From here to eternity

‘I AM THE RESURRECTION’

John 11.25-26 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

This ‘I am’ saying of Jesus is found in the extraordinary story of the raising to life of Lazarus, a story which only John tells us. The claim 'I am the resurrection and the life' comes as Jesus is addressing Martha, the sister of Lazarus. She has just told him bluntly that if only he had been around her brother would not have died. And then, equally bluntly, she professes that even at this late hour God would grant Jesus whatever he asked. Here is honest faith. Jesus then says to Martha that Lazarus will ‘rise again’. And Martha, thinking he is talking about the resurrection to eternal life at the last day, says, ‘Well, of course he will, Lord.’ And it is at this point that Jesus says the phrase: ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’

Pause a minute.              

What is Jesus saying here?         

He is saying, this is not about a theological belief.

This is about a NEW REALITY!

The emphasis is upon the Jesus’ claim that he is the resurrection and the life; it is as if he is bursting with the life force that was there at the start of all life billions of years ago; life co-created with God the Father and the Holy Spirit; life which cannot be killed off even by death itself.

It is really important, I think, to be clear. Lazarus was dead for four days (there was a custom that the soul hovered over the body for three days and only left on the fourth day when it was clear someone was truly dead). He was miraculously raised to more life when Jesus called him out of the tomb. But Lazarus was not resurrected. Only Jesus has been resurrected to eternal life. Our lives are bound to his death, but also to his resurrection. And so, we believe that, as Jesus said, ‘those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.’  Lazarus eventually died, of course. He, like us, will be resurrected to eternal life.

In the picture above, by the thirteenth century Armenian iconographer Toros Roslin, we see Mary and Martha at Jesus’ feet. And we see Lazarus being led out of the tomb on Jesus’ command, the bindings loosened. Notice how the man leading Lazarus out of the tomb seems to have only one arm. Why might this be? Could there be a link between a disabled man leading Lazarus out of the tomb and Lazarus’s own bodily state?

At the recent Hot Potato Supper, we were thinking more deeply about this particular story in quite some detail. We were using Archbishop Justin Welby’s book Dethroning Mammon to help us understand the thought ‘what we see, we value’. In the first chapter of the book, Welby explores why it was that Lazarus, Mary and Martha were of such ‘value’ to Jesus. He tells how Jean Vanier, the Christian philosopher and theologian, who founded the L’Arche community, thinks one reason Jesus saw such ‘value’ in Lazarus was that he was disabled.

Here is how he sees it: Mary and Martha are unmarried sisters because they are devoted in their care for their brother (their devotion has prevented them from being married – perhaps out of choice, perhaps because no families were willing to take on Lazarus as part of the ‘dowry’). He could be in some way disabled or affected by a life-limiting condition. Whatever the case, Lazarus has uncertain health which leads to his sudden death. Jesus is incredibly attached to the three siblings. Their vulnerability perhaps draws Jesus in such a way that he is quite protective of them. Famously, we learn that Jesus weeps as Mary tells him that Lazarus has died. If Jesus already knew Lazarus had died, why was it at this point he is so broken-hearted? Is it because he is presented with such raw grief? As the crowd say: ‘See how he loved him!’

The raising of Lazarus to more life is told in John’s Gospel as another ‘sign’ of the super-abundant life of God and is told as a pre-figuring of Jesus’ own resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is an absolutely foundational to the Christian faith. Our resurrection is intertwined with Jesus' resurrection: if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ has not been raised either, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.19.

But we must not forget the other part of this Jesus ‘I am’ saying. Jesus is ‘the resurrection’ – something, in a sense, for us in the future, after our own deaths. But Jesus is also ‘the life’. That is, Jesus is our way of life now. One incredibly inspiring way we can see the life of Jesus flowing is through the story of the L’Arche Communities.

In 1964, Jean Vanier became hugely affected by the knowledge that thousands of people with learning difficulties were effectively entombed in huge institutions. He set out to make a difference. And in that year, he set up home with two men with learning difficulties. He began a relational movement. This small step of faith has grown, in the last fifty years, into a worldwide movement. Today there are 1,800 such communities in 80 countries around the world (there are 10 in the UK). I once spent a week living on a L’Arche community in France. It was a life-enhancing and life-changing time for me.

There are two simple principles and truths which undergird each community. The first is that people with learning disabilities have a great deal to contribute to society. The second is that by living in intentional community with people with and without learning disabilities, living with diversity and difference, we open ourselves up to be challenged and grow. This is for me a sign of the resurrection life Jesus embodies. His life-giving touch restored Lazarus not only to life, but to community. Resurrection life is for now and for eternity.

Here is the L’Arche Prayer.

Father, through Jesus our Lord and our brother, we ask you to bless us.

Grant that L'Arche be a true home,

where everyone may find life,

where those of us who suffer may find hope.
Keep in your loving care all those who come.
Spirit of God,

give us greatness of heart that we may welcome all those you send.
Make us compassionate that we may heal and bring peace.
Help us to see, to serve and to love.
O Lord, through the hands of each other, bless us;

through the eyes of each other, smile on us.
O Lord, grant freedom, fellowship and unity

to all your people and welcome everyone into your kingdom.

AMEN