Fifth Sunday of Lent: The Life Choice

Excerpt from John 11: 1- 45 (Third Scrutiny) verses 17-27

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ 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. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

If anyone asked you, “Do you believe in life after death?” your answer would be, “Absolutely!” That belief is a basic and foundational tenet of our Christian faith. As St. Paul said, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied,” (1 Corinthians 15:19) meaning that if Christ did not rise from the dead all our hopes and beliefs are pretty silly.

But what if someone asked you, “Do you believe in life before death?”

Life after death for most of us is a somewhat unreal far away concept, something that’s going to happen down the road sometime. There are times when the reality of death hits home such as when someone we love dies or when we have a close call where death could have been the outcome. Unless we are very sick with a life threatening illness, most of us don’t live with the reality of death and resurrection on a daily basis.

In the gospel, Martha was facing the reality of death. When she met Jesus, like all of us when we find ourselves in very painful circumstances, she wanted to blame him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…” But, because of her relationship with Jesus, there was something within her that nudged her toward a further expression of her developing trust in him.  “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”  She wasn’t setting the agenda and she wasn’t indicating that she expected Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead; she was just expressing her faith that he truly loved her and would be there for her and Mary no matter what and whatever that meant. When Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again,” she didn’t assume he meant immediately. She thought he was talking about the belief the Pharisees held – and which she obviously held as well – that eventually everyone who died would be resurrected.

Then Jesus said something to her that we need to pay close attention to. He 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. Do you believe this?’

Note that Jesus did not say, “I will be the Resurrection.” He said, “I AM the resurrection.” He had not gone to the cross and died yet; that was still in the future. He was telling her that right in that present moment he was her resurrection and life as well as Lazarus’s. He was saying to her that everyone who believes in him will live. Then he said that even if they die, they will live.  Death is not the prerequisite to Resurrected Life. Belief is. Resurrected Life is ours right now if we believe. This is not a “somewhere down the road theology”. This is present moment, right now, every day of your life theology.

In last week’s gospel, Jesus told the healed blind man that he was the Light of the world. Then he asked the man, “Do you believe in me?”  In this week’s gospel, Jesus tells Martha that he is the Resurrection and the Life. Then he asks her, “Do you believe?” He knew Martha well. He knew what she believed and didn’t believe. So why did he ask her? Because Martha needed to speak it. She needed to look into his eyes and say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.” The blind man who was healed needed to look into Jesus’ eyes and say, “Lord, I believe.” Jesus once asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus didn’t need to hear what his disciples thought. The disciples needed to speak it.

You need to do that. Every day you need to take time to look at Jesus through the eyes of faith and say, “Today, Lord, you are my Resurrection. Today you are my life.” You need to affirm that he is your Lord and that he is the one who will bring life to everything you are facing in the moment.

Paul says in Romans 6:3,4 and 8:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

… if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We are called to live the resurrected life…before we die. Every moment of every day is an opportunity of choice. We can seek the giver of Resurrected Life or we can fumble along in the death-walk of our own egos. 

Alfred Edersheim was a Jewish British scholar and author of the last century. His book, 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah', was originally published in the 1880's and is still considered one of the most authoritative sources on the subject. On the Resurrection he has this to say:

The importance of all this can not be adequately expressed in words. A dead Christ might have been a Teacher and Wonder-worker, and remembered and loved as such. But only a risen and Living Christ could be the Savior, the Life and the Life-Giver--and as such preached to all people. And of this most blessed truth we have the fullest and most unquestionable evidence.

All of us need to come back time and time again to this incredibly important basis of our whole faith and each one of us needs to ask the question, “Do I believe in Life before death? Am I daily seeking the One who will show me what it means to live a Resurrected Life?” 

Jesus came, for you, to be the second Adam, the second Moses, the New Covenant, your Way Out, the determined and stubborn Gardener of your fruitfulness, your Ocean of Living Water, your Temple of God’s holy presence, the illuminating Light in your heart, your Resurrection and your Life. 

Do you believe it?