I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Over these past two years, have you felt the weight? The weight of the question: “Haven’t we, here in the 21st century developed world, overcome these problems?” You’re not alone—many people have been shaken out of their comfortable lives to realize that for all of our technological advancement, sin is still prevalent in this world, and the wages of sin—death—still reign.

Our enemy still lurks like a prowling lion, causing chaos and destruction. Even as I write this devotional, much of our city sits underwater, with families evacuating their homes. We find ourselves asking, “Where are You, God?” We do not always understand God’s sovereignty in how He allows Satan to work. In this, we share the words of the psalmist who addresses Psalm 71:20 to “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities.” Yet we also share the psalmist’s hope that the very same God “will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.”

But how do we share this hope? How do we understand that God is good when death and suffering persist? It is only possible by believing the self-identifying words of Jesus. In John 11, Mary and Martha tell Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, has died. The sisters are faced with the same existential question that we have: “Where were You, God?” 

Jesus’ answer is (literally) life-changing: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Jesus then asks them a question —the same question that He asks us: “Do you believe this?”

Yes, we live in a broken world. And there are times—many times—when we feel that we are out of place in it… because we are. We were made for eternity with Jesus. But if we believe that Jesus is who He says He is—the resurrection and the life—then we know that this life filled with trial is not the end; it is merely a preparation for our own resurrection in Christ, and eternal life with Him.

And so, together, we answer the question posed by our Saviour: “Yes, we believe this. Yes, and Amen.”