Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever 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, he who is coming into the world." John 11:17–27
(RSV) Among the rabbis, the opinion was held that the soul would linger near the body for three days, after which it would depart. Once the soul had gone, there was no hope of life returning; death was final beyond this point. Jesus was arriving in a hopeless situation.
Martha knew it as did Mary, along with all the people who had come to console the sisters. 'If you had been here,' the heart-rending cry of Martha has echoed down through the ages. It has been heard in the hospital ward, on the roadside, the farm field, the child's crib, or the battlefield. Thousands of voices have raised this lament to God, 'If you had been here.'
As she stood before Jesus, tears tracing paths down her cheeks, her voice trembling with grief and anger, Martha let her accusation fly at Jesus. She believed Jesus could have done something for Lazarus while there was still time, but now it was hope beyond dreaming.
'Your brother will rise again,' promised Jesus. Martha gazed down the long ages to the last day and confessed it to be so. We, too, look from the graves of those we love, straining to see that final day when the dead shall rise. It lies beyond our imagining that it could ever come. How long will we lay in the earth ourselves before that hour?
Jesus does not count the decades, even the centuries or millennia, until the end should come. He speaks of the present moment; "I am the resurrection and the life." In this moment, the last day has already come, the final hour appeared, and those who have died are alive.
These things are too wonderful for us to contemplate. Our hearts can but imagine that the last day has already come, the fulfillment of all God's promises fully arrived. Like Martha, we may not yet understand this reality that has come with Jesus, but in faith, we can confess with her: 'Yes Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, He who is coming into the world.'
Even in the days after the soul has fled the grave, the Life which will bind body and soul as one again is here.