Lazarus' Resurrection and Ours – John 11:1-45

by Robert S. Munday+
 
Resurrection and eternal life are not blessings laid up for us in some remote future: they are present.  When Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again,” she answered, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”—meaning that this was a small consolation.  There was her brother lying in the tomb dead.  This meant that he would never again live in the home they shared, never again exchange a loving word or joyful moment.  What comfort is there to sustain Mary and Martha now that he is gone?

If you have ever known parents who have lost a child, it is an especially tragic occurrence—to lose a child who they can hardly bear to have out of their sight for a whole day, about whom they become concerned if he or she is even an hour late coming home; it is perhaps the worst pain one can experience in this life.  It is no doubt some comfort to be told that they will someday be reunited—but not much.

This is not the comfort Jesus gives Martha.  He comforts her, not by pointing to some far- off event that is vague and remote, but to His own living person, who she sees, and knows and trusts.  Jesus assures her that resurrection and life are in Him, and that all who belong to Him, while they might suffer for a moment in death, will not be harmed by death but merely changed.  And, because of Him, they will live forever.

I have a friend who used to e-mail his friends each day a humorous excerpt from a book known as The Grim Reaper’s Book of Days.  The entry for Nov. 3 says: “On this date in A.D. 60, according to Church tradition, Lazarus, friend of Jesus, died—again.”  We tend to forget about that last part don’t we?

The Bible says that for the sake of love—not just love for Lazarus, but out of love for Mary and Martha—and for everyone who hears or reads this story until Jesus comes again, Jesus demonstrated the power of God and raised Lazarus from the dead.  That is, Jesus brought Lazarus back from infinite joy in the presence of God to resume a life fraught with sin and sickness, stress and frustration—and, in the end, to face the horrible enemy of death a second time.

My conclusion is this: God loved Lazarus and his family and took him out of heaven in order to show the power of Christ over death.  And God loves all of us enough to take us out of this world—at the end of our lives or at Jesus’ return—to show that Christ is Lord over life and death, and time and eternity.  At the last day, He will resurrect us, not merely resuscitate us into our old bodies to have to die again like Lazarus, but to give us immortal bodies like His own resurrection body, to live with Him forever in the kingdom and in a new heaven and a new earth.  And, because Jesus is truly Lord, He calls us to believe in Him, to treasure Him above all things, and to live lives that give Him glory.