Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
John 11:25-26
Every time that I read this account and get to these words of Jesus to Martha I get a chill of compelling excitement that runs up and down my spine. I can't help it. This is Jesus Himself dealing without he most personal and devastating of human tragedies. This is what He came to do about death. And it is moving beyond my ability to describe.
I feel strong emotion here because everybody has been a Martha, and everybody will be a Lazarus. The tears come because I have stood in Martha's place before Jesus myself. I have lost someone (actually several someones) that I love and have felt helpless as I have seen death claim a family member. And everything that Jesus did set up this conversation. He knew Lazarus was sick, yet tarried in coming to visit His friend. He did not even make the burial. But here Jesus is compelling the family that He is "the resurrection and the life", asking them to believe in the hardest of moments.
I am also moved because I stand in Lazarus' position (at least partially). I will die one day. The older I get, the closer that day comes. We all will die some day. And what I do with this question Jesus posed to Martha is key. Do I really believe that my faith in Jesus as the resurrection and the life will give me eternal life? Absolutely! It is what all my life and what all my life rests on more and more every day. It is really hope based on a knowledge of my Savior and His great love.
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