Daily Lesson for April 12, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 17 to 27:

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ 23Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 25Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ 27She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

The Resurrection is a present tense event. 

We usually speak of Resurrection as an event to come. And surely that is true. But Resurrection is not only in the future. Resurrection is also in the present.  

Here in today’s Lesson from the book of John Jesus says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” — present tense. Jesus said this in the context of death, to Martha the sister of Lazarus who had just died. It may seem like a peculiar time to speak of Resurrection and Life. But there was Jesus; and with him came also Life and Resurrection.  John’s theological message is clear; wherever there is Christ or the Spirit of Christ there is also Resurrection and Life, even in the midst of Death.

In my profession I am often around death. The gravity of Death can sometimes feel like a great and crushing black hole. Yet even in the midst of Death I often witness Resurrection and Life. There is sorrow and grief and the deep, deep pain of loss, but there is also hope.  There is Resurrection in present tense even in the present midst of Death. 

Death may be now; but it is not eternally now.  Death may be; but it will not be forever. For the  one who is the Resurrection and the Life is and was and ever shall be. And as Jesus said, even those who believe in Him, “even though they die, shall live.”