Monday 7 April 2014

Why Resurrection?



I was somewhat amused at the news reports last week that eating more fruit and vegetables “would reduce the risk of death”.  Somehow I think the risk is still 100% certainty, and it won’t go down to 99.99% no matter how much fruit and veg you eat!
Eating at least seven portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day was linked to a 42% lower risk of death from all causes. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
  As Benjamin Franklin observed: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes".  But what of the other world, the Kingdom over which Jesus presides?  What does this week’s gospel reading, the death and rising of life of Jesus’ friend Lazarus have to do with us?

The thing that most struck me is that Lazarus death and “reawakening” doesn’t seem to be as a result of Jesus’ love for his friend but for bringing glory to God.  I would like to think that Jesus hugged his newly-restored friend Lazarus at some point, but we are not told this.  Of course, Lazarus would die again - if I was Lazarus, I might have been a bit disappointed that I had awoken to the same life as before, rather than the eternal life that is promised.  Indeed, this whole episode wasn’t really for his benefit at all.  I’m sure he wasn’t ungrateful for his new lease of life, as people who have faced death often seem to have a greater capacity not to waste their remaining time – perhaps he even enjoyed being a local celebrity that the bigwigs from Jerusalem came to see so that he could testify what Jesus had done for him.

But Lazarus was not the main player in this drama.  Instead, this all happened as Jesus had originally said: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”  Jesus knew that Lazarus would die but it would not be a definitive death.  It was to reveal God’s glory in his Son.

If Lazarus' resurrection reveals God’s glory in Christ Jesus, then our resurrection will too.  Whilst I’m sure that God’s offer of salvation is motivated by love (because it says so in John 3:16), have you ever considered that God might want to give you a resurrection body and eternal life because it rewards our faith by glorifying his Son?  In the same way as the original creation was good, maybe our re-creation is as pleasing to God, if not more so.  If we doubt that we are worthy of eternal life, then consider that God wants to do it anyway for his own joy and pleasure as a response to our faith in Jesus.  Your resurrection, my resurrection, the resurrection of the person who may come to him through our witness, all these resurrections will delight the Father because in doing so his Son is glorified.

Jesus doesn’t want us to have a vague hope for eternal life, perhaps as a disembodied soul or ghost.  Even though we all die, Jesus tells us that this is not the end.  We don’t know the nature of Lazarus’ life-threatening condition, but whatever it was, Jesus can say, “This sickness will not end in death.”  So, it is with whatever conditions threaten us: “This cancer will not end in death”; “this heart attack will not end in death.”  Whatever it will say as the cause of death on our death certificate, Jesus’ response is to tear it up and say, “This will not end in death”.

Instead, he says: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”  As he asked Martha, so he asks us: “Do you believe this?” and, if we still need further motivation: “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  Being selfish, eternal life has always been immensely attractive, but to know that my resurrection will glorify Jesus seems like a stronger reason for God to make it happen!