Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life

I. Introduction

I can remember the very first time I saw a dead person. I must have been about ten years old and I went with my mother and father to the viewing of an older man they knew. He looked about the same as the last time I’d seen him. He had on the same glasses and the same coat and tie and wore the same haircut, yet I could tell that he was not merely asleep. There was something very heavy and permanent about this whole thing. I knew he was never going to wake up. I remember getting a bit philosophical (at least on ten year old standards) and wondering what death must be like. I wondered where this guy was, where his consciousness lay. Was he sitting on a cloud in heaven, playing a harp? Did he just into a state of eternal sleep? Was his spirit hovering around the room like in the movies? I was so struck by this death because I had never seen a dead person and never really contemplated death during the first ten years of my existence.

In Biblical times, you did not have the luxury that we have today to ignore death. In those days, death was all around you. First of all, people did not live as long as they do now. It was common for men and women to die in their late 40s and early 50s. Secondly, there was virtually no established health care and no medicines. A modern flu could be deadly, not to mention all the other diseases for which we have vaccines. Thirdly, there were no hospitals, so people died in their homes. From there, they did not go to a morgue or a mortuary to be embalmed and prepared for burial. Rather, they were led through the streets in a procession to a place outside the village where they were to be buried. This was often a very public event. You can see how people then understood the nature of death. They could not avoid it and they could not ignore it. Unlike us, they had a greater understanding of their own mortality.

II. Old Testament Background

A. Death as the Unnatural End to Life Because Sin Is the Unnatural Vice of Life

In the Garden of Eden, two trees are listed explicitly as being present: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve are told not to eat of one of these trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, we can surmise that they were allowed to eat from the tree of life. Apparently, it was the connection to this tree that promised them eternal life. Death was not a factor present in the world before sin, for the unstained couple had immediate access to the tree of life.

Upon their sin and subsequent eviction from the Garden of Eden, their access to the tree of life was cut off. With this sin, death entered their world as a reality to be faced. This sin and this way of death were not included in the intention of creation. God looked at creation and saw that it was “very good.” Sin was not included in his survey of the cosmic landscape. Theologian Herman Bavinck says about this, “Creation and fall are not co-existent and are not to be identified with each other. They differ from each other in nature and essence, but chronologically they are close together” (Our Reasonable Faith, 221). We must maintain the belief that the creation itself is good because it reflects the nature of its Maker. Sin however is evil and corrupt, introduced into the equation not by God himself, but by the creatures.

Sadly, the first recorded death in scripture is not a natural one, but an unnatural one as Cain killed his brother Abel in an act of jealousy and rage. This symbolic act marked off the world marred by sin as a place where no matter how successful a man might be during his life, death would serve as an equalizer to all. It would be the common end of even uncommon men.

B. OT Perspective on Death

The OT tradition concerning death helps us understand a good deal of what Jesus is doing and saying in this passage. The rabbis taught that once someone dies, the soul hovers around the body for a period of three days. During this time, the soul is waiting to re-enter the body. At the first sign of decomposition and change, the soul then leaves the body completely and death is irreversible. From there, the soul either went to a place called Sheol or it went to dwell with God in heaven. The Hebrew word Sheol is used many places in the OT, usually (there are exceptions) to describe the netherworld: a place under the earth where evil people descend after their death. It was a shadowy existence that resembled earth, but without community and communication; humans existed in isolation and silence. The Jews believed that there was no hope of deliverance from Sheol unless God should intervene (Psalm 139:7-8).

C. God’s Defeat of Death: The Hope of Resurrection in the OT

The Old Testament does not say very much about resurrection. It talks at length about death, but without really looking forward to resurrection until the later prophetic tradition (Isaiah 25:6-8, Daniel 12:2 & Ezekiel 37). The result was that over the history of the Jewish tradition, people differed as to what they thought of the resurrection. Even in the New Testament itself, we know that two groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, disagreed. Generally, the Sadducees denied a physical resurrection, while the Pharisees believed in it. Jesus himself proclaimed a physical resurrection and for a time, this made him an ally of the Pharisees.

III. The Context of the Saying

The NT provides us with a rich tapestry of ideas about resurrection. One of these comes in this I AM statement of Jesus is John 11:25. But before we look at this saying and its meaning, we need to understand the context of the story itself in John’s Gospel.

Up to this point, Jesus has been talking about the bread of life, the water of life, the light of life, but now he “ups the ante” and describes himself as life itself. All of these previous I AM statements have mentioned Jesus dying, but this one mentions his victory over death. So here is Jesus, mentioning how his ministry would end but not end in the very place where his ministry began: in the desert by the Jordan River where he was baptized.

IV. Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life: The Meaning IS the Application

A. There Is a Common End To Every Life, Common and Uncommon – When Jesus first arrives on the scene, the mourning and weeping going on all around him are troubling. In verse 33, the text says that he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Three verses later, we learn that he wept. Now, we might think that Jesus is mourning the loss of his friend Lazarus because his emotions seem to mirror those of the others. But Jesus is thinking about something else here. It is buried in the text. The phrase which we translate deeply moved (Greek embrimaomai) is a word which can also be used of the snorting of a horse. It suggests anger, outrage, and indignation. Jesus is not crying over the loss of a close friend. Rather, he is lamenting the result of living in a fallen world. In the Garden of Eden, things were not designed to turn out this way. Adam is really the one the blame, even though some suggestions are made that if Jesus had gotten there more quickly, things would have fared better. However, Jesus knows what will happen in the end as Lazarus’ death was an event which made the glory of God displayable.

You and I must face the same final challenge that Lazarus faced. We must all die one day. His life was rather uncommon in that he knew Jesus Christ during his incarnation and actually was resurrected by him. No one else in human history could claim this. And yet, Lazarus too died, even after this resurrection. He did not live forever. So both Lazarus and you and I will have to reach this common end. We will all die one day. Have you thought about this fact very often? It was not until my junior year of college that I seriously contemplated the fact that I would die one day. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when this dawned on me. I have never been the same again.

Do you ever think about this? Do you realize that in just 100 years from now (a blip on the radar screen of history), there may be no one on earth that remembers you? You will be a name on a granite headstone, but no one will remember what your voice sounded like, what your touch felt like, what your body language and mannerisms were like. This is my real fear in death: not dying itself, but being forgotten.

So think about time. It has no owner. It cannot be bottled up. It cannot be slowed down. Everyday you and I live is one day less we have until our death.

B. The Life and Death and Resurrection of Jesus Address This Issue Personally – If I have tried to get you to see anything this year, it has been that your idea and your understanding of Jesus is too small. When your idea of Christ is too small, your Christianity will be too small. If you find yourself lukewarm or “wishy-washy” with regard to the Gospel and the mission of the Kingdom of God here on earth, I am willing to bet it is because you do not understand the person and work of the King, Jesus Christ. If he remains an idea to you, loving him will never be a reality to you because you will never realize that he loves you. Ideas don’t love anyone; only people can love people. When you come to know him as a person his existence will mean something more, something infinitely more.

This very fact holds true when we think about how Christ ministers to us as mortals who must one day face death. Christ was the Word of God from the beginning. He created everything and had eternal life simply because of the fact that he was divine. And yet, we are told that he became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). This birth would necessarily include a death. The whole of John’s Gospel moves toward this end; he spends more time describing the days surrounding Jesus’ death than any other Gospel.

So it boils down to this: God made everything we see “very good” and when it was blurred and marred by man’s sin, God sought to make everything “very good” again by fulfilling justice and dispensing grace in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. As you were born in a body and died in a body, so he too was born in a body and died in a body in order to redeem your body from the despair of death itself.

C. With This End in Mind, the Resurrection Means EVERYTHING! – You may be sitting there in your chairs tonight wondering what Jesus’ resurrection has to do with the truth or falsity of Christianity. The dots don’t seem to connect. I will go ahead and say that if you do not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, you are not a Christian. I am very hesitant to make salvation dependent upon doctrinal ideas, but this is one of those very ideas. You cannot be a Christian and deny that Christ was physically raised from the dead. There are many people that would laugh at such an idea, but for a true believer, the truth of Jesus’ statement in John 11:25 is the very hinge of the faith. Why must everything hang on this idea? Let me read you a passage of Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-17. If Christ is not raised, then he is nothing but a misguided prophet. He is not the resurrection and the life. He was not vindicated by the Father. His death on the cross accomplished nothing. The cross and the resurrection are two sides of the same coin, two actions in the same redemptive event. If you deny one, you lose both. So let me try to answer two questions for you:

1) Did it happen? There are many people who say that it did not. There is no video or audio recordings to prove that it did (or did not). However, here are some compelling reasons for you to believe in the resurrection:

A. Jesus Said It Would Happen – this event was not a surprise, but something that Jesus outright mentioned several times (John 2:19, Matt. 12:39).

B. The Body Has Never Been Found – Jesus’ corpse would have been the most obvious evidence that Christianity was untrue and yet no one has ever claimed to have the body. Some people think that Jesus never died, but only passed out. Others think that the disciples stole the body and stashed it somewhere. For the first group, let’s just say that the Roman guards had crucifixion down to an art form. If Pilate told them to crucify this Jewish rebel, they would certainly make sure to get the job done. For the others, let’s look at a third point.

C. The Disciples Died Because of Their Belief in the Resurrection – If we had taken a picture of the disciples after the death of Jesus, we would have seen a very sad bunch. They felt let down and they felt deceived. Yet, when we see them after the resurrection, a different picture emerges. Here is a group of men convinced of what they had seen and touched, so much so that all of them but John himself died because of this belief. Do you honestly think that they would have been hanged and crucified and tortured if they had made it all up? If they had stolen the body (as some claim), would not at least one of them cracked when a red hot poker was about to be thrust into their eye socket? The fact that they did not is proof enough for me that Jesus was truly raised.

D. There Were Living Witnesses for Many Years Afterward – We read 1 Cor. 15 in which Paul mentions that many people were still living who had seen Jesus Christ risen. They were continuing to testify to this miracle. The resurrection did not happen in a corner but in history and to the public.

2) What does it mean? “This is the essence of Christianity: God does not want you to display your strength by working for him; God wants to display his strength by working for you. God does not want you to demonstrate your power by serving him; He wants to demonstrate his power by serving you” (John Piper). The two great enemies of life after the fall are sin and death. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ address both of these enemies.

A. Sin Conquered on the Cross – The first enemy is sin, but Jesus conquered this enemy by his cross. Jesus’ shed blood was not wasted, not one single drop. The resurrection is proof that this is true. If the resurrection hadn’t happened, we would have to doubt the efficacy of the cross. But being that it did happen, we do not have to doubt. On the cross, Christ died to atone for the sins of all those who would believe in him…not the idea of him, but HIM! In and through Jesus Christ and our faith in him, our sins can be washed away and a right relationship with God can be established.

B. Death Conquered in the Resurrection – Death, the second enemy, was conquered in the resurrection as Jesus broke forth from the tomb. This miraculous act was a sign and seal that God’s work had been fully accomplished. The disciples saw him, the apostles saw him, and 500 or so others saw him. The reason why these people could be persecuted and killed because of their belief in the resurrection was precisely because they knew death to be conquered. What frees you to go and do the Lord’s work on this campus without regard for how you are viewed and how you are treated is precisely because of the resurrection. What could a person do to you that could separate you from the love of God? Nothing! They might slander you or abuse you or even kill you, but because of the resurrection, no harm will be done to you.

These are challenging words and challenging thoughts. But I will leave you with the statement of Jesus on the matter, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” I hope I have made the truth and meaning of this statement clear to you tonight. The question is simply, “Do you believe this?”