Tell Martha not to moan

In my last post I said that the traditional words for "Oh Mary don't you weep" include a second line, "Oh Martha don't you moan"--an expression that clarifies the Gospel reference as the story of the raising of Lazarus.

What I'd forgotten is that just as often, the line is actually, "Tell Martha not to moan."

The difference between those two is dramatic, and has a great deal to do with something I've mentioned often before: directionality. Directionality is the most important difference between the Christ Has Died, which is said to no one in particular, and the Latin Mortem Tuam (for which we have no English equivalent), which is said directly to Jesus Christ himself.

Something very subtle is going on when we say "Tell Martha not to moan." First of all, we are expressing our own faith in the resurrection, prefigured in the Israelite victory at the Red Sea, when they were in flight. Secondly, we're expressing this faith as though it were directed to a specific person in a specific historical situation: to Mary, at the death of her brother Lazarus. Thirdly, we're saying it in imitation of Jesus, whose argument in John 11 is long and dialectical, yet can be pretty faithfully summed up in these terms: "Oh Mary don't you weep/ Tell Martha not to moan/ Pharoah's army drowned in the Red Sea." The same God who saved Israel means to save your brother. Do you not believe?

But then the song says "Tell Martha not to moan." Not only should you believe, but you should also convince your sister.

What's intriguing about all this is that although the song is set in a certain time, addressed to certain persons, it's pretty clear that it was written to help people in recent times to put their grief in perspective. So if this were sung at a funeral, the grieving family might be Mary. But then a line is addressed to the friends of the family, who become Mary, who must tell Martha not to grieve, because of the words of Jesus, the new Moses.

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.

"And the rock was Christ."