Fellowlabourers

Bethany is a little town down in the southeast corner of the Mount of Olives less than two miles from the city of Jerusalem. It’s a town of very little consequence; the only real claim to fame is that Mary, Martha and Lazarus live there. Otherwise it’s just sort of a place that nobody knows much about; a little suburb of Jerusalem.

“It’s fascinating that this is the place that Jesus goes to perform the hallmark miracle of His ministry—the resurrection of Lazarus. No greater miracle did He do than that one and He doesn’t do it in Jerusalem.

"You remember back in chapter 7 His brothers wanted to go to Jerusalem and show all His glory and do all this stuff—
‘Well, that’s where the crowd is. That’s where the fame is.’ You want to get a Pulitzer Prize, you want to get your name on a marquee, go to Jerusalem.

“You know, the Bible doesn’t mention any of the great cities of the New Testament era. There were great wonderful cities in existence at the time of Christ and the apostles and you don’t read about hardly any of them in the Bible.

“You read about Ephesus and ‘great is Diana of Ephesus.’ That temple in Acts 19 about Ephesus that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It’s just sort of a side note in Acts about a more important story.

“The Bible’s a strange book of history. It’s a book of history but it focuses on the odd things. It’s not focusing on the big marquis places; it’s focusing on places like Bethany because Jesus goes there to that seemingly insignificant place to perform the hallmark miracle of His whole life. I think about that and that’s a tremendous example of how He glorifies Himself not in the glory of man, but in the insignificance of man.

“He picks this little nothing of a place, as it were, as the place of the final, conclusive proof of His identity as He’s preparing to surrender Himself to death. This is a moment of great import in the life of Christ. But He doesn’t do it on the stage of human history where the cameras are rolling.

“Bethany is the town of the sisters Mary and Martha. In Luke 10, you get introduced to them for the first time. This is a wonderful home. 10:38 -39 reads: ‘Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
[39] And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

“It’s always good to receive Christ but when you think about in the context of Luke 10, he’s being rejected everywhere He goes. Here’s a home that receives Him. This is a home of Believers interested in hearing what Jesus is teaching.

“Notice in John 11 how that John assumes that the people he’s writing to know who Mary is. That’s the reason, by the way, that Mary is first in verse 11. Every time Martha, Mary and Lazarus are mentioned in the Bible, Martha is mentioned first every time except here. The reason obviously is because people knew who she was. She’s the one who anointed Him and wiped His feet with her hair.

“You can go to Mark 14 and read about it. One of the things Christ said about her was that what she did would make her famous among the Believers forever and obviously she was quite well-known. The passage reads:
[6] And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
[7] For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
[8] She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
[9] Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

“So this woman that does this is going to be well-known everywhere. And that’s why in John 11:2 he says this is the Mary that did that. It’s her home.

“But you notice that this account in mark, and the parallel account in Matthew 26, her name doesn’t appear. She’s sort of like that thing in Philippians 4:3 when Paul says, ‘And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.’

“He doesn’t identify who his yokefellow is. He does talk about Clement and Euodias and Syntyche but the true yokefellow, the one who was the dearest to him; he doesn’t even mention his name, obviously because everybody would know who that was.

“Matthew and Mark don’t put the name, but John does. That’s sort of the way the Book of John works. Look at John 18:10. It’s fascinating the little details he adds that others leave out. The verse says, ‘Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.’

“You can go over to Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke 22 and you won’t read about the servants name Malchus but here.

“It’s in John that you learn the woman who anointed Jesus was Martha and Lazarus’ sister, Mary. The Book of John is talking about the light of the world has come and little things like that kind of come out in the light in that book. It’s sort of the characteristic of the way the Book of John operates.

“Something else interesting about 11:2. John assumed his readers knew the account in Mark 14 and Matthew 26. This is the woman you already knew about. If that’s true, that means Matthew and Mark, at least, were written before the Book of John because he assumes they know all about Mary.

“Well, if the Book of John was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and Matthew and Mark are assumed to be written before John, that puts all of them much earlier than what tradition wants to put them.”