The I AM Statements of Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life

Let us pray…Gracious and loving God, as we gather this day, we have just remembered all those that we love who have joined you in the heavenly realm. As we move forward from those memories, we ask that you would join us in this day as we hear about how we receive the eternal life your Son promised, help us to open our ears to hear, our hearts to feel, and our eyes to see what you have in store for us in these moments. Amen.

Today we are going to go back to our study of the “I Am” statements of Jesus. We have two more to cover in this series, this week and next, before we start thinking about the birth of Christ. I placed this series here at this time in our calendar to get us to start thinking about what it means to celebrate the birth of Christ in this new environment of church. Things are rapidly changing around us and we are having to come up with new ways to connect with one another as well as to the God that we worship and praise each week. But here’s the thing, there is absolutely one constant that will never, ever change…Jesus. Jesus was born as a human to experience exactly what we experience in this life but he was also fully divine, meaning that he was God with Us, Immanuel. So as we reflect this day on what it means for him to be the resurrection and the life, this is what we are essentially talking about…born human but remaining in and with God for his entire 30 some odd years on life.

Setting Things Up...

So, as we begin reflecting this morning, we need to get setup a bit because we are entering a story near the end but not quite the end and there is a lot going on around this time in the life of Christ.

What we have in this story this morning is headed up in many translations of the Bible as the “Raising of Lazarus”. What that means is that we are in the midst of a story that happens just a short time before Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last and final time. This also means that Jesus is about to die and raise himself on the third day. What we are hearing today is the piece of this story in which Jesus has arrived in Bethany, after a short two mile journey, and he is coming to comfort his close friends Mary and Martha after their brother, Lazarus, has died. Here is something that we need to keep very close right now…Lazarus has been dead for four days. And I guess I need to explain this just a little bit for our understanding...

Some Judaic Beliefs

In Judaism, the main reason that people are buried within in 24 hours is because Jews believe that the soul stays with the body for a minimum of three days. Also, historically speaking, there is the belief that a person could be revived within 3 days. So, four days places Lazarus well beyond what anyone might call a “near death” case. When Jesus and the disciples arrived in Bethany, many Jews from Jerusalem had gathered to console Lazarus’s family, and some of those who had arrived were religious leaders. In Jewish society, prolonged mourning for the dead was considered an essential part of every funeral. It was convenient for many Jews to be there because Bethany was a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem (being less than two miles from Jerusalem NIV).

Lazarus and Bethany...

Let’s step back for a moment…when you hear that a close friend or relative is seriously ill, wouldn’t try to contact that person or the family right away. And, if at all possible, you may even rush to visit that sick friend or family member. Right?

Here’s the thing with this story, that was not what happened when Jesus heard that his friend Lazarus was ill. Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus were Jesus’ friends. Jesus and his disciples had often visited their home in Bethany, a town about two miles from Jerusalem. Yet Jesus was late in arriving at Lazarus’ home—too late, as it turned out—because when he heard that Lazarus was sick, Jesus intentionally stayed away for two more days. Here is how John records this just before our passage for this morning...

John 11:4–6 NLT

But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.

This doesn’t sound like a particularly loving thing to do, staying away from his sick friend and his worried sisters for two extra days. But Jesus had something greater planned for the two sisters and Lazarus, a plan to give them hope and life, a plan to bring glory to God and the Son. Basically, Jesus told the disciples, “This illness will not lead to death. It will be to bring glory to God, so that the Son of God might be glorified through it.” Now, here’s the thing we need to get very clearly…Jesus was establishing himself through this act, once and for all that he had the authority and power of God. But he was also making sure that those who were with him would know that this would be the last time he would perform a miracle before he, himself was raised from the dead.

After a significant amount of time, Jesus and his disciples went to Bethany to share in Mary and Martha’s grief. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been buried for four days. Looking at the situation from Mary and Martha’s perspective, I can imagine that the two grieving sisters probably supposed that Jesus had come only to share in their sorrow at their brother’s death. So, Martha chided Jesus when she came out to meet him. She said,

John 11:21 NLT

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

In spite of feeling and speaking these hopeless words, Martha still had hope. She knew who Jesus was and what he could do. We know this because in the very next breath, she says, “

John 11:22 NLT

But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Now, I cannot blame Mary and Martha for wanting Jesus to come on time. They hoped for healing. They hoped to that Jesus would save their brother from death, but Jesus brought a greater gift, a more amazing miracle. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead because HE IS the Resurrection and the Life, and he did not just bring healing to Lazarus, as he had to so many others. Jesus, the Author of life, called the dead man out of the tomb where he had been buried for four days!

Don’t get me wrong here, this is not the only miracle that Jesus performed to prove his divinity. I mean, during the years of his earthly ministry, Jesus proved himself to be the Son of God and the promised Messiah through all of the many miracles that he performed. He had authority over disease and blindness. He healed the deaf and drove out demons and calmed storms with a word of command. Bread and fish multiplied in his hands to feed the hungry. He proved more than once, as he did with Lazarus, that he had power over death itself.

Do You Believe?

Jesus told Martha that he was the Resurrection and the Life. and in the very next breath he asked her, “

John 11:26 NLT

Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

Martha did believe because she knew who Jesus was—the promised Messiah of Israel and the Son of God—and she believed in him.

Part of what Jesus had intended here, at least in my mind was that he wanted to make sure others believed as well, so in the presence of many witnesses (those who had come to mourn and console), Jesus ordered Lazarus’ tomb opened and called to his dead friend, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus came out, alive and well, still bound up in grave wrappings. This one miracle testified to the fact that Jesus was just who he said he was, the Son of God and the promised Messiah of Israel, in front of many Jews from Jerusalem, who by the way had begun to plot against him.

Others Believed...

Because of what he did, many of those present believed in Jesus because of the miracle. Not long after this miracle was accomplished, Jesus himself would be betrayed and arrested.

Upon hearing of the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus’ enemies plotted all the more seriously to have the Savior put to death. They even hoped to put Lazarus to death too, in an effort to stop people from believing in Jesus. Finally they succeeded in their plans against Jesus. He was arrested, tried and condemned to death. He was nailed to a cross, carrying our sins in his own body. When his saving work was accomplished, his dead body was sealed in tomb, much as Lazarus had been.

But Jesus had said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” The grave could not hold the innocent Son of God. Lazarus had been raised, but he would die again. Jesus was raised from death, never to die again.

Death no longer has dominion over Jesus; Jesus has dominion over death. As Jesus told Martha that day, “Whoever believes in me, though he died, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Even though we may suffer physical death in the time before Jesus returns, death has been robbed of its power over us. We will fall asleep in Jesus and immediately be, as Scripture says, “at home with God.”

What does this mean for us today?

Listen, I get it, we may sometimes feel like Martha. Our prayers may sound like her rebuke of Jesus. “Lord, if you had been here …” We wish things could turn out differently. We feel like our prayers are not answered. We may, like Martha, feel that Jesus is not even present during the difficult times we suffer. Yet, as he did with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Jesus has more to give than we could ever imagine. We pray for earthly healing, for temporary earthly gifts, and it may be that Jesus will grant these gifts to us.

The thing is though, Jesus, our Life and Resurrection, offers so much more than we can ever receive here on Earth…through his death and resurrection, Jesus offers us forgiveness for our sins and life not only for now but for all eternity. Death, the last enemy, will be destroyed, and we will live in Jesus’ presence forever, free of all sorrow, illness and suffering.

What Jesus said to Martha that day, he says to all of us today: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” If we do, then we should be walking the walk of the talk we talk, Amen.