"I am the resurrection and the life"

Every belief system has to answer one question sooner or later: what happens when we die? People give lots of answers. Nothing, we just stop. We come back as something else. We live on in people's memories. Heaven. I don't know.

In John 11, Jesus gives his answer, and he gives it at a funeral. Then he backs it up. If you've lost someone you love, this story might feel close to home. That's OK. It's a story about a friend who cries with grieving people, and who has the power to do something about death.

What you'll learn

• The story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus
• What Jesus means by "I am the resurrection and the life"
• Why it matters that Jesus wept

Too late?

Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, are close friends of Jesus. They live in Bethany, near Jerusalem. When Lazarus gets sick, the sisters send Jesus a message: the friend he loves is sick. Strangely, Jesus waits two more days. He says this sickness will bring glory to God.

Going back near Jerusalem is dangerous, because people there have tried to stone Jesus. One disciple, Thomas, bravely says they should all go and die with him. When Jesus finally arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. There's no doubt he is truly dead.

If you were Martha or Mary, how would you feel about Jesus right now?

"Do you believe this?"

Martha goes out to meet Jesus, and she's honest:

"Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’" (John 11:21)

She's disappointed with Jesus, and she says so. But she still trusts him. She already believes the dead will rise "at the last day", as many Jews did. Then Jesus says:

"Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’" (John 11:25–26)

• Jesus is the resurrection. He doesn't just say he'll give resurrection one day. Life is found in a person.
• Two promises. Those who believe will live, even though they die: physical death is not the end. And those who live and believe will never die: the real life Jesus gives can't be ended by death.
• A personal question. Jesus asks Martha whether she believes it. John asks his readers the same thing.

Martha answers that she believes Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Those are almost exactly the words John uses when he explains why he wrote his whole book (John 20:31). Martha is the kind of believer John hopes his readers will become.

Tears and a voice at the tomb

Mary comes next. She says the same words as Martha, but she is weeping. Jesus is deeply moved. Then comes the shortest verse in most English Bibles:

"Jesus wept." (John 11:35)

Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus. So why did he cry? Because he loved Lazarus and his sisters. Because death is an enemy; it was never part of God's good world. And because God isn't distant from our grief. Jesus cries with people before he fixes anything.

At the tomb, Martha worries about the smell. Jesus prays, then shouts:

"After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. ‘Unwrap him and let him go,’ Jesus told them." (John 11:43–44)

Lazarus came back to his old body, and one day he would die again. That's different from Jesus' own resurrection a few weeks later. Jesus rose to a new life that can never die, and Christians believe that one day everyone who belongs to him will share that kind of life.

The cost of giving life

Many people believed in Jesus after this. But some reported him to the religious leaders, who decided Jesus must die. The high priest, Caiaphas, said it was better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. John says Caiaphas spoke more truly than he knew. Giving Lazarus his life would cost Jesus his own.

Key words

• Resurrection: being raised to life after death, in a body (not as a ghost, and not coming back as something else).
• Eternal life: life with God that starts now and never ends.
• Tomb: a cave cut in rock, closed with a large stone, where the dead were buried.

How this points to Jesus

Raising Lazarus was a sign, a miracle that points beyond itself. It pointed to Jesus' own resurrection, when he walked out of a tomb never to die again. Christians still grieve when people die, but they grieve with hope, because Jesus showed that death doesn't get the last word.

Think about it

Take it further

Jesus asked Martha, "Do you believe this?" Think about how you'd honestly answer him today, and why. If this lesson has stirred up sad memories, it's a good idea to talk with a parent, your teacher or the school chaplain. Your worksheet helps you trace the story of John 11.

If you'd like to, you could pray:

Jesus, thank you that you cry with people who are sad. Thank you that you are the resurrection and the life, and that death doesn't get the last word. Please be close to anyone who is missing someone today. Amen.