I am the resurrection
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”John 11:25
Reflection
Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus arrived. The sisters, Martha and Mary, had sent word of the illness days before — and Jesus, inexplicably, delayed. When He finally appeared, Lazarus was already in the tomb, and the same sentence came from both sisters, loaded with pain and a slight tone of reproach: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died". How many of our prayers have exactly that tone: "Lord, if You had been here... why did You delay?". The delay of Jesus is one of the hardest things to understand in life with Him.
But notice what the delay prepared. If Jesus had healed a sick Lazarus, we would have one more healing — moving, but common. By waiting for death to run its course for four days (a time when, according to Jewish belief, there was no hope left at all), Jesus prepared to reveal something much greater than healing: He was going to show power over DEATH itself. Sometimes what looks like God’s delay is, in fact, the space He opens to do something greater than we would have asked. Martha wanted a brother who would not get sick; Jesus would give a brother who would rise.
And then Jesus makes the declaration that is the heart of everything: "I AM the resurrection and the life". Note that He did not say "I BRING resurrection" or "I TEACH about eternal life". He said "I AM". Hope in the face of death is not a doctrine, a theory or a ritual — it is a Person. Martha believed in a distant resurrection, "at the last day" (v. 24); Jesus corrected her focus from the "when" to the "Who": the resurrection is not primarily a future event; it is Him, present there, at that instant, before the tomb. Whoever has Jesus already has the resurrection, because he has its Author.
Before the tomb, Jesus wept (v. 35) — the shortest verse in the Bible, and one of the most comforting: the Lord of life weeps at our funerals. He is not indifferent to death; He hates it, and one day will destroy it forever. Then He ordered the stone removed and cried: "Lazarus, come forth!" — and the four-days-dead man walked out. If you stand before a "tomb" today — a dream that died, a hope that rotted, a situation everyone has given up for lost, that "already stinks" — hear the question Jesus asked Martha: "believest thou this?". The God you serve specializes in four days too late. Nothing is too dead for the Author of life.
Prayer
Jesus, before the tombs of my life — the dead dreams, the hopes that already smell of "too late" — I hear Your voice. You are the resurrection and the life. Where I see only stone and darkness, call forth my Lazarus. And if You delayed, help me trust it is to do something greater. I believe. Amen.
Put it into practice
Bring to Jesus today a situation you have already declared "dead and buried". Instead of burying it for good, pray over it declaring: "Lord, You are the resurrection — nothing is too dead for You".
To reflect on
Which "Lazarus" of your life have you given up for lost — and how would your faith change if you believed Jesus can still call it out of the tomb?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).