The Great Exam
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Do you remember exam week? Whether high school or college, exam week came at the end of a term and was a time to put down on paper all you had learned and absorbed the previous weeks. I am glad those days are in the past for me!
John 11 is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. And with this miracle, Jesus reminds His disciples, Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, as well as the crowd of Jews observing, that He is Lord, Messiah and the Son of God. He has declared it, He has done great miracles to prove it and He has repeated it over and over so that the world would know who Jesus is!
But now it is exam week for Martha, Mary, the disciples and everyone watching. And on the exam is one question, “Do you believe this?”
Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” That means that Jesus doesn’t simply provide resurrection and life, but He is the resurrection and life. Death has no reign over Him and raising Lazarus from the dead proves it. Jesus presents a question to Martha and to everyone else in this story. And the same question is on our exam today, “Do you believe this?”
Some scholars suggest that Lazarus’ resurrection occurred the week prior to passion week. If that is the case it occurred 10 - 12 days before the resurrection of Jesus Himself. Regardless of the timing, the resurrection of Lazarus pointed to the resurrection of Jesus.
And we are faced with the same one-question exam that Martha and the others faced, “Do you believe this?” The resurrection is the pivotal event of history. It is the hope for all mankind. In the Old Testament, the saints looked ahead to the resurrection by faith. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, those that walked with Jesus looked at the resurrection as a real-time event. And in the New Testament, the saints looked back to the resurrection as the key point in human history. We do the same today.
But ultimately we must realize that the resurrection is more than an event for us to celebrate on a calendar. It is the foundation of our faith in Christ. According to I Corinthian 15:14, without the resurrection, our preaching is in vain and for that matter, our faith is in vain.
“Do you believe this?” By “believe” I don't mean simply intellectual agreement. I mean have you embraced it and, thereby, live your life in surrender to the one, true God who is now alive - Jesus?
A great exchange occurred because of the resurrection, an exchange of sinfulness for righteousness. A great expectation comes with the resurrection, the expectation of eternal life with Jesus in heaven. But the resurrection places before us a great exam, “Do you believe this?” I pray that you will join Martha and countless others that have said, “Yes, Lord; I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”
Do you believe this? If so, today join me in saying, “Thank you, Jesus!” And if you believe Him for the foundation of salvation, can you not trust and believe Him for all things? I believe.