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Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.”
John 11:25 is a resurrection announcement to a distraught and grief stricken sister, who is in the midst of her own “Good Friday” experience of pain and contradictions. Martha and Mary had sent word to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, was gravely ill. Jesus does not rush to the bedside of this one he “loves.” Instead, Jesus says that death will not have the last word on Lazarus’ circumstance, but that the glory of God would be on display and that God’s Son would be glorified through it. When Jesus finally makes his way to Bethany, he is greeted by the heartbroken sister, Martha. She tells Jesus, “if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Death has painfully closed a loving chapter on the relationship she shared with her brother. Death has removed her hope that an alternative possibility for Lazarus exists. Jesus had shown up too late and, now, Lazarus and his sisters are incarcerated by the impossible. They are suffering in their own “Good Friday” tomb. The outcome of this excruciating experience would have been different if only Jesus had shown up on time, Martha maintains.
Jesus responds with a revelation of who he is and a declaration that death can’t defeat. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” This revelation and declaration provide the basis for our “Easter Faith in this Good Friday World.”
In this Good Friday world of painful contradictions, Easter reveals the person and power of Jesus in the midst of the worst the forces of death can muster. Jesus reveals himself as “the resurrection and the life” to a sorrowing sister whose candle of hope had been blown out by the chilly winds of death. Our “Easter faith” celebrates the fact that God operates best and unveils God’s self in a “Good Friday world.” (African American Lectionary)