Some very famous people have made some
very famous pronouncements about themselves.
The English playwright Somerset Maugham said of himself, “I am the
measure of all things. I am the centre
of the world.” Winston Churchill
observed about himself, “I am certainly not one of those who need to be
prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the
prod.” Jim Morrison, lead singer of The
Doors, said, “I am the lizard king.” Reggie Jackson said of his role on the New
York Yankee’s, “I am the straw that stirs the drink.”
In John’s gospel,
Jesus makes seven difference statements about himself. After feeding the multitude he says, “I am the
Bread of Life.” After restoring sight to
a blind person, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the World.” In another place he says, “I am the Gate for
the Sheep” and “I am the Good Shepherd.”
He says to Thomas and the Disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life.” And he says to them, “I am the
True Vine.”
For his
listeners, these self-descriptions are consistent with their experience of
Jesus. He is like a good shepherd. He has illuminated their lives. He has feed them. He has shown them the way and taught them
truth. He has brought them together and
nourished them as a vine nourishes its branches. These claims point to how truly remarkable
Jesus is. He is special. He is sent from God.
But the seventh
statement is different from the rest. “I
am the Resurrection and the Life.”
Unlike the other six metaphors, you can’t sort of be like this. Either you have the power of resurrection and
life or you do not. In uttering these
words to grieving friends Jesus puts himself in a position of having to back up
the claim he makes about himself.
Belief in a
resurrection seems to have started some 400 years before Jesus’ life. While its exact origins are unclear, most
likely it is rooted in real-life near-death experiences. A person thought to be dead and gone suddenly
recovers. That person’s account of what
he or she experienced while ‘dead’ would have been as intoxicating as the
stories we hear from people with similar experiences in our own time.
In Jesus’ day the
notion of the Resurrection, which literally translated from the Hebrew means “the
standing up again of the dead,” is a hotly debated theological concept. Within Judaism at the time, there are entire
sects and movements that hold in contempt those who believe in the resurrection
of the dead. And within those groups
believing in it, there is significant division around any number of questions:
Who will and who won’t be resurrected?
When will it happen? Will it
happen for everyone all at the same time or individually?
Mary and Martha hold
to a very specific faith and understanding.
For them, those who die are asleep.
This is a way of saying the time between death and the resurrection of
the dead passes peacefully and quickly. The
resurrection will be a one-time event when those who have died will “awaken” in
a renewed, physical body. It is out of
this belief we have developed the liturgical expression, “rest in peace and
rise in glory.”
Jesus responds to
Martha’s statement of faith by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even
though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will
never die.” It is a remarkable
claim. Jesus says he is the one who
oversees the life/sleep/new life event.
Martha affirms she believes this about him.
Jesus goes
to Lazarus’ tomb. Even though he
believes he will give life to his friend by awakening him from his death/sleep
at the resurrection, Jesus nevertheless is deeply grieved. Perhaps this explains what he does next. Or perhaps he senses the need to demonstrate
just this once what his role will be on that day. Jesus clearly believes he is calling his
friend from death’s sleep. And while
Lazarus does not rise with a resurrected body, it is obvious to all who witness
the event what has happened. The verse at
the end of today’s reading states: “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come
with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”
“Many” who
saw it believed, but “many” is not “all.”
The text goes on:
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus
had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the
council, and said, “What are we to do? This
man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone
will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place
and our nation.” But one of them,
Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at
all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die
for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed”… So from that day
on they planned to put him to death.
It is a
report dripping with irony as they plot to put to death the one who has the
power of life. And they will accomplish
this is short order as Jesus raises Lazarus just one week before the
Passover. Jesus will suffer the
excruciating death of crucifixion on a cross.
He will die, but rise again from the sleep of death in a resurrected
body.
The
Episcopal priest and hymn writer Phillips Brooks said,
Let
every man and woman count himself immortal. Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his
resurrection. Let him say not merely, “Christ
is risen,” but “I shall rise”.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they
die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
