Christ is Life [Jn 11]

After yesterday, continuing with the narrative seemed important/ Lazarus is dead, and Martha asks the most important question: why? For she knows that whatever Jesus asks the father happens. She knows he could have fixed Lazarus.

But Christ then says that he is the resurrection. He is the life. If we die, we still live. In him. He is our reassurance. He asks if Martha believes this: not that Lazarus will rise on the last day, but that he will rise now.

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “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?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.

(John 11:17-29 ESV)

I think one of the reasons John has this passage is his gospel is so that these words are recorded. That we have this promise. For when our family dies, and we are at the grave staring down, knowing that they have a life with Christ is not a comfort.

It is a promise, it is a hope. As those who converge with the elite in their evil go from death to death, those who cling to Christ and walk with him go from life to life.
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For we live on the words of God incarnate, and we are persecuted for preaching the words of him. We are told by many that he is but a prophet, and this is a lie. Prophets don’t say that they are the resurrection and the life. They point to God. They don’t claim to be God.

And this promise of life eternal is precious. It is right and proper to rely on this, for (a) Christ had experimental proof and replication: he did not just raise Lazarus but then himself and (b) God is faithful.

we are not. We are broken, and our actions and words would damn us. It is not our works that give us eternal life, but Christ. His work is complete and sufficient. We cannot add to it, no more than we should gild a lily.

So let us praise God, and do his work, which is to obey his words.