I Am the Resurrection and the Life

John 11:17-26

Introduction

Do you remember when it dawned on you that your life on this planet was limited? This sort of happens in two waves. One is when as a child that we realize that we all must die. It can feel like a cruel joke. We are given these minds that can understand so much and these hearts in which we can have meaningful relationships, but it all comes to an end. Another realization might come up with our first major health scare, either with an illness or an accident. While we get a sense of our mortality as children, as we grow up, we seem to lose it again. It’s like what Woody Allan once said, “I plan to live forever and so far, so good.” We trick ourselves into believing life will just continue the same forever. But then something happens that we realize that death could come for us at anytime. I know I have had that experience.

In the midst of these very human reactions, we have religious faith. Some have critiqued religion as fairy tales for those who fear death. While that may be the experience of some people, it is not necessarily indicative of biblical faith. Before diving into the Bible, let me mention two examples of human anxiety about death. 

One is from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is one of the most ancient stories, going back in part to 2100 BC. The first half of the Mesopotamian epic is about Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu and their adventures. But when Enkidu is killed, Gilgamesh has a crisis of mortality and embarks on a quest for immortality. He encounters the Mesopotamian version of Noah, who in the story has become immortal. The ancient man warns him to give up the quest but Gilgamesh refuses. He is then given two tasks, both of which he fails, leaving him to return home with the knowledge that he will join his friend in death. That might sound like a silly ancient myth. But this quest has never really ended.

It is neither just ancient people or even religious people that seek to defy death. People today, religious or not, are still trying to defy death. Some do it be trying to remain young looking and avoid old age. This can be done in appropriate ways but people have also taken it to extremes with over the top plastic surgery and other measures. But some people are going even beyond that. There are those who are turning to cryogenics to preserve their body until science advances to the point where they can cure all diseases and eliminate all death. Others are looking to develop technology so that we can upload our consciousness to a computer and thus outlive our human bodies.

I think both the ancient mythological and the secular technological approaches reveal that there is a part of us that feels that death is just not right. Christianity has something to say about that, and what it says revolves all around Jesus.

Jesus and Lazarus

The story of Jesus and Lazarus is one of the most well known in the Gospel of John but it is also somewhat confusing and perhaps even disturbing. Jesus gets a message that his friend Lazarus is very sick. It seems that this is not just anyone, but that Jesus is particularly close with Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. But instead of rushing to help Lazarus, which Jesus would have been able to do, he continues on until he receives the message that Lazarus has died from his illness. It is only then that Jesus decides to make his visit. I believe we are meant to be disturbed by this.

Jesus arrives at the point that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. There are still mourners there, grieving the death of this beloved man. This would have been very expressive mourning and a far cry from our polite funeral home experiences. I wonder how Jesus was anticipating his visit with the sisters. This was not just a family friend coming to pay his condolences. Imagine that you had a loved one deathly ill with a rare disease and you had a friend who was a specialist who had a cure but chose not to come until after the person died. It would be an awkward visit at the funeral.

Mary and Martha were in the house when they heard that Jesus arrived. Martha went out to meet him but Mary stayed in the house. Was the pain still too fresh for her? Did she fear she might say something she might regret? Even Martha, when she greeted Jesus, went right for the issue at hand. Why did Jesus wait? Why did he not come when he could have actually helped? Why was their brother dead?

Jesus, instead of giving an excuse, simply informed her that Lazarus would rise again. Martha already knew this, or at least thought she knew. The classic Jewish belief back then, as it is today, is that on the last day, God would raise his people. A resurrection from the dead would take place and God’s people would live forever. The details varied, but that was the basic belief. And that is what Martha assumed Jesus was talking about.

But that was not what Jesus was talking about, at least not the full picture. Jesus tells her “I am the resurrection and the life.” This statement is pregnant with meaning. The primary meaning is that all resurrection and life revolves around Jesus. This will be demonstrated in a few ways. In one way, and the one that will make Martha and Mary happy, is that Jesus was going to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus was not just a healer, he was a life giver. Jesus called for Lazarus and Lazarus walked out of the tomb, still wrapped in his burial clothes. This is the miracle that we often celebrate in this story.

But there was something else at play. Jesus knew that Lazarus was not the only one about to experience death. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and there he would be executed on a Roman cross. That cross was part of God’s plan. The Father would allow Jesus to die as Jesus had allowed Lazarus to die. And like Lazarus, Jesus would rise again. But this would be different. Lazarus would get old and eventually die again. Jesus was about to experience a true resurrection, in that his body would be transformed into something built for eternity. The body Jesus walked out of the tomb with is the same body that he has today. The resurrection would change everything, not just for Jesus but for us as well.

But what about that final resurrection that the Jews believed in? That too would revolve around Jesus. What Jesus experienced was the first fruits, that is the promise of what is to come, of that resurrection. We also learn elsewhere that the resurrection of believers will happen when Jesus returns. It is all about Jesus. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Conclusion

I want to conclude with some reflections about what this means for us. You may or may not experience some anxiety about death. I know when I try to imagine the afterlife, that my imagination is not big enough. What will heaven be like? What will our resurrection bodies look like? Will we still have our memories? It can hurt the brain to try and understand it all.

This passage does not gives us any of the answers to those questions. It only tells us that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. We need to look to Jesus and trust in Jesus. Think about the image we looked at last time, Jesus as the good shepherd. Jesus to leads the flock to a place of safety and provision. In many ways that is what Jesus does as the resurrection and the life. The shepherd doesn’t explain everything to the sheep, they would not understand it anyway. I suspect that if Jesus came here today and offered a Q&A on the afterlife, we would still be incredibly confused. The message for us is the same message that was given to Martha and Mary. Trust in Jesus. Trust that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.