The Resurrection and the Life

John 11 Excerpts (NIV)
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
…
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

John 11 is the very familiar story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. These two short pieces in the middle of the story focus on Jesus' reaction to the disbelief around him. A sermon excerpt on this passage by Ray C. Stedman provides some valuable insight:

Jesus' reaction here is highly significant: He was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled." It is very difficult to capture in English what the Greek text is saying here. The word for "deeply moved in spirit" is a word that only occurs three or four times in the New Testament, and in each place it is associated with a sense of indignation, of anger. It is a word that the Greeks used to describe a horse snorting with anger. Jesus is indignant, he is moved with anger, and it showed in his face: he "troubled himself"; he evidenced it by what he did and the way he looked. John emphasizes that his reaction to the deep grief of Mary and her friends is one of sharp anger.

Why was Jesus snorting like an angry horse? I look at Martha's response. She responds as if the resurrection is some vague gaseous concept out in the future somewhere. Jesus responds, "No! I am the resurrection AND I am the life." Martha, you are standing talking to the LIVING God of the Universe – the living "I AM" in the flesh. Do you get this?

Do I?

"Jesus wept." The shortest verse in the entire Bible. But do I really know why He wept then? Can I really feel why He weeps now?

God loves me just the way I am and loves me so much that He does not want to leave me that way. Jesus promises to be an agent of change in me – a resurrection in my life. Right now. Today. Every day.

Could Jesus be weeping now because I always tend to push His desires to some metaphorical Jesus pie-in-the-sky off in the future? Is that what keeps Him from working within and through me here at work?

Do I really realize that He wants my life – all of it? Do I really realize how painfully He wants my life to play an eternal part in redemptive history? Do I really know the joy I am missing out on? Do I really get this?

When I became a Christian, I sat down, folded my hands, and waited for heaven to come. But now I am starting to realize how painfully that limits who I could be. The closer I let the resurrection come to my present-day life, the closer I come to Him and what He created me to be. He is the resurrection AND the life.

I think the Martha in me is starting to catch on.

Lord, open me up to the changes you want in me today. Help me feel in my heart and soul how important this is to You. Help me hear Your voice. Make me into a new person each day, every day, for the rest of my life. Amen.