He gave it there, by the grave of Lazarus, to that weeping sister, but
He spoke these great words of calm assurance to all the world. One
cannot but note the difference between His attitude in the presence of
the great Mystery and that of all other teachers. How calmly,
certainly, and confidently He speaks!
Mark that Jesus, even at that hour of agony, turns Martha's thoughts
to Himself. What He is is the all-important thing for her to know. If
she understands Him, life and death will have no insoluble problems
nor any hopelessness for her. 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.'
She had risen in her grief to a lofty height in believing that 'even
now'--at this moment when help is vain and hope is dead--'whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee,' but Jesus offers to her
a loftier conception of Him when He lays a sovereign hand on
resurrection and life, and discloses that both inhere in Him, and from
Him flow to all who shall possess them. He claims to have in Himself
the fountain of life, in all possible senses of the word, as well as
in the special sense relevant at that sad hour. Further, He tells
Martha that by faith in Him any and all may possess that life. And
then He majestically goes on to declare that the life which He gives
is immune from, and untouched by, death. The believer shall live
though he dies, the living believer shall never die. It is clear that,
in these two great statements, to die is used in two different
meanings, referring in the former case to the physical fact, and in
the latter carrying a heavier weight of significance, namely the
pregnant sense which it usually has in this Gospel, of separation from
God and consequently from the true life of the soul. Physical death is
not the termination of human life. The grim fact touches only the
surface life, and has nothing to do with the essential, personal
being. He that believes on Jesus, and he only, truly lives, and his
union with Jesus secures his possession of that eternal life, which
victoriously persists through the apparent, superficial change which
men call death. Nothing dies but the death which surrounds the
faithful soul. For it to die is to live more fully, more triumphantly,
more blessedly. So though the act of physical death remains, its whole
character is changed. Hence the New Testament euphemisms for death are
much more than euphemisms. Men christen it by names which drape its
ugliness, because they fear it so much, but Faith can play with
Leviathan, because it fears it not at all. Hence such names as
'sleep,' 'exodus,' are tokens of the victory won for all believers by
Jesus. He will show Martha the hope for all His followers which begins
to dawn even in the calling of her brother back from the grip of
death. And He shows us the great truth that His being the 'Life'
necessarily involved His being also the 'Resurrection,' for His
life-communicating work could not be accomplished till His
all-quickening vitality had flowed over into, and flooded with its own
conquering tides, not only the spirit which believes but its humble
companion, the soul, and its yet humbler, the body. A bodily life is
essential to perfect manhood, and Jesus will not stay His hand till
every believer is full-summed in all his powers, and is perfect in
body, soul, and spirit, after the image of Him who redeemed Him.