In John 11:20 it says “When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him.” The Greek term that is translated “meet” is ὑπήντησεν.This term is rarely used in the New Testament. In fact including this verse it occurs only five times. Two of these are used to describe the meeting between Martha and Jesus after Lazarus’ death – John 11:20 and 27. The other three are in Matthew 8:28, Luke 8:27, John 12:18.

The term ὑπήντησεν is interesting because it implies the following:

   1. To actively go towards another to meet them
   2. To meet with the idea of stealth
   3. To meet and be unperceived
   4. To meet without noise
   5. To meet without notice
   6. To go to meet as in a military campaign
   7. To meet as in a hostile meeting

Use in John 12:18:
In John 12:18 it is used of those who come to meet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday because some are testifying regarding the raising of Lazarus, an event in the Gospel of John that is a turning point in the confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish authorities.

17  “So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him.
18  For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.” (John 12: 17-18)

Use in Matthew and Luke:
Both Matthew and Luke use the term in similar stories to describe a meeting and/or confrontation between Jesus and demon possessed men. Their use of the term carries with it the idea of “going towards to meet” and “stealth or surprise” and with the intent of a “hostile meeting”.

28  “When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.” (Matthew 8:28)

27  “And when He came out onto the land, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.” (Luke 8:27)

Implications for Martha and Jesus’ Meeting in John 11:20:
So in light of this, what are we to make of John’s use of this term to describe Martha’s meeting with Jesus outside the village?

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

This is both a statement of faith and yet it is also confrontational. “If you had been here…” What does this statement convey?

•  Is it said as if pleading? “If only you had been here”.
•  Is it said as with the intent to comfort? “If you had been here I know it would have been OK but don’t worry about it.”
•  Or is it confrontational in nature? “You know, if you had been here, none of this would have happened.”

Since the written word does not carry the voice inflection we have to look to the how the writer sets up the scene. And in this case John is very deliberate. He switches from the normal term he uses to describe a meeting to the rarely used term ὑπήντησεν. Why? To let us know the nature of this meeting between Martha and Jesus will be different.

In addition to the use of this very unusual term to describe the meeting, John also conveys the nature of the meeting between Martha and Jesus in the actual dialogue. Beginning in 11:21 through 11:27 there is a series of very quick back and forth statements between Martha and Jesus.

1. John 11: 21 “Martha said to Jesus…”
2. John 11:23 “Jesus said to her…”
3. John 11:24 “Martha said to him…”
4. John 11:25 “Jesus said to her…”
5. John 11:27 “She said to him…”

In the Greek this is a quick exchange with several of the sentences starting with the exact same phrase as if Martha and Jesus are on equal footing, sparing one another.

John provides additional information about the context of this meeting at the end of the story. When Jesus is at the tomb and he says, “Remove the stone”.  Martha’s response is “Lord, there will be a stench for he has been dead four days”. This indicates that although her words could be interpreted that she believes Jesus can ask anything of God, her actual belief is now that Lazarus is dead, this is a game changer and Jesus cannot change this reality until the last day.

So to summarize the four:

1. The term ὑπήντησεν emphasizes the idea of confrontation and even hostility.
2. Martha’s conditional statement “if you had been here my brother would not have died” can be both a statement of faith, or an accusation.
3. And then the way John writes the verbal exchange in the conversation carries with it the idea of sparing and confrontation.
4. Finally, Martha’s response at the tomb.

From these we conclude that John is giving strong indication that Martha’s statement, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” is confrontational. It is a confrontational accusation that Jesus missed his chance to alter this event. For Martha Jesus’ ability to act is confined to that time when Lazarus was still alive.

Even the statement “I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who has come into the world” is disconnected from who Christ is in the present situation. Basically Martha is saying, “You could have done something when Lazarus was alive, but now that he is dead you can’t, but you will be able to do something about it in the future, on the last day because you are the Son of God. But on the other hand Jesus, although this is nice and everything, it really doesn’t do me a whole lot of good right now because, you see, Lazarus is still dead.”

This means Martha’s statement, “Even now I know whatever you ask of God, God will give you” although eloquent, does not include her own immediate intimate present. By that I mean it may include a lot of things but it does not include bringing Lazarus back from the dead. And since Lazarus’ death is the cause of her grief and sorrow, what Jesus can ask God to do does not include altering the events and the sorrow she feels at that moment. For Martha, what Jesus will ask God, and what God will give Him, will not effect the present moment, in which she now lives. Jesus may have been the Son of God that has come into the world, but for Martha this did not include her current world that was without Lazarus.

You see Martha was so intent on confronting Jesus about the injustice of Lazarus’ death that she missed an even greater gift that was available to her — God’s presence in Jesus, in her midst, even in the face of death.

It is to this very point that John’s teaching displays itself as simple and yet powerful. John is warning all of us that we are all like Martha! We believe in God. We believe God acts. We believe God answers prayer. But like Martha, we place all of this belief in far off locations or in a distant time in the future.

This allows us to continue with two actions:

1. We can believe without risk because we have moved all the events we believe in out into the future beyond our present circumstances where they cannot be tested and then interfere with our belief system.
2. And we can still confront God in a hostile way about his in action in the present moment.

This makes us feel like we are communicating with God. When in reality we are simply confronting Him that things are not as we would do them. This allow us to then hold onto a belief without risk because it has been removed to a distant time and place.

© 2010, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.