John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”

Email and social media allow people to see pictures of amazing, unbelievable, miraculous things. Sometimes they turn out not to be true, like the pictures of 15-foot-tall human skeletons I once received in my inbox.

Sometimes they are truly amazing, like the picture of an X-ray of a large kitchen knife plunged through the left temple of a Chinese teenager and crossing the entire width of his skull. The young man walked into the hospital himself and doctors were able to surgically remove it with no serious damage to his brain or nerves.

These things are interesting to look at for a minute or two. But they are just curiosities. After I look at them I can go back to my work and forget about them and it won’t make any difference at all.

Jesus’ dead friend Lazarus left his tomb alive again. Jesus himself left his tomb alive again. That is no hoax. But it is not a mere curiosity either, a story that amazes us for a minute or two, and then we can go back to what we are doing and forget the whole thing happened. It is a promise of life after death for us as well.

You know the story from which these words are taken. It is a few months before the first Easter. Jesus’ friend Lazarus has just died. Jesus has come to comfort his sisters Mary and Martha. Shortly before raising Lazarus back to life, Jesus gives Martha this promise. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”

“Even though he dies…” One of my professors used to complain about preaching that identified sins, but failed to mention the consequences. “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.” “Depart from my, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink…”

This is what makes Jesus’ promise so relevant, and so reassuring. The resurrection was not merely something Jesus taught. He wasn’t just the best place to go for information about it. Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. He is the source.

Other religions talk about an afterlife, but where is their proof? What foundation do they have for their hope? Jesus himself is ours. His sinless life provides all of us with every good work, all the loving service that we need to please God and make him smile on us. His innocent death cancels the guilt of every sin, and if the wages of sin is death, then no more sin means that God’s death penalty over us has been lifted, too.

As proof that all of this is not just theological theory, fine-sounding philosophy, Jesus himself rose from the dead. It’s all based on a real life person and real life events in real human history. Jesus’ own resurrection backs up his promise, and that promise gives us comfort.