Jesus says to her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha's brother Lazarus has died, and she has just told Jesus that God will give Him whatever He asks. His answer is short, and it hands her back the very thing death had taken.
The Lord does not begin by correcting Martha. He meets her sorrow with a promise about her brother.
The Lord saw right down to the bottom of her heart, with all its conflicting emotions. He pitied His poor servant, and at once He announced the cure for all the sorrow of death in the coming resurrection: "Your brother will rise again." Ah, yes, her unbelief replied, "in the resurrection on the last day." In this she went no further than the common belief of every orthodox Jew.
His reply does not take up her suggestion. He states what will happen.
So He rebukes Martha. Martha had said that God would give Him whatever He asked. He does not accept that. He speaks instead on the authority of His own personal glory: "Your brother will rise again." Nor does He go along with her afterthought, that her brother would rise on the last day. He says 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."
The promise is bigger than Martha can hold, and her answer shows where her faith stops.
The Lord tests her at once with the assurance of a joy too great for her: "Your brother will rise again." She sinks at once into mere orthodoxy: "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."
What Martha says back is true. It still leaves her standing at a grave with nothing in her hands.
He answers this simply, "Your brother will rise again" (v. 23). But she can think of this as nothing but the orthodox doctrine of a future general resurrection. How little comfort even true doctrine has in it apart from the person of Christ! Marvellous indeed is His reply, "I am the resurrection and the life." In Him personally is the answer to her every need, as of all creation. "I Am" implies His deity, and resurrection and life are certainly found only in God.
The difference between her reply and His is where each one looks.
Martha had said to our Lord that she knew her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She got her eye on an event. Our Lord turned her eye upon Himself.
Her answer is real faith. It also says nothing that would not be true of anyone else.
Here is real faith, a truth she had learnt well. She was not a Sadducee. This is the faith of the Church generally: "He will rise again on the last day." Without doubt. The same thing might be said of the most wicked man.
The promise is worth as much as the power behind it. Death was a real power, and nothing could set it aside.
The command had gone out at the beginning, when it was said to Adam, "You shall die." That power had been felt and acknowledged, and there was no setting it aside. No power could put it away, even for those whom the Lord loved, except a power like the one that sent out the command at the first. By that power alone can death be stopped — by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.
The word was not spent on Lazarus alone. It still speaks to those whose loved one will not be given back in this life.
Behind the mysterious wisdom that has allowed such an awful upheaval there is, at the same time, a gracious and sympathetic support richly given by the ascended Lord. He gives this assurance: even if the one He loved may not be restored as Lazarus was, He still says, "Your brother will rise again." For in the fullest sense, "everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die." That is, there is no death, as such, for the Christian.
- Comfort. Christ's first response to a grieving sister is not a rebuke but a promise about the one she has lost.
- Authority. He does not say that God will grant what He asks. He promises the resurrection on the authority of His own glory.
- Test. The promise is larger than Martha's faith. Her reply shows the limit: she settles for a doctrine while a Person stands in front of her.
- Bare orthodoxy. A general resurrection on the last day is true. But the same could be said over the most wicked man, so by itself it brings no comfort.
- Reach. The same word still stands at every believer's graveside. The loved one will rise, for whoever lives and believes in Him will never die.
Martha says to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day.
At her brother's grave, Martha hears Jesus promise that Lazarus will rise. She answers with a resurrection far off, at the end of time — a true answer that left her without comfort, so what did the Lord give her instead?
Martha was not inventing a comfort of her own. She repeated the settled belief of her nation.
Yes. But when? Martha replied, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Every orthodox Jew held the resurrection of the dead as part of his creed (Hebrews 6:2). Were the Lord's words limited to a future application? He would soon give proof of His real meaning.
But this belief on its own says nothing about the person who holds it.
Here is real faith, a truth she had learnt well. This is what the church at large believes: "He will rise again on the last day." No doubt about it. The most wicked man could say the same thing.
Her phrase raises a question of its own. How long is "the last day"?
It may help some readers to remember that "the last day" has a broad moral force. It is like "the day of the Lord" in 2 Peter 3, except that it reaches further. It takes in the resurrection of the saints, which "the day of the Lord" is nowhere said to include. Between John 6:39-40 and John 12:48 comes the thousand years of Revelation 20:4-5. "The last day" begins a little before that and ends a little after. It is a vague, or general, expression for the whole closing scene, when man's day is over and God acts in power, whether in blessing or in judgment.
So what was missing at the grave? Not accuracy.
In each of Martha's replies she stated what was true, but she found no comfort. She lacked the knowledge of the right truth. True comfort rests on the particular truth that suits the circumstances of the moment. For this we must rightly divide the word of truth. This is no question of rule or routine. In our trials and difficulties, the Lord Himself brings out of the Scriptures what will help us right now.
Her problem was not the future. It was today.
The Lord gives her a definite word to encourage her faith to draw on the resources in Himself. He says, "Your brother will rise again." Martha's faith accepts that there will be a final resurrection, and that on that day her brother will rise again. Like us, she finds it easier to believe what God will do at some distant date than what God can do at the present moment.
Notice what the Lord did not do. He did not correct her date.
Martha had said to our Lord that she knew her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She had her eye on an event. Our Lord turned her eye on Himself.
Martha's hope reached only to the last day. The Lord points to a resurrection from the dead that is bound up with Himself and with His coming.
Any hint of it passed Martha's thoughts by, though she showed a fair standard of the nation's faith (John 11:24-26). She spoke of a resurrection at the last day. The Lord told her of a power of resurrection in Himself. That power would not wait for the last day. It would act first, in a glorious resurrection that comes before all other resurrections, worthy of Him who is "the resurrection and the life." This was the resurrection of the Lord Himself, a resurrection from the dead. It will also be the resurrection of those who are His — not "on the last day," as Martha or the Jew might once have spoken, but "at his coming," as the Spirit in the church now speaks (1 Corinthians 15:23).
- Creed — Martha said what was true. Every orthodox Jew held to a resurrection of the dead, and her faith in it was real.
- Limit — The most wicked man could say the same words. Being right is not the same as being comforted.
- Timing — "The last day" is not one day at the end of history. It is the whole closing scene, when man's day is over and God acts in blessing and in judgment.
- Distance — Her difficulty is ours. It is easier to trust what God will do at some far-off date than what He can do right now.
- Person — The cure was not a better date but a new direction. Her eye was on an event; Christ turned it onto Himself, whose resurrection power does not wait for the last day.
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and every one who lives and believes on me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Martha stands outside Bethany. Her brother has been dead four days. Jesus takes the whole question of resurrection out of the distant future and puts it into His own Person. Then He presses her with a direct question. The verse holds two promises in one sentence: life for the believer who has died, and no death at all for the believer who is alive. Commentators have long weighed when each one is fulfilled.
The verse before it speaks of believers who have died. This verse speaks of believers who are still alive. Together they cover every possible case a Christian can be in.
He is the Resurrection, so He will call His sleeping saints out of the tomb. The one who believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live. He is also the Life. So He will keep all those who are alive when He comes, and they shall never die: "everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." He is the full answer to all that His saints will need.
The power to raise the dead was not something far off in the future. It was standing in front of Martha.
The Lord speaks here as already present to bring about the great results of His power. That power was still hidden in His Person, but He was about to give the proof of it in the resurrection of Lazarus. Power is in His Person. He gave the present proof of it in the resurrection of Lazarus. He will carry it out in full when He comes back to use this power in its fulness.
The reason a believer never dies lies in what Jesus gives.
In His presence a dead person should live, since He was the Resurrection. And in His presence a living person should never die, since He gave what is called "life more abundantly" — that is, a life that death cannot touch.
One writer points to the order of the words. Living comes before believing, and the promise covers the body.
Notice here the order of thought: "lives and believes," not believes and lives. The never dying has to do with the body. In the case described, the body and the soul will never part.
Many take the second clause to point forward to the Lord's return. He changes living believers then, without their dying.
As the Resurrection, He will raise all His sleeping saints when He comes down into the air. As the Life, He will change the mortal and corruptible bodies of His living ones, and make them like His own body of glory. These last will never die at all.
Others read the wording as present tense. To push it into the future, they say, misses the line Jesus is drawing between now and then.
At His coming there will certainly be the most perfect fulfilment of what is said here. But nothing except that fulfilment makes us think of putting the words off to the future. And that goes right against the division of time the Lord is making: "everyone who lives and believes" — now; not, shall be living and believing at My return. He says not a word about that here.
Commentators differ on the timing. They do not differ on what death can still do to the believer.
Against the life He gives, which is eternal life, death has no claim and no rule. The body still waits for its change and its redemption. Even so, for the one who now shares His resurrection life, death is behind him, and not ahead of him.
The verse ends with a question put straight to Martha. One writer explains why so much hung on it.
The Lord puts the question formally to Martha: "Do you believe this?" This was the great crucial question. Death reigned over man, and Christ Himself was about to go through it. Was there anything more powerful in the world, on the part of God?
Her reply was genuine, yet it did not touch what He had just revealed.
Martha, feeling that the Lord went beyond her spiritual understanding, makes a correct confession of faith… but altogether general.
- Person — Resurrection is not an event Christ arranges. It is something He is. Martha looked to the future; the power was standing in front of her.
- Gift — What He gives is a life death cannot touch: "life more abundantly," not bare survival.
- Reach — The two clauses cover every believer. He raises those who have died. Those alive at His coming never die at all.
- Timing — Commentators differ. Some apply "never die" to living saints changed at His return. Others hold that the wording is present tense and speaks of now.
- Result — For the believer, death lies behind, not ahead. The question that closes the verse is still personal: do you believe this?
She says to him, Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world.
Jesus has just told Martha that resurrection and life are not only events at the end of time. They are found in a Person standing in front of her. Then He asks her a direct question. Her reply is one of the great confessions in this Gospel, yet commentators differ over whether it answers what He asked.
She gives Jesus two titles: the Christ — that is, the promised Messiah — and the Son of God. To the people who first heard her, these were not two separate claims. They named one Person, and her words answered the question everyone was debating.
It is clear from the confession of Peter, of Nathanael (John 1:49), and of Martha (John 11:27) that the Jews in our Lord's time identified the Christ, the promised Messiah, with the Son of God. The same is clear from the high priest's demand (Matthew 26:63) and from Paul's preaching in the synagogues (Acts 9:20). The Jewish people plainly believed that the Messiah was no less than God's own Son. So their question was not whether the Christ was the true and proper Son of God. Their question was whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
Why does He press the point? Because of the power that held every person there.
The Lord puts the question straight to Martha: "Do you believe this?" It was indeed the great crucial question. Death reigned over man, and Christ Himself was about to go through it. Was there anything more powerful in the world, on the part of God?
Several writers note that she reaches for what she already believes, not for what He has just offered her.
To the Lord's question, "Do you believe this?" she can only give the vague reply, "Yes, Lord; I have believed, and still believe, that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." Her words held truth, no doubt, but they gave no real answer to the question. She felt the uneasiness usual even to saints who hear what is beyond their depth.
What she said was true, and Scripture backed it. What it missed was what He had just said about Himself.
In reply, Martha gives a general confession of faith. It was true as far as it went, and backed by Scripture (Psalm 2). But it falls far short of the fresh revelation the Lord had just made: in His Person as the Son, the resurrection and the life were there.
She did not understand what He said. Even so, her faith took hold of the Person who holds every blessing.
Martha's response showed that she had not understood it. But there was still real faith — faith in Christ according to Jewish hopes — for she said, "Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." Her confession of faith did not go beyond the second Psalm. And yet, believing as she did in Christ, she had the title to all the blessing bound up with the whole truth of His glorious Person — although she did not know it.
Another writer reaches the same conclusion, and says what her faith had already given her.
So in her reply she fell back, wisely, on what she did believe for sure: He was the Christ, the Son of God, announced as the One coming into the world. She had already reached the faith this Gospel leads us to, and so she had "life in His name."
This is not only Martha's problem. One writer turns her limit into a warning for us.
She believed in the Christ who was to come into the world, but she could get no further. It is good to remember this sad fact: when He goes one step beyond what we have commonly believed, we have no power in ourselves to receive it.
- Confession — Martha names Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. For the Jews these titles described one Person. The only open question was whether Jesus was that Person.
- Question — He asks her, "Do you believe this?" Death ruled over everyone there, and He was claiming power over death itself.
- Shortfall — her answer was true and grounded in Scripture. But she fell back on an old certainty instead of taking in the new revelation of His Person.
- Gift — her faith was real. In owning Christ she already held the title to blessing far larger than she grasped.
- Reach — her faith is the faith this Gospel leads us to, and those who share it have "life in His name."