I am the Resurrection and the Life - Easter

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! (They reply - The Lord is Risen indeed Alleluia)

Today, rightfully so, is one of the happiest days of the year. For a moment, everything seems right in the world. God in Jesus has overcome suffering and death and brought it into a transformed and resurrected life. Our hope for reality, our lives, and everything we know has come to be. Now we know that all things can be redeemed, that all suffering and death can be transformed, and that there is no need to be afraid or to mourn as others mourn or even hold onto our suffering. Jesus has taken it all and changed it forever. This is our joyous day because God has changed everything wrong and led it to life itself.

We are an Easter people - we live in the hope of the resurrected Jesus and we know that the same power that overcame all sin, suffering, and death is now working in us and around us. What an amazing reality. Just think about that for a moment. The same power that overcame all evil, suffering, and death is now working in you! What a grand gift. What hope lives in us? What potential do we now have? It is hard to imagine all this could and does mean because it is bigger than we know or understand.

People in Jesus’ day couldn’t understand it either. Even those closest to him like his good friends Mary and Martha, and His disciples Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John. They had seen Jesus do miracles, they heard Jesus talk about the resurrection, even His own, yet they could not imagine it, they could see how it was possible. Death is the end for everything, right? It is what is waiting for us all, right? Death is natural and guaranteed, right? Wrong - Death is not our end - death is not a forgone conclusion - it is not what we are meant for.

We can easily feel like Mary and Martha, who when they saw Jesus said, “If you had been here Jesus, my brother wouldn’t have died”. A more considerate way of saying, “Where were you, God?” Why didn’t you do something? Why weren’t you here? This didn’t need to happen. Have you ever said those words, thought them, or even felt them in your heart? I have. They thought death was the end. We also too often think that death is the end, but sometimes we are just as decisive about our suffering or struggles. When something goes wrong, we get hurt, or sick, or fail, we think that is the end and that there is no changing it. We must not forget the power of Jesus’ resurrection and life.

When Jesus died, having suffered under the hands of the religious leaders, the normal citizens, and the Roman government. Again, they thought it was all over. They must have struggled like the psalmist, “Jesus is in Sheol, he has gone down to the pit, there is no worship there, no good works”. How horrendous of a way to die too. For someone so great and wonderful to be so belittled, defaced, disrespected, and abused. What a shame! What a wrong! Again, we can get caught up in the same thing. We can get wrapped up in the moment and feel like God has failed us, that there is no more redemption or way out, and see what is done as the last word. We must not forget the power of Jesus’ resurrection and life.

Jesus replies to Martha’s grief and struggle, “Your brother shall live again”. To which she replies, “I know he shall be resurrected on the last day”. Again, we can get trapped in the same idea. Sure, we believe in Jesus’ resurrection. Sure, we believe in a future hope, but that is distant, we have to wait, probably for a long time until we see it. Even though we know Jesus is close, even right beside us. We can too easily limit God’s hope and see it as not affecting and working in this present moment. For the disciples, it was the same thing with Jesus’ death. He had warned them three times that he would suffer and die, but three days later he would rise again. Yet, they couldn’t hear it. They couldn’t believe it at the time. They couldn’t see how something so horrendous and wrong could lead to life. We must not forget the power of Jesus’ resurrection and life.

This is when Jesus reminds us of a fundamental truth: “I am the resurrection and the life”. “I am” - a profound statement of Jesus’ unity with the Father. “I am the resurrection and the life” - a statement that tells us that Jesus is in His very being is life itself - is everything that is good and true about life - He is also the life that overcomes death - he is resurrection - because His life overcomes everything. That is exactly what we see on Easter Sunday - He is the life that overcomes everything and leads it to life.

But Jesus wants us to understand how that relates to us - He wants to help us understand how His overpowering life affects ours. He says, “All those who believe in me will have life, even though they die, and all those who live and believe in me shall never die”. Jesus is trying to tell us that if we believe in Him, His life that overcomes death and utterly vanquishes it, lives in us. I think oftentimes, we can limit this, I know I can. We can think, well, death is still the end, and death is still tragic and awful, but then they go somewhere different and that is good. We still let death have its way, we still think death has power over us, even if we think Jesus will eventually have his way - just like Martha looked at a future resurrection. This fits more with the first part Jesus says, but there is more.

Jesus says, those that believe in me even though they die, they shall live. Even if they pass through something that looks wrong, they will actually be filled to the overflow with my life, with the fullness of life, with vitality and substance and so much more. If someone dies in faith, they lack nothing in what it means to truly live and have their being. Jesus goes on - Those who live and believe in me will never die. Do we believe this? Do we believe that we don’t need to die? Do we believe that even if our bodies may lapse, that death holds no sway over us, that death doesn’t need to affect our lives? I think we still give too much power and finality to suffering and death. We must not forget the power of Jesus’ resurrection and life.

We feel the joy of this day. We feel the hope. We live in it for a moment. This hope and joy should extend into every moment of our lives. We are a resurrection people. A people who have seen Jesus pass through the worst suffering and death and brought it to a transformed and powerful life. We have experienced and lived through hard times where we have seen God’s powerful redemption and life. We have seen his miracles, his cures, his guiding help, and his love. We might still struggle with a present earthly resurrection, but Jesus reminds us that we must believe. Because, if we believe, we shall see that life that overcomes death. We shall see that Jesus is resurrection and life. And as He is the God who is with us, that changes our lives to become true life and a powerful life that overcomes all suffering and death. I don’t want to suffer or die, but if I have to, if I have to drink of the cup of God’s wrath whether it is my fault or someone else’s or God’s choice, I definitely want to overcome it and I want to find God’s greater life through it.

As we hear about, meditate on, and look at that empty tomb, let us all understand that this is what God has done to suffering and death - He has made them empty. Jesus still mourns with us, he suffers with us, and he died with us, but he has forever taken the stink away from a believer's death, he has taken away its sting, he has unwrapped us and freed us from our grave clothes, he has rolled up what covered our face and head - he has brought order to death - so that it actually leads to life. He has left the door wide open so that the light might pour into that dark place, so that anyone might look in and see what is left of death. Those grave clothes are like we have shed our skin, shed the scales of a broken life, and been changed. The angels wait in that space of death to guide us out - to point us beyond - to help us see that God waits for us.

Now, Jesus waits outside of that tomb, outside of death, like a gardener. As the one who is restoring, cultivating, trimming to create life and restoring that garden paradise - first by resurrecting us and giving us new life. We must not forget the power of Jesus’ resurrection and life.

25 Jesus says to us, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Let us all hold onto this belief and see how God’s life overcomes everything. AMEN