"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die...'"
-John 11:25 NIV
We have often heard the telling of one of Jesus’ most amazing miracles as Lazarus was raised from the dead. But as my Grandma Higgins said, “Some stories need to be told more than once.” A story was to her an event to be healed by and understood differently through each telling. As I reread this passage in John I recalled a story in the life of the author Dostoyevsky.
In 1849 Dostoyevsky and seven other young revolutionaries had been sentenced to die. They were dressed in their burial shrouds and marched out of their cells to the firing squad. At the last minute, a rider appeared with the news that the czar had commuted their sentence to twenty years hard labor. We don’t know how the other seven reacted to this unexpected salvation but Dostoyevsky wrote, “Never has there seethed in me such an abundant and healthy kind of spiritual life as now…Now my life will change. I shall be born again in new form. Life is a gift. Life is happiness and every minute can be an eternity of happiness…Life is everywhere, life is in ourselves, not in the external.”
Dostoyevsky learned a great lesson in an instant of grace. A lesson most of us learn over seasons of suffering or struggle, often in a wilderness. The lesson is that the things we had thought were important---achievement, affirmation, intelligence---are actually less important, and the things we had undervalued---heart and soul---are actually most important.
In verses 1-6 we hear that Jesus receives a request for help. But he waits as Lazarus dies and the family mourns his passing. We can imagine the frantic prayers for Godly intervention. Perhaps Jesus knew that Lazarus had already died. Either way the waiting had a purpose. It may have been to show that we cannot expect God’s time and purpose to be our own. It may have been to allow us to see the wonder of resurrection and the promise of new life with Christ. It may have been so Jesus could “show” that the body is only asleep in the grave.
As the story plays out in the remaining verses we wander through the dangers faced by Jesus, The miracle of raising Lazarus from his tomb. and it culminates in the great proclamation by Jesus, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live even though they die.” Jesus knew two very important pieces of information. He knew that Lazarus would eventually again suffer a physical death. And He knew that Lazarus would never die. The celebration of the family surrounding Lazarus’ return from the dead must have been the thing of local legend. But it most certainly would have included, “I shall be born again in new form. Life is a gift. Life is happiness and every minute can be an eternity of happiness.”
Thought: As we wait for the great celebration of Easter let us wait in the assurance that, as Jesus surely lives, so shall we who believe in Him. “L’chaim.”
--Chuck Higgins
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