What's In a Name? I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Easter is not just a remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

It’s also about our reurrection, which faith in Christ has already accomplished!

“I Am.”

The Gospels record at least three that Jesus himself raised:
•Jairus’ daughter
•the widow’s son
•and Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.

On Easter we’re not just remembering and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus; we’re also recognizing and celebrating our own.

–John 11:4 “This sickness will not end in death,” he said. “No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

After two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” (v. 7)

“A short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” (v. 8)

-John 9:4. “I must do the work of the father while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.”

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” (v. 11)

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (v. 14)

Thomas’ response: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Double meanings
1. Two kinds of sleep

–Mark 5:39-41 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).

Jesus used the metaphor of sleep to describe people that were actually dead.

2. Two kinds of death - Being alive, breathing, but also being dead.

–Ephesians 2:1-6 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…”

–Revelation 3:1-2 Jesus’ words to the church at Sardis: “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are really dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die…”
3. Two kinds of life

–John 5:21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.”

–John 17:3 “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Thomas Merton
Thornton Wilder - Our Town
Fyodor Dostoevsky

4. The rest of the story

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”


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

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
“Where have you laid him?”

5. The real meaning of Easter: God’s New Creation starts now.

“Jesus has risen from the dead!

Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son.

“I will arise and go to my father.”
“For this my son was dead and is alive again.”
“For your brother was dead and is alive again.”

“arose”

It points to a greater, broader, and deeper resurrection than just biological reanimation.

It may look good, but nothing of substance has changed.

–2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

–Romans 6:4 Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

The story God is telling is the story of the renewal of all things, and it has already begun!

We participate in it through death and resurrection, now!

It happens when we say yes to God’s invitation to new life and follow Jesus to the cross.

The Cross—once an instrument of torture and death—becomes a symbol of joy and beauty.