Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life

In his book on the Gospel of John, Craig Koester wrote, “A theology of resurrection means confessing without qualification that death is real. It also means believing that death is not final.”

In our culture, there are two basic responses to death. One response is to trivialize it. In this passage, however, Jesus states plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” Death is real, and the Bible calls it the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:24–26).

On the other hand, many atheists and agnostics believe that death is the termination of existence. They live without the prospect of life beyond the grave.

The Christian rejects both these responses to death. Death is real. But death is not final. There is hope in Jesus, the resurrection and life.

In John 11, Christ furnishes proof of his authority over death as an anticipation of his own glorious resurrection. Before he raises Lazarus, he claims that death is not the end for his disciples.

The Report

Jesus was among the disciples when he heard Mary and Martha’s report, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” Reading between the lines, the sisters were asking Jesus for help, saying, “Come to him, heal him—we need you.”

Jesus’ response indicates his sovereign control of the situation. Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, butfor the glory of God,that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (v. 4). This must drive our interpretation of the story—everything Jesus does will manifest his glory as the resurrection and the life. Human tragedy becomes the foil for magnifying Christ’s glory.

In v. 5, it says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” Striking, isn’t it? We might have expected it to say, “Jesus loved them. So, when he heard Lazarus was sick, he immediately came to their aid.” But that’s not what it says.

Scholars have noted that by the time the messengers arrived, Lazarus was probably on death’s door. But Jesus did nothing. He just let Lazarus die! And yet, the text specifies—Jesus loved them. How is that possible?

This has great applicational value for us. Jesus’ love for Martha, Mary and Lazarus had a loftier goal than the immediate granting of their comfort and the settling of their emotional distress. Let that sink in. Jesus’ love for these three precious souls had a loftier goal, a higher summit, than the provision of their immediate comfort and the settling of their anxiety. Why? Because it is here, in a hopeless situation, that the impact of who Jesus was will be most tangibly felt.

Jesus waited until the foul odors of death were emitting from Lazarus’s corpse. This is the stage upon which his confrontation with death will be played out. Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.”

Jesus Among the Mourners

Imagine the emotional distress of the sisters. They were waiting. They saw the sickness go from bad to worse. Lazarus took his last breath. They wept. Everything was raw pain—the overwhelming nature of death encompassed them. And Jesus had not come…

When Jesus finally arrived, Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Mary would reiterate these words to Christ. The important thing to note is that Martha and Mary were right.

If Jesus had been present, he would have prevented Lazarus from dying—but things have happened exactly as God intended for them. Jesus was glad, not because the sisters were in pain, but because this situation would give them a new sense of his glorious power.

In v. 23, Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha took him to be speaking of the general resurrection and said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” She reaffirmed her belief in a core tenet of orthodox Judaism. But notice what Jesus did in response. He confronted her with a truth claim about himself.

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?”

These words are the theological epicenter of this chapter. Jesus ties all hope of resurrection to himself—to his person and his work. He isn the resurrection. He is the life.

Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” By saying though he may die, Jesus acknowledged the reality that his disciples were not freed from the reality of death. Nevertheless, Christ stated that after natural death—his disciples would rise and live.

“Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” This teaching is reiterated in John’s gospel. In John 3:16, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” In John 8:51, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you,if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

The everlasting life the believer possesses is something death cannot touch. Even though the body rots in the grave and returns to dust, the one who trusts in Jesus still possesses abundant life, and will rise to eternal life in the age to come. Though they die—in Christ, they will never die again.

Finally, Jesus pressed Martha with these claims by saying, “Do you believe this?” Notice that it is before Lazarus has been raised that this question of faith becomes most pressing. Do we believe what Jesus says about himself? Do we believe that Jesus has power over death? Do we believe that rotting corpses will live in glorious resurrection life?

Martha responded by affirming her faith in Jesus and called Mary. Mary arrived, and in the context of her wailing, Jesus became deeply agitated. V. 33, “Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” V. 38, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.”

Why was Christ so emotional? Listen to Benjamin Warfield’s insightful words:

“What John does for us in this particular statement is to uncover to us the heart of Jesus, as he wins for us our salvation. Not in cold unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe [death], Jesus smites it on our behalf. He has not only saved us from the evils which oppress us; he has felt for and with us in our oppression, and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption.”

Jesus did not weep because of Jewish unbelief. He wept because he loved Lazarus, and Lazarus was dead. Death had taken Lazarus in its jaws. But Jesus had come for the conquest—he had come to fight and win, to be the resurrection and the life.

Jesus’ Glory Displayed

Approaching the tomb, Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha responded, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus replied: “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” God’s omnipotent power is revealed in Christ. With an authoritative command, Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth!” Jesus speaks, and life is the result:

“And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’”

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. The sign verifies his words. It proves the reliability of his promise. This was a public miracle. It was witnessed by the mourners, the sisters, and the disciples. Many believed in him because of it. Lazarus’s body had begun to rot. But Lazarus came forth from the grave’s mouth alive—a harbinger of Christ’s resurrection at the end the gospel, and of the resurrection at the last day.

One day the dead in Christ will hear the voice of the Son of God and they will live. God has brought immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). Rotting corpses will spontaneously be made like Christ’s glorious body (Philippians 3:21). We will be changed in the blinking of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52). Death is real. But in Christ (praise be to God), it is not final! He fought death and he won. To all of you who live in fear and dread of the tomb, I bid you to come to Jesus the resurrection and the life.