From the Pulpit: ‘I Am the Resurrection and the Life’

On several occasions, Jesus used the phrase, “I Am” to identify himself to the people.  As we see in Exodus, “I Am” is the name that God gives to himself when he speaks to Moses. (Exodus 3) When God sent Moses to Pharoah to set Israel free from slavery, God told Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” By repeatedly using the phrase “I Am”, Jesus identified himself as God.

One of the many times Jesus used the phrase “I AM”, he said to his friend Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11) Martha’s brother Lazarus had just died.  She was a woman who trusted Jesus and she believed that Jesus could have prevented Lazarus from dying, having witnessed other miracles Jesus had performed previously. Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But even still, Martha held onto the promise of a resurrection to come. She told Jesus, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” When Martha said that, then Jesus told her, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” All those who experience the resurrection will do so through me. I am the one who provides eternal life. I am the one who gives life beyond this life for eternity. I am the one who is the “I AM.”

There are many things that people use as a resource to try to give them “life”. And many of those things provide great satisfaction in their lives. Maybe it is entertainment, or maybe it’s their work, or relationships with friends and family. Maybe it is the stuff we accumulate. It can be a multitude of resources we use. But it is only through knowing Jesus Christ that we will know the Resurrection and the Life that God offers us.  The comfort and life that we look for in anything else will eventually fade. Only in Christ is there resurrection and life that is eternal.  He is the “I Am.”