I am the Resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. (John 11:25)
An Unsurpassed Word of Comfort
Without question, these words of our Lord are unsurpassed in the comfort, assurance, and strength they bring to all who hear them in faith. To know that the blank, the ache, and the emptiness which death brings have been met and conquered by one who is equal to the task is the best news we can ever receive. If you know what it means to listen for a footstep that never comes, to long for a voice that is no more heard, then you can cherish all the more this word of Jesus Christ which is so majestic and unfathomable. Each time we speak the Apostles’ Creed we conclude with this dozen-word phrase that spans all eternity in its meaning: "... the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." Today is a good day to see that conviction in the light of the words Jesus spoke. Here is the central thought of the sermon to guide us: God’s faithfulness in raising Jesus Christ from the dead is the one basis on which we hope for life after death.
As Jesus Dealt with Grief
The occasion on which Christ spoke these words provides the necessary background for understanding their fuller meaning. In the town of Bethany, a few miles from Jerusalem, lived two sisters and a brother who opened their door and their hearts to Jesus on many a happy occasion. The man of this household, Lazarus, and died. His two sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus of his death. The news affected Jesus visibly. The word of Lazarus’ death, the sound of the women weeping, and the knowledge of Lazarus’ departure caused Jesus to weep openly. The simple phrase in John 2, "Jesus wept" is a powerful reminder to us of how completely our Lord shared our human nature. And, incidentally, since he had no hesitancy in expressing his deeply-felt emotions in this time of grief, we need not hold back our own tears. When Martha learned that Jesus was coming near their household in Bethany, she could not restrain herself. Hurrying forth from the door to meet him, she shows the strength of mind and faith in her earnest word addressed to Jesus:
Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
Just what did Martha mean? Who knows? It is most likely that Martha herself did not know exactly what she meant. The hour of bereavement is an hour when we humans do not know what to think or how to express ourselves to God or man. We are numb, bleak, and chilled in the face of death. But Jesus knew all this. He did not chide Martha because her thoughts were blurred, wistful, and sad. He said, "Your brother will rise again."
The Attention Is Upon Christ, Not Lazarus
It is of the first importance that we recognize that Jesus said nothing more, nothing less, about Lazarus as he spoke to Martha. This was enough for Martha to know, that the Lord himself gave his word that Lazarus would rise. But when it comes to the question by whose power such a thing should happen, Jesus reveals the working of God the Father in his own life. "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."
There is a very deliberate placement of emphasis here, one which may escape our notice if we do not take care in heeding the passage. Jesus draws the attention away from any questions about the everlastingness of life, the immortality of the soul, etc. He does not deliver well-turned phrases about the qualities of the human personality that are so powerful and unique that they cannot die and must survive. The attention is not upon humans, not even his very close friend, Lazarus. The Bible and the Creed do not speak at all of the immortal qualities of men. The attention is upon the life-giving power of God. "I am the resurrection and the life" is a truth that is worlds away from the common human assumption, "something of the best in each of us lives on
..." If that difference is clear to you, then you are in a very good position to appreciate the decisive, revolutionary character of this word of Jesus concerning himself as the resurrection.
The Stone of Offense
The word, "I am the resurrection and the life" upon Jesus’ lips means not only that he is given the power to rise again from death to life. It means that in his own victory over death, Jesus displays God’s faithfulness in promising resurrection and life to all who accept his gracious work of rescuing the whole world from eternal death. Everything hinges on God’s work in Jesus Christ. The Christian hope for the resurrection - rests on God’s power to create and recreate anew through the atoning work of his Son. Our eternal destiny is not determined by anything innate within us, as though the life of the world to come were an automatic possession of ours simply because we share in the life that now is. According to this word of Jesus and the echo of it in the concluding phrase of the Apostles’ Creed, Christ’s own resurrection is the key to our present hope and our future condition. The God and sovereign Lord whom Jesus reveals is God of the living and not of the dead. (Matthew 22:31-32) It is God’s quality, not man’s, which guarantees the life of the world to come. This is the stumbling block over which unbelief trips and falls. It does seem absurd that everything in this life and whatever life to come is determined by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. But that is the Gospel. That is the same truth that meets us in every other facet of the whole truth of God. What makes it offensive to us is that we may take no credit for such an eternally precious gift. The old sinful nature that still rampages through us reacts against the supremacy of God’s grace in our total life of faith before him through Jesus Christ.
Where Sin Presses Hardest on Us
Here is where sin presses hardest upon us, when we must turn our loved ones over to God through death. Indeed, the real testing is when we must ourselves face death and pass from everything in this life. No wonder, then, that St. Paul calls death the last hurdle the Spirit must lead us over before our life with God can be completed in resurrection glory!
It is an altogether natural thing to fear death. We know nothing of what lies on the other side of death. Peer as we may, our eyes can make out nothing but a veil. And so the reality of death is one we face with a shudder. All the sweet poems and lovely lyrics about the memories of loved ones withstanding, there is an unmistakable horror, loneliness, and deep sadness that grips us in the face of death. The Psalmist put his finger on the heart of it:
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (Psalm 103:15-16)
The last phrase of this passage is the reminder that the horror of death lies in the fact of lostness, that one’s life may be swallowed up by death and then forgotten by others. All that we hold dear, all that we strive for and give ourselves to disappears like a rock sinking out of sight in deep, dark water that closes over it and never leaves a trace of its path. I have often thought of this when speaking with bereaved families. In more instances than you might imagine, younger family members do not know the first names of the fathers and mothers of aged persons who have died. And so this thought comes to me, that on some evening many years hence, when my son has died and a pastor has come to comfort his own children and prepare for his funeral service, the pastor might ask, "And what was his father’s name?" And no one will remember. If that might not be the case with your grandchildren and mine, it will almost surely be the case with your great-grandchildren. The point of this that is hard on us has nothing to do with the mere fact that a name is not remembered. The poignant fact lies in this: my whole existence passes away, "and its place knows it no more." What a nameless multitude lies in dust beneath the earth! What a host of dreams and hopes have slipped into oblivion, not because of any deliberate neglect, but because death’s grip is so relentless! The bravest human expressions of immortality have never been written when facing a corpse. Unless an undertaker labors long and hard in his craft over me, even my dearest loved ones cannot bear to look at my remains once death has come. Such is the devastation that sin causes as we face the fact of death.
When Benefits May Become Detours
In our day and culture, when so many remarkable gifts of God are at hand to enrich and prolong our life, we may find it harder and harder to come to terms with death. Do not misunderstand me, I do not pass judgment on miracle drugs, oxygen machines, heart resuscitators, and other medical means of extending life. But where the judgment does fall upon us is when we put such gifts of God into the place of God and think that somehow or other we are not going to have to face the fact of death. You may know the word "cryogenics" - the process of freezing a body immediately after clinical death and storing the body at liquid nitrogen temperature (-320 degrees F) without deterioration for an indefinite period. Then, the assumption goes, at some much later time ways will have been found to thaw the body without damage and to cure the cause of death. Before we all dismiss this as nonsense, we may take note of serious scientific attention to this process. If the motive to extend life is to extend one’s service to fellow humans to the glory of God, then at least the motive is beyond reproach. And, remember, we live in a day when we not only sing love songs under the moon, but we send machines onto the moon! No one among us has any accurate idea of what space travel is going to mean for the question of longevity of life and the measuring of life by time as we presently understand it. But be this all as it may, the final issue must be faced. Death cannot be indefinitely postponed. Sooner or later it comes to every door.
The Present Power of the Resurrection Hope
The Christian faith is based upon the truth that God has overcome death, for we worship a resurrected Lord! Each time we receive Holy Communion, we join together with the whole company of faithful, both on earth and in heaven, in praising God for his victory over death in raising his Son. Each time we offer prayer, sing a hymn, or simply direct our minds to the living God and his mercies, we are directing our worship to him who is the resurrection and the life. This is what the Christian rejoices in and hopes for: Christ’s own work of conquering death. He will not abandon us in our hour of greatest need! How could he? The very reason why he endured the full horror of death and was raised victorious over it, was in order to disclose God’s faithfulness to all. Put your hope in him. We do not need other human props or detours. We look to Jesus Christ. He is with us in death as well as life. That is all we need to know!
This sure conviction exercises a definite influence upon our whole view of our lives here and now. When you and I know by faith that God has a plan to raise our mortal bodies from the dust in the resurrection of all people, we cannot treat our bodies carelessly here and now. We are for our bodies, we treat them with honor. We recognize them as the temples of the Holy Spirit. This is why Christians provide the benevolent ministries of hospitals, clinics, homes for the aged, care for the homeless. God has made our bodies and redeemed them through his Son: we cannot do anything else but honor his work as we take care for the material, physical needs of all. This same resurrection hope is the motive for the Christian ethic. Sexual morality, for instance, is part of the Christian’s way of life because we know that the body is not a toy to be consumed by lust, but a work of honor to be highly regarded and truly respected. It is nonsense to despise the Christian hope as a way of escaping the present responsibilities of caring for the urgent needs of people. That is a misuse of the true biblical meaning of the resurrection hope. God has treated our physical creation with infinite care from the start to the eternal future of our lives. He sent his own Son in the flesh for our sakes. That prompts the Christian to care now, because all things are brought to glorious fulfillment in the resurrection.
What Lies Ahead
When death parts us from those we love, we must have the assurance that only God can give, that he keeps faith with all who sleep in the dust.
Have you ever thought of this - that the finest tribute you can pay to the risen Lord is to entrust your loved ones to his unfailing care? To whom else would we want to entrust them? To whom else would we ourselves go in our last hour? We can honor our Lord in no finer way than by leaving our loved ones with him. He brings healing for our heartaches with the assurance he expresses in this text: "he that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live ..." The blessed dead enjoy the peaceful rest that Jesus Christ provides. They await his call to resurrection and eternal life in the glorious body he shall recreate, when he comes in glory at the end of time.
We have this hope because the Son of God has certified it by his own resurrection. We have it through his grace. This hope is his gift. Our eternal future is not decided because of our heredity or our environment. It is decided by the events which we rehearse in the Creed each Sunday. Our eternal future is determined by God’s mighty deeds of love accomplished on our behalf.
This is, in effect, an Easter sermon, preached at the mid-point of Lent. It is good to preach the Easter message on this Sunday. For every Sunday is a little Easter day. Furthermore, I may not be here on earth a month from today when we celebrate the Easter victory on the Festival of the Resurrection. You may not be here, either. And so we take to heart now the great meaning of the concluding phrase of the creed, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." We can say that from our hearts because of him who is the Resurrection and the Life. God’s faithfulness in raising Jesus Christ from the dead is the one basis on which our hope for resurrection and eternal life rests. These words from the book of Revelation are a suitable closing for us now:
Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4)