He's Calling for You

 

 

“Martha went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you” (John 11:28 NASB).

 

Musings from John the Beloved Apostle:

 

I am often asked, “What was it like to write your account of Jesus?”

 

In response I usually have no response, just as I have no response to the question of what it was like to write the Apocalypse. There are some things that cannot be answered, at least in this life, and, I suppose, if they could be answered it would not be lawful or helpful to do so. Once in a long while I’ll look the questioner in the eye, pause, and then say, “You can only imagine.”

 

Yet, as I am with you today, I do feel like sharing an element of not so much what it was like to write the Gospel, but rather what it is like to live out of the Gospel I have written. One does not write a Gospel and have closure, anymore than one should read a Gospel, or Isaiah, or Job, and have closure. I dare say that anyone who reads Scripture and experiences closure has never read Scripture – for is not reading Scripture to enter into relationship with the Word who was in the Beginning, to live in the Eternal? Ha! Is it not to breathe His Life, to inhale and exhale? Ha!

 

O how I remember, how I still feel His holy breath upon us! How I felt it when I wrote, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.” (John 20:22). I felt His breath in the Upper Room, I felt His breath when I wrote those words, I feel His breath as I write these words. May I ask you, do you feel His breath right now?

 

To write is to remember, to relive, to experience, to be there – and it is for Him to be here; with me, with you, with us.

 

And so it was, when I related Lazarus’s death and Jesus raising him from the dead, when I described seeing Martha and Mary in their grief and Jesus in His compassion, when I wrote the words, “She went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you,’” that I thought, “Yes, amen, that is it, that says it all.”

 

Do you see what I mean?

 

Is this not what my life has been all about, since that Day when He called me?

 

There is Martha, conveying to Mary Jesus’ words of calling and His desire for Mary to come to Him.

 

“The Teacher is here,” Martha says.

 

Isn’t this what my life has been all about? To say to those around me, no...not to merely say, but to proclaim, to insist, that the Teacher is here! Right here, right now! The Word has become flesh and lives among us, He who was in the beginning, that is, He who is the Beginning, He has come, He is coming, He is here – O for people to know that He is here, here for them.

 

Martha speaks the calling of Jesus to Mary. “He is calling for you.”

 

Hasn’t this been my Message? Haven’t I learned from dear, dear Martha? O reader, there is more to Martha than meets the eye. Yes, yes, she may have her times when she is busy serving (John 12:2; Luke 10:40), but her serving also includes speaking the Word and heart of Jesus to others. Can you think of a more sacred charge than to say to those around us, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?

 

In the midst of her own grief, Martha speaks the presence and call of Jesus to Mary. This is, I know, a hard thing. It is a hard thing to go out of our own sorrow and pain and share joy and hope and peace and the call of Jesus with others. How well I recall when James, my sweet brother, was murdered by Herod (Acts 12:2).

 

At that very same time my beloved friend Peter was thrown into prison, indeed many of our brothers and sisters were persecuted, it was chaos around us. Yet, the peace of the Lamb was with us, the Teacher walked among us, and Voice of our Good Sheperd spoke to us…and I knew I must continue to encourage the sheep of our Lord Jesus, pray for Peter, and rejoice that my brother James had proven faithful to our Lord and His saints. I recalled Martha going to Mary as I was living through that particular trial, I recalled her words to Mary, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Out of her own grief, Martha spoke words of hope to grieving Mary.

When Martha came to Mary their house was a cacophony of wailing and crying…it was chaos. Yet, Martha spoke and Mary heard. I have learned that no matter the chaos around us, no matter the noise, no matter the hopelessness, no matter the distractions, that if we will be the Voice of our Teacher, if we will be His Presence, if we will call others to Him, that His sheep will hear and respond.

 

Sadly, as I was reminded when I penned the Apocalypse, we often blend in with the chaos, make alliances with the world and the dragon, and fail to call others to our Lord Jesus.  

 

When Martha came for Mary, there was an empty place at their table. As the sisters would learn, in Jesus Christ there is never an empty place, for He is the Resurrection and the Life and when we believe in Him we never die…I reminded myself of that when I lost my brother James…a temporary parting you might call it…but since he remains with me it isn’t even that…one of those things you can’t explain, and if you could it wouldn’t be lawful to do so.

 

O the memories I had when I recorded my Gospel, how I relived what I wrote, how I learned from Martha and Mary…and how I am still learning from them, from Jesus, from Peter, from James…learning to say to others, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Whom can you share those words with today?

 

With whom can you be the Presence of Christ?

 

To whom shall you say, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?