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A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY

John 11:25-26

 

On March 15, 44 BC, Cassius, Casca, Brutus  and other Roman leaders stabbed Julius Caesar to death.  Marc Anthony spoke his funeral oration immediately afterward, and, in the oration (invented by Shakespeare, which many a school boy used to have to memorize, Anthony said, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.  The evil that men do live after them; the good is oft interred with their bones;” 

Is that true?  On the evening news it is.  We fill the news with the evil people did on that particular day not the kindnesses of the day.

 

There’s a woman in the Bible who’s gotten a bad rap.  We remember her for doing what every single female would do, if Jesus were coming to dinner.  You would clean and clean and clean; you would decorate and either do or have the lawn done just right.  You would set the table with as perfect a set of silverware and china and you could afford.  And you would drive your husband nuts with all the planning and errands that had to be done before the dinner. 

 

We remember Martha as a busy homemaking who wanted to make sure everything for the dinner was as perfect as she could make it.  We don’t remember her for how she figures into one of the “I am”

statements Jesus made.  Her “good” has been interred with her bones.

 

Her brother Lazarus has just died and, although she doesn’t know it, Jesus is going to raise him from the dead; but before He does, Christ makes a tremendous statement: “I am the resurrection and the life!” 

 

What He means by this is that resurrection and eternal life are very much tied into Him (and no other).  To say it another way, “I am the cause, the source, the fountainhead of resurrection and life.” 

 

He makes a rather odd statement at first glance (“he who lives and believes in Me will never die”).  Of course, we would say, you have to live first to be able to believe.  That’s elementary.  But is some deeper truth being taught here? 

 

A person must live to believe, but He’s pointing out that the belief must come while a person is living.  There is no opportunity after this life is over to believe and have everlasting life with God in heaven. 

 

Speaking of “belief,” look at the times the word is used in five short sentences: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”  Four times in five sentences.  The word is in every sentence except the first one.  If there were another condition other than believing, He should state it here. 

 

What He does state is that to believe is to never die, which parallels what we read earlier, to drink is to never thirst, to eat is to never hunger, all of which speak strongly of the eternal security of the believer—believe once, eat once, drink once, and never ever need to do so again.

Martha knows that there will be a resurrection from Daniel 12:2: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”  She says, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
It’s her remark that prompts the great statement, “I am the resurrection and the life.” 
After Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life” and he asks her the question, “Do you believe this,” that is, “do you believe I am the resurrection and the life?” 
Here’s a truism: saving facts are necessary to saving faith.  John records many great confessions of faith:

1.     Jn. 1:29- “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

2.     Jn. 1:41—“ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).”

3.     Jn. 1: 45—“Philip found Nathanael and told him, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote— Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

4.     Jn. 1:49—“Then Nathanael declared, Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

5.     Jn. 4:42—“ They said to the woman, We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

6.     Jn. 6:68-69—“Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

So here comes her testimony in answer to the question, “Do you believe this?”  This question takes it out of the realm of theory and abstraction; it’s a question a person can’t hold in suspension forever.  It demands an answer.
This is one reason people get so upset at the Christ and His Word—they know it demands a response and if they don’t respond positively to the question, the Bible calls them rebels. 
Her confession is what we should remember her for more than anything else, even more than the house cleaning.  She says literally, “Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” 
She says, that she, for one, as opposed to those in Jerusalem and those listening to this conversation, has already believed.  It would be most natural to say, “I believe,” but she says, “I have believed,” that is she believed at some point prior to this time.  Saving facts are necessary for saving faith.  Her faith has content to it:

1.     Jesus is the Messiah predicted in the O. T.

2.     Jesus is the Son of God, which means that she believes that He is God.  (When she said, “Yes, Lord,” she was confessing His deity as she does here.)

3.     Jesus is the One coming into the world, the long-awaited Deliverer sent by God.  (cf. Jn. 1:9; 4:25; 5:43; 6:14)

This is a high view of Christ; it is on par with the other great confessions of faith we read about in John.  She should be known for this.  Her confession ties in perfectly with John’s statement in John 20:31: “But these (the miracles done in the presence of His disciples, cf. vs. 30) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
 
Jesus is the resurrection and the life in the sense that, for the believer, death has no eternal significance.

 

 

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