Outside a tomb in Bethany, a grieving sister heard Jesus make one of the boldest claims in the Gospels. Lazarus had been dead four days. Jesus did not promise Martha a far-off hope. He told her that He Himself is the resurrection.
One simple fact
John's Gospel places Bethany, the village of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, "less than two miles" from Jerusalem (about fifteen stadia in the Greek), and says Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days when Jesus arrived (John 11:17-18, NIV). Bethany sat on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, on the road from Jericho up to the city.
The words of Jesus
"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. Do you believe this?"
Jesus, John 11:25-26 (NIV)
Martha answered, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Moments later Jesus wept at the grave, then called, "Lazarus, come out!" and the dead man walked out still wrapped in grave clothes (John 11:27-44). Read today's quote on Words of Jesus.
A historical reference: Martha and Mary on a Mount of Olives ossuary
In the 1950s, Franciscan excavators at Dominus Flevit, a first-century Jewish cemetery on the western slope of the same Mount of Olives ridge, found dozens of inscribed limestone ossuaries (bone boxes). One of them is inscribed in Hebrew/Aramaic with the names "Martha and Maria" on its side and "Martha, Mariam" again on the other side and lid. It is catalogued in the scholarly Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (vol. 1, no. 168) and dated to the 1st century BCE to 1st century CE (WIRE: Women in the Roman East Project, JLM0138). Other boxes from the same cemetery carry the name Elazar, the Hebrew form of Lazarus (Hebrew Explorer: Dominus Flevit Ossuaries).
Scholars do not claim this is the Bethany family; these were among the most common names of the day. What the finds do show is that the names in John 11, and the Jewish practice of burying loved ones in rock-cut tombs closed with a stone, fit the real world of first-century Jerusalem exactly.
A firsthand account: "When it is your time, this Kingdom shall be yours"
John K, a man who spent 40 days in a hospital burn unit after extensive burn injuries, shared his experience with the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), which classified it as a probable NDE. He reported meeting God and Jesus, and quoted John 3:16 to Jesus, who answered, "That is correct." As he tells it:
"Jesus looked at me and said, 'Son, it is not your time. But when it is your time, this Kingdom shall be yours. You may go.'"
John K, NDERF Probable NDE 33572
He says he remembers little of his first twenty days in the hospital except that meeting and the pain, and that afterward he was no longer afraid of dying: "Not a blind faith anymore; there is a Heaven, and I was just outside it." This is his own report, presented as he gave it.
Reflection
Jesus asked Martha a personal question: "Do you believe this?" He still asks it. The answer He offered her was not a doctrine about the last day but a Person standing in front of her, the One who would soon walk out of His own tomb.