Biblical Profile: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

The sisters Martha and Mary lived with their brother Lazarus in Bethany, near Jerusalem; Jesus loved and spent time with this family. Martha and Mary are mentioned only in the Gospels of Luke and John, while Lazarus appears only in John (this Lazarus is not Lazarus the beggar from Luke 16:19-31).

Luke’s account of these two sisters (10:38-42) focuses on the contrast between Martha and Mary. When Jesus visited their home, Martha was busy in the kitchen and became upset with her sister for not helping her prepare the meal. Jesus defended Mary’s desire to simply sit and learn from him as the most important thing.

John’s Gospel relays Jesus’ act of raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). When Jesus arrived in Bethany, four days after Lazarus had died, the sisters expressed their dismay that Jesus had not come in time to heal their sick brother, and Jesus was deeply moved by the weeping of Lazarus’s family and friends. He went to the tomb and ordered Lazarus to come out. To everyone’s astonishment, he did so, bound in the cloths he had been buried in. This amazing miracle exemplifies Jesus as the giver of eternal life (John 11:25-26). Ironically, this act of restoring Lazarus’s life also galvanized the Jewish leaders to bring about Jesus’ death because so many people were responding to Jesus’ miracles (John 11:47-53; 12:10-11).

Soon thereafter, when the family invited Jesus to their home for a celebration meal, Mary poured a bottle of extremely expensive perfume on Jesus. When people criticized her for what they considered an extravagant waste, Jesus defended her action, saying that it anticipated his coming death (John 12:1-8; cp. Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9).

Passages for Further Study

Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-44; 12:1-11, 17