Have you ever thought you knew something well, and then the moment came when you realised just how little you knew, and how there was so much more you did not have a clue about? Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and polymath said, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Einstein, the world-renowned physicist, echoed a similar sentiment when he said, “The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know.” In this post though, I won’t be talking about Aristotle or Einstein, but someone who may not have been as famous globally in her day, yet has taught me some very important lessons, Martha.

As I was reading my Bible this morning, two stories in the Bible where Martha features struck me, due to a common theme and the lessons I learnt.

The first was when Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. In that story, recorded in John 11, Jesus finds out that Lazarus is sick, but does not come immediately. By the time he does show up, Lazarus has been dead for four days. I should add that the number of days Lazarus had been dead for is quite significant here. Apparently Jewish people considered the fourth day to be the point at which the soul was considered truly gone, as they believed the soul lingers around the body for three days, hoping to return, but then gives up on the fourth day.

As such, when Martha hears Jesus is on His way, she goes out to meet Him, and the first thing she is quoted as saying is, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, NLT). We can understand Martha’s upset here. The Messiah, a miracle worker who had healed so many, did not show up on time to heal her brother, even though she was close to Him and her brother, Lazarus, was His friend as well. You would have thought, perks of friendship and all, and yet…

But she doesn’t stop there though. I’ll include the conversation between Jesus and Martha here, as recorded in John 11:21-28 (NLT):

““Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.””

From this conversation, we can possibly deduce what Martha knows. She knows Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. She knows that God will give Jesus whatever He asks. And she knows that there will be a resurrection on the last day.

However, what she did not seem to know is that Jesus could indeed raise her brother up from the dead right then, and that the time that had lapsed was not enough to limit His power. Even when she responds by saying she knows that God will give Jesus whatever He asks, she’s thinking more of Lazarus being able to rise again on the last day, not even considering the fact that that resurrection could happen then and there (A wild guess could be that when she mentioned that God would give Jesus whatever He asked, she may have been hoping for some sort of intercession for his soul. However, I will emphasise that is just conjecture). Verse 39 further buttresses the fact that she certainly wasn’t expecting any resurrection at that present time: ““Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.””

That said, I am heartened by the fact that despite what has just happened (Jesus coming too late to help her brother, in her view) she still declares the truth of who she knows Jesus to be. She does not recant her faith because Jesus did not do what she expected of Him. And she’s about to find out just how powerful this Messiah is.

The stone gets rolled aside, despite her protest, Jesus says a prayer of thanks to God, and orders Lazarus to come out! And just like that, with one command from Jesus, her brother is back in the land of the living! (Verses 40-43). I can only imagine how she must have felt after seeing such a miracle, a miracle that blew her limited preconception of Jesus straight out of the water!

Martha knew, but did not really ‘know’. The beauty of God’s mercy though is that her partial knowledge did not stop Jesus from performing an amazing miracle.

Because her knowledge is partial here, her faith is also ‘partial’, demonstrating that connection between faith and the Word of God which one hears and knows (Romans 10:17). She knows Jesus can do some miracles, but until then, she did not quite know or realise the full extent of His power.

However, partial knowledge (both in Martha’s case and for us today) does not stop Jesus, thank God for that! For as Jesus Himself said, mustard seed-like faith is enough to move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). Obviously, after this experience which she witnessed with her very own eyes, her knowledge of Jesus Christ’s capabilities gets a boost, and subsequently so does her faith and belief in what He is able to do. Praise God!

The second story is recorded in Luke 10:38-42. “As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.””

Again, we see a manifestation of partial knowledge. Martha, knowing who Jesus is, welcomes Him into her home. She also works hard to serve Him, because she knows it is right to serve Jesus (literally and figuratively in this instance). She knows that cooking a big dinner is the traditional way to honour an important guest. After all, most people who come to visit, especially from afar, would love a wonderful meal. As such, she assumes same for Jesus, who is indeed a very important guest. She assumes that this is what he would value, and what would honour Him. In a sense, she knows she should serve Jesus, but does not quite realise what sort of service would please Him best, and what actions would actually honour Him.

And so, when her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach, Martha is understandably upset, thinking Mary has gotten this all wrong, and that is not how you honour someone as important as Jesus!

Again, I am heartened by the fact that despite her misunderstanding of what would please Jesus better, instead of sulking and causing bitterness to fester towards her sister Mary, she takes her problem straight to Jesus.

Jesus’ response possibly surprises her. Because instead of affirming her belief that she is one putting in all the work to honour Him, He tells her that “There is only one thing worth being concerned about, (other translations say ‘only one thing needful, only one thing necessary). Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (v.42). And in that moment, she realises that the most honouring thing she can do for Jesus is to spend time with Him, to listen to Him and learn from Him.

Now I should add that Jesus does not tell her off for the work she was doing, contrary to how we have sometimes heard this story told. He never says Martha should not have prepared the dinner. What He tells her off for is her worrying, and consequently getting upset about those details.

Jesus does not want us to worry, and He tells His followers multiple times not to worry or be anxious (Matthew 6:34; Luke 12:22-31; John 14:27). Why? Because on a fundamental level, worry demonstrates a lack of trust in God, and this is usually fuelled by a lack of knowledge about who God is and how much He loves us. And of course, a lack of trust in God does not honour Him at all. So in trying to honour Him, because of worry, she was inadvertently not honouring Him.

Sometimes we want to serve God, we know we should serve God, but even though our hearts may be in the right place, we may not have gone to Him to find out what He wants from us. We might be using our limited knowledge to do what we think He may want us to do, or we may be going by the traditions of men. The danger of this though is that we may begin to feel resentful and upset if we feel others are not doing as much as us, not realising that this is not how it works in God’s Kingdom. God does not want us comparing ourselves to each other (John 21:22, Romans 14:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12). However, if we only have limited knowledge about who God is, we may be more inclined to treat Him as some distant boss, rather than our loving heavenly Father, thinking we need to do more and more to please Him and curry His favour, when what He really wants is our undivided hearts.

What I love about these two stories is that in both cases, Jesus is gentle with Martha. He does not berate her or ignore her for her limited knowledge and consequent actions based on that. Instead, He responds tenderly to her. Jesus meets Martha exactly where she is at. But, and this is important, He does not just leave her there. He turns these moments into teachable moments that expand her knowledge of Jesus, which will in turn help her be a better follower of Jesus. It is akin to Him meeting her partway on the road to full knowledge of Himself, and tenderly, personally leading her there.

In a sense, we are all like Martha aren’t we? It takes humility to recognise and admit that though. We have some knowledge of who God is and what He can do, but in truth, we have barely scratched the surface of knowledge of God. As 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT) notes, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” In a sense, this also describes how I feel when I study the Bible. No matter how many times I have read it from cover to cover, I keep finding things that almost make me feel as though it is my first time reading it!

Similarly, we may have hearts passionate about serving God, but we have times when we bumble along, often losing our way like sheep, taking a wrong turn and doing the wrong thing (Isaiah 53:6, Matthew 18:12-14). Peter, in His passion for Jesus, cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant (John 18:10), possibly thinking that was how to demonstrate love and loyalty. But Jesus corrected Him, rectified His misplay by healing the servant, and further on, exhorts Peter to feed His lambs, take care of His sheep, and follow Him (John 21:15-17).

We may have some knowledge of what it takes to be a follower of Jesus, but we probably don’t even realise just how powerfully He can use us, if we submit to Him. Isn’t it somewhat ironical, that the one who was quick to use the sword was the one Jesus told to take care of His sheep? God certainly sees far more in us than we see in ourselves, and the more we get to know Him, the more we will discover who we are as well. For as Acts 17:28 (NLT) says, “In Him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’”

The good news is that as in the case of Martha, Jesus sees our earnest hearts, our little faith, our limited knowledge. He tenderly acknowledges where we are, while lifting us to even greater heights of wisdom and faith in Him, as we continue to come to Him, taking our worries, doubts, questions to the one who is all-wise and all-knowing. Furthermore, as long as our hearts are open, He will fill them with Himself, with the knowledge of who He is and what He can do in and through us.

I pray that as we reflect on this, we will have a deeper desire to know God even more. May we not be disheartened when we realise just how little we know. Instead, may we be encouraged to know that God loves us no matter what, and that, eager to satisfy our thirst for greater knowledge of Himself, He meet us right where we are, and walks with us to where He want us to be. Thank you Abba, for your grace and for the tender way you correct us. As we get to know You more, may we continue to experience even more of Your grace and love, and may our faith in You increase continually. Amen and Amen.

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