Do you believe this?

When Martha and Mary called for Jesus as their brother Lazarus turned deathly ill, they expected the rabbi to drop everything and come running. He didn’t. Jesus rarely let someone else’s emergency become his. So he hung around in the wilderness another couple of days, telling his disciples it was “a sickness not unto death.”

But it was a sickness unto death, and when Jesus showed up four days after the funeral Martha was fit to be tied. “Why didn’t you come when we sent for you?” she complained. “If you had been here Lazarus would not have died!”

Jesus told the disciples why he tarried. “I’m glad I wasn’t there – for your sake. I didn’t rush right over to do this so that you will believe.”

I am convinced that everything Jesus did, he did for the benefit of his disciples. They needed help in believing. They were having a difficult time understanding what Jesus had been telling them about his death and resurrection, and an object lesson in the extreme just might help. It would be for the glory of God.

So Jesus waited around until Lazarus was good and dead. That would be evident four days after the funeral, when the grave would be left alone and decay had begun.

With mourners still flanking her, Martha lit into Jesus. “If only you had come!”

Jesus responded, “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes, I know,” Martha replied. “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (emphasis added).

Understandably Martha and Mary were caught up in the emotion of their grief and disappointment. They were also put out with Jesus because they had called him and he hadn’t come in time. Now Lazarus was gone, and with him their hope of his healing. When Jesus spoke of resurrection Martha rattled off the generally understood belief that at the end Lazarus would be raised into the life described by Isaiah 65.

Jesus countered her feelings with a shocking disclosure and a question that reverberates in my mind. “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?

Do you believe this? We ran across believe a few weeks ago when Nicodemus visited Jesus to ask about the signs. Arising from the Hebrew word for amen, believe means something that is so sure and certain that you can base your entire life on it. It assumes life decisions and actions will be firmly established by what is believed. Believe is connected to truth, or the revelation of certain unchangeable fact. Believe is not one’s own opinion or interpretation, but basing one’s life and existence on the certain fact now revealed. Jesus is resurrection and life, and we must base our lives on it.

Jesus’ challenge hits Martha between the eyes. If she in fact believes Jesus is the resurrection and the life, she will not be limited to the regret that he didn’t show up in time to do something before her brother died. Jesus is resurrection and life, and intends to demonstrate the glory of God.

Next, Jesus went with the mourners to the grave. Now it was Jesus who experienced deep emotion. John tells us he groaned, wept, and was deeply troubled. Groan describes deep anger and indignation with great concern. Troubled means inner turmoil and emotional distress. Jesus was clearly agitated. By what? Martha’s struggle with grief? The snarky attitude of bystanders, criticizing him for not coming soon enough?

Or was it something bigger? Was it the unbelief of his disciples, of his friends Martha and Mary, and the clueless mourners gathered around them? Was it that resurrection had become to them more like make-believe than a reality on which to build one’s life?

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus had told Martha. Whoever believes on me, though he die, shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Now, standing at the grave, Jesus ordered the stone to be removed. “Lord, he has been dead four days!” Martha objected.

Jesus shot back. “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

With that they rolled away the stone, and Jesus prayed. “Father, I thank you that you have heard me, but because of these people I say this, that they may believe.” Then Jesus called Lazarus to come out, and he did, still wrapped in grave cloths.

Many of the people who had come to console Martha and Mary believed in Jesus, because of what he had done. Apparently the priests and scribes worried about that, because later on they plotted to kill Lazarus because so many believed in Jesus because Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus teaches us that the resurrection is as much a present reality as it is a future hope. Jesus foreshadowed his own resurrection by showing his disciples he in fact had power over death and in the present time could being about a resurrection that will change the world. We live in that resurrection when we are born again and live unto Jesus. We live in that resurrection when we live into the kingdom and do not let the world and its values and philosophies control us, when we base our life on the sure and certain fact that Jesus is Lord over all things, and we commit our lives to him.

I believe unbelief grieves God’s heart because it causes us to lose sight of the kingdom and our basis of life and faith. Unbelief entices us to sin, leads us away from pure relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and causes us to miss the promises God has for us. It leads to unnecessary pain and suffering and separates us from God’s love.

Jesus is resurrection and life. Do you believe this?

Almighty God, your Son came into the world to free us all from sin and death. Breath upon us with the power of your Spirit, that we may be raised to new life in Christ, and serve you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Methodist Worship Book, The Methodist Church in Britain, 1999)

John 11:1-45 (5 Lent A 2014)