Who is this Jesus? [Part 5]

Jesus claims to be the Resurrection and the Life.

The Bible teaches that at the last day all the righteous, that is, those who trust God’s promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ, will be raised to everlasting life.

Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Isaiah 25:6-8 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

Job 19:25-27 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

A friend of Jesus in Bethany named Lazarus was sick. Jesus was summoned by Lazarus’ family to come heal Lazarus before he died of the illness. But Jesus delayed coming. Finally, after the delay, he went back to Bethany in Judea, but Lazarus had died four days before this. It seemed to be too late. Martha, Lazarus’ sister, met Jesus outside the house where the family and friends were sitting Shiva (seven day’s of Jewish mourning ceremonies). Jesus promised that Lazarus would rise again. Martha thought Jesus was speaking of the resurrection at the last day. Jesus was speaking of something much more immediate.

John 11:25-27 Jesus said to her, “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. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Jesus is saying that he is the power of resurrection, that he is everlasting life. In saying this Jesus makes an astonishing claim. Apart from Jesus there is no life. Apart from Jesus there is no hope for resurrection. Who alone could claim such a thing? The only One who did claim such a thing and then proved it is Jesus. Paul wrote, Romans 1:1-4 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord . . .

Martha, Mary, and all the mourners did not yet fully understand who Jesus is. Jesus saw that they were unable to accept the truth he spoke about himself. It troubled him greatly, John 11:33, 38. Even Martha who just confessed her faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, could not accept that Jesus had power to raise a person who had been dead for four days. Jesus prayed aloud for the sake of those witnessing this miracle and commanded Lazarus, who was bound head to toe in grave cloths, to come forth from the grave, John 11:43-44 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of those who heard Jesus words and saw what was done believed in him.

Jesus demonstrated his power over death in raising Lazarus from the dead. It is a preview of the final resurrection. What does this miracle demonstrate for those who believe in Jesus’ promise of eternal life? If Jesus himself is the Resurrection and the Life, is there any resurrection or life apart from him? John 5:25-26 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

Others who saw the miracle ran to Jesus’ enemies to report on the events in Bethany. As a result of this the enemies of Christ met in a council and began to conspire to kill him in order to protect their own power and interests. This miracle happened just before the Passover. It is a turning point in the narrative. From this time onward, Jesus moves steadily toward his crucifixion. The crisis has been reached. The enemies are resolute. Jesus’ hour has come. The irony of this is that Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, will suffer death on behalf of the entire human race. However, death ultimately has no power over him. Peter preaches this in Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

In the intervening verses between Lazarus’ being raised and the Last Supper, Jesus speaks about his coming sacrificial death when Mary of Bethany anoints him (John 12:7), when some Greeks sought him in Jerusalem (John 12:24), and before the crowds in Jerusalem (John12:27, 32). His last public statements call on those who heard him to believe. John describes how many did not believe, or if they did believe, nevertheless hid their belief because of fear or a desire to have the approval of others.

After this Jesus withdraws from the public to celebrate the Last Supper, with his twelve disciples.

Jesus is the Suffering Servant.

The first part of John has been called the Book of Signs. The second part of John begins here, called by one scholar the Book of Glory. Notice that the word love occupies a prominent place in the section. The glory revealed here is the love that Christ shows his disciples and the world through his atoning death. The first part of this section is Jesus at the feast with his disciples. Here he shows them and teaches them about love. After the supper they go to the garden where Jesus is betrayed, then taken and tried, executed, buried and finally, raised to appear to his disciples.

The feast begins in an unexpected manner. Jesus, the Lord and Master, shows himself to be a lowly servant. In this culture the servant who washed the feet of guests was the lowest, most humble of all servants in a household. If you consider what kind of filth sandaled feet picked up in the streets, this was not a pleasant job. Jesus shows us that he came to serve us—ultimately by giving his life. He mentions that he was to be betrayed by one who was there with them, namely Judas. He tells the disciples that he knows what is coming, his betrayal and his death.

John 13:18-19 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.

The example of doing the dirtiest and lowest job in the household is an anticipation of the manner in which Jesus would suffer for the sins of the world. What could be more dirty, more lowly, than bearing upon himself the sins of the world? The prophet Isaiah described it in what some call the Suffering Servant passage.

Isaiah 53:3-11 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Why is this part of the John’s Gospel called the Book of Glory? Here Jesus faces betrayal. He faces the Cross. His disciples fear his departure. Just what is glorious about this? The glory is in the immensity of his love. His betrayal, suffering, and death for us is how Jesus is glorified. The self-sacrificial love of Christ is the glory of the Book of Glory. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, gives his life for us because he loved each of us.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this great love in what is known as the Song of Christ (Carmen Christi) , probably an early Hymn of the church.

Phil. 2:5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

[Part 6 will continue this study.]