John 11:17-43 (NIV)

Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then 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?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

Reflection:

As we read of the account of Lazarus’ resurrection, we see how Jesus is deeply moved by the cries of Mary and Martha. As Jesus sees Mary (and also the Jews who had come along with her) weeping, He is deeply moved in spirit and troubled, even weeping! Once again we see Jesus’ ministry being beckoned by the cries of the people, the ones in despair, the ones in need of a miracle. Whereas the raising of the widow’s son was in a faraway land (Galilee), the raising of Lazarus was in a suburb of Jerusalem (Bethany) - and was witnessed by many. Not surprisingly, the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead caused many to believe in Jesus.

Responding to the Transmission:

So interesting is Jesus’ response to both Martha and Mary. To Martha, He declares who He is - the resurrection and the life, the Messiah. To Mary, He is deeply moved and weeps. It is her cries that beckon Jesus to work this miracle. Perhaps one clue of difference we can see from the text is that Mary fell at Jesus’ feet when she went to Him. Her heart condition caused her to fall down at His feet. What about us? What is our heart condition as we go to God? Do our cries move God’s heart? Let us ask God for the heart of Mary. May we love God deeply and, in turn, experience the deep love of God. May we also learn to weep in prayer for His works to be known today.

UMBC public policy professor David Salkever delves into the University System of Maryland merger debate in a new Washington Post letter to the editor and Baltimore Sun commentary, published last week.

In the Sun, Salkever argues that merging the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore in an effort to “raise their national rankings based on total research funding” represents flawed logic, given that rankings groups are aware of and have mechanisms to mitigate the effects of such tactics, such as collecting data at the campus rather than institutional level. He writes, “to increase the College Park rankings, in the authoritative ‘Top American Research Universities’ report, we would need to make some (very expensive and disruptive) geographic moves of programs to the College Park campus.”

Responding to the argument that a merger would increase research collaboration across the campuses, Salkever’s Post letter notes: “Before proceeding with an expensive, complicated process to solve [the suggested] collaboration ‘problem,’ officials should first get evidence that a problem exists.” He adds that if the problem does exist, officials should take a careful, evidence-based approach to addressing it.

Thomas Schaller’s new Baltimore Sun commentary responds to Rick Perry’s recent debate gaffe, where he failed to recall the third cabinet agency he’d like to close, after naming the Depts. of Education and Commerce. Beyond the “oops” moment, UMBC political science professor Schaller asks why Perry wants to eliminate those three departments in particular, rather than cutting spending across all departments or eliminating newer agencies.

Schaller has also written a new guest post for Sabato’s Crystal Ball, exploring the limited political impact of President Obama’s foreign policy successes in Iraq, Libya and with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Schaller writes: “His performance thus far has been pretty solid, but he stands to reap little to no electoral benefit from it.”

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