
One man  
must die for all the people.  
  
Two sisters  
one stands in the face of death  
and declares bold faith.  
One is lulled into comfort  
by the people who will send Jesus  
to the cross.  
  
Be a Martha,  
not a Mary.  
  
In John's gospel  
Jesus  
is put to death  
for giving a dead man  
back his life.  
And Jesus wept  
for the unbelief he saw  
not in the crowds,  
but in one of his closest friends.  
  
Thirty years ago  
there was a wild move of God  
called the Toronto Blessing.  
In 1996  
I went to New York City  
to do my Alpha Course Training  
with Nicky Gumbel.  
His church,  
Holy Trinity Brompton  
in Knightsbridge  
was one of the centers of this move of God  
and people lined up down the street to get in.  
  
We did the training at St. Bart's church in mid-Town   
and I remember being slain in the spirit on the hard  
tile floors of that old church.  
Wild.  
  
God is showing signs of his moving again.  
God is starting to release his  
weighty glory.  
God is bringing the glory back to his church.  
It's serious  
and it's holy.  
  
One of the themes of these Lent   
readings from John  
is the moment of visitation.  
The reality is  
you either go with what God is doing  
or you oppose it.  
It is a spiritual law.  
You either keep saying yes,  
keep stepping in faith,  
keep surrendering to the Holy Spirit,  
or you start to go back  
decline  
and oppose.  
Having a religious experience  
can make you an expert in how you think God works.  
And in the end  
that expertise  
becomes pride.  
And God resists the proud.  
  
Every year  
we are invited to a moment of visitation.  
There is glory on what we are going to do   
in the next two weeks.  
Next Sunday we will be doing a "Palm Sunday Seder"  
as we enter into the Passover of the Lord.  
As it says in the Seder service  
in every generation  
we have to be like those who left Egypt.  
In every generation  
we have to stand at the cross with Jesus  
and we have to look into the empty tomb.  
This is not just an anniversary on the calendar,  
this is a remembering:  
a re-connecting to the saving acts of God  
in Jesus Christ.  
  
In the bigger sense,  
there are indications  
that there is a move of God  
happening  
that really doesn't look like anything   
we have seen before.  
It is already happening in the Catholic Church,  
and in some other unexpected places.  
It's quieter,  
and more solid.  
It's like Martha.  
It is looking at the noise around  
and it is saying,  
Lord  
I believe that you are the Christ.  
It's about a long, steady,  
healthy walking with Jesus.  
It is about listening to God  
and doing what he tells you.  
It's not flashy.  
  
Some of you listening  
may need to make a decision for Jesus  
and come to him this year  
as we mark this season.  
Some of you in our house have had major  
healings and deliverance,  
life change, and restoration.  
This year at the Easter Vigil   
we want to take time to renew our baptismal vows.  
This year I want to make the opportunity  
for those who want to renew their baptism  
in a more official way to do that.  
If you want to formally recommit   
your life to Jesus  
please let me know.  
  
Jesus  
loved two sisters.  
Of course,  
in the end  
Mary's lack of faith  
becomes faith.  
She is at the cross,  
and she is one   
who meets Jesus  
at the empty tomb.  
The story is not over  
and every moment of failure  
makes a way  
for a second chance.

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