Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

There was a Jewish superstition that when you die your spirit hovers over your body for up to three days and then it departs. At that point no resuscitation is possible. It’s only after the fourth day when decomposition sets in that the spirit finally departs and death is judged irreversible. If Jesus had arrived two days earlier and brought Lazarus back from he dead, there would have been a lot of people saying, “He never really died, we know how this works. This is no miracle.”

But the point is made twice that Lazarus had been dead four days. That's why as Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead Martha says to Him in verse 39,

“Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days.” (John 11:39)

Now if you have an old King James version it says,

“Lord, by this time he stinketh. “ (John 11:39)

Now when you stinketh you’re dead. You see there was no such thing as embalming back in Bible days in the sense that we know it. Whenever you wrapped a corpse in cloth and ointments it was not primarily to embalm is was to quell the smell. There’s no doubt Lazarus was as dead as disco.

That sets up this unbelievable “I Am” statement.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said 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. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:23-26)

Now every Orthodox Jew believed there would be a resurrection at the end of time, but Jesus was not talking about tomorrow, He was talking about today. He wasn't talking about then, He was talking about now.

Jesus is actually making two claims. When He says, “I Am the Resurrection.” What He simply means is there is life after death, but when He says, “I Am the Life” He’s also telling us there’s life after life. In other words, Jesus says, I not only will take care of your future, I will take care of your present.

That statement is a game changer because Jesus says to all of us, as long as you live I am your life, but when you die, I am your resurrection. I will be there for your present and I will be there for your future. I will be there today and I will be there tomorrow. I will be there now and I will be there later. I am with you as long as you live and I am with you when you die and in fact because of me you can never die.