"An Appointment With Intimacy— (... And God Cried!)”

That groan. That tears, that no words and emotions could describe...

Only respect for Mary.

How Intimate Respect could that be?

Before answering that question, a good illustration I can give you is this story:

“Once there was a little old man. His eyes blinked and his hands trembled; when he ate he clattered the silverware distressingly, missed his mouth with the spoon as often as not, and dribbled a bit of his food on the tablecloth. Now he lived with his married son, having nowhere else to live, and his son's wife didn't like the arrangement.

"I can't have this," she said. "It interferes with my right to happiness." So she and her husband took the old man gently but firmly by the arm and led him to the corner of the kitchen. There they set him on a stool and gave him his food in an earthenware bowl. From then on he always ate in the corner, blinking at the table with wistful eyes.

One day his hands trembled rather more than usual, and the earthenware bowl fell and broke.

"If you are a pig," said the daughter-in-law, "you must eat out of a trough." So they made him a little wooden trough and he got his meals in that.

These people had a four-year-old son of whom they were very fond. One evening the young man noticed his boy playing intently with some bits of wood and asked what he was doing.

"I'm making a trough," he said, smiling up for approval, "to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big."

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while and didn't say anything. Then they cried a little. They then went to the corner and took the old man by the arm and led him back to the table. They sat him in a comfortable chair and gave him his food on a plate, and from then on nobody ever scolded when he clattered or spilled or broke things.

This is from Grimm's fairy tales.

Honor and Respect begets honor and respect.

In the case of Martha and Mary, you can see who gained the Lord’s respect. Mary’s Response and Martha’s Reaction. Because these two words are almost the same but carries different meaning. It may seem to some of us like nothing more than semantics, but there is a significant difference between these two words – reactive and responsive.

Reactive is in the heat of the moment. It is knee-jerk. It is emotional. Fight or flight. You lash out. You shut down. You are a fighter. You are a defender. You are a victim of events and not fully in control.

Contrast this with being Responsive.

Response is taking time to think things through. It is being empathetic. It is being two steps ahead. You consider. You plan. You do the right thing. You take things less personally. You are calm.

In John 11, let us compare Martha and Mary on a similar situation, as they both face the death of Lazarus. This is the one thing that could not be taken away from Mary.

Observe their REACTION and RESPONSE and the REPLY they got from Jesus.

Let us now fast forward to John 11: 6When He had heard therefore that He was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. 7Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judæa again. 8- His disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?