I Am the Resurrection and the Life
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus made their home together. Seemingly none of the three had a spouse when they opened that home to Jesus and His disciples. So when Lazarus died it must have been particularly hard for Mary and Martha—as though they had lost a brother and a spouse at the same time. What a change!
Both sisters met the arrival of Jesus with the same plaintive fact: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus' response was encapsulated in what he said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In other words, “Nothing has changed, I am still the same Jesus. The same Lord in whom you believed when you first confessed, ‘I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’ Nothing has changed. I still have the power to raise the dead and I have power to give them eternal life.”
The sisters still did not understand all that Jesus meant, even when the stone was being rolled back from Lazarus’ tomb. But then… then the truth of Jesus’ authority over life and death became so, so clear. In raising Lazarus Jesus validated the truth of His description of Himself. With the miracle of raising Lazarus Jesus made His words the promise of another resurrection—to life eternal.
Today when a close loved one dies, the change it makes in our lives can seem overpowering. We too might wish Jesus had appeared to prevent death from happening. Yet Jesus is here with us. Nothing has changed.
He is still the LORD of death and of life. Still He says to us, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
I am flesh and must return Unto dust, whence I am taken;
But by faith I now discern That from death I shall awaken
With my Savior to abide In His glory, at His side.
The Lutheran Hymnal 206:4