July 8, 2023
“Your Brother Will Rise Again”
“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.’” John 11:23-24 (NASB)
After the passing of our daughter in 2018, I had a lot of questions about her passing. All my questions were about what the Bible had to say concerning the death of those we love. While reading a book referenced below by Spiros Zodhiates, I learned a great deal which gave me a lot of hope and confidence from Scripture about the death of every Christian. It is about 800+ pages, but worth the read of every Christian. It is written just to cover the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. One day I hope you will take time to read this book. It will give you so much confidence in what he shares from the Word of God. Martha, in her limited knowledge about death, spoke to the One who knew exactly what happened after Lazarus’ death. She was about to discover the One who is responsible for every believer’s afterlife experience.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again…” It is important for us to understand the usage of a few words here in the Greek text. Jesus’ usage of the word, “rise again,” appears twice in this passage. Its usage in Greek is the word anistemi, “meaning to rise; get up; or rise up.”[1] The meaning is simple in its form. If a person falls asleep, eventually they will wake up. When we all die, one day we will wake up. It is just a matter of where we awaken. Further along there is another word Jesus is going to use, which Martha uses as well in verse 24. It is the word, “resurrection.” Zodhiates says that “If we carefully analyze the Greek word koimaomai, “to fall asleep,” we shall see that it refers to the body only. It is derived from the verb keimai, which means to “lie down.” This is the opposite of the word anisteemi, “to raise up,” from which we get the noun anastasis, “resurrection.” This word refers only to the body in the New Testament.”[2] There are no portions of Scripture which refer to the souls resting or inactivity after death. Zodhiates goes on to say, “Again we want to emphasize that is it the body and not the soul that is asleep during death. The metaphor of sleep for death points to a similarity between a sleeping body and a dead body. The object of the metaphor is to suggest that, as the sleeper does not cease to exist despite his withdrawal from the realm in which those who remain awake can communicate with him, and that, as sleep is known to be temporary, the death of the body is not the end of existence and is also temporary.”[3]
I don’t want to spoil the reading ahead for tomorrow’s time, but it will be interesting to see Jesus’ reply to Martha on that day she sought Him. It is amazing today to learn that we don’t lie in a state of unconsciousness when we pass physically from this earth. Our souls are completely active as the day we passed from this earth. I know today, while my daughter awaits her body to join her one day, she is perfectly awake and sees those things the Lord has prepared for each one who has trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. Most interesting, is how Jesus took the most active person (Martha), and was about to reveal to her that no matter how active she was for the Lord’s service, her brother was very much awake and alive. He didn’t need preparations to receive anyone or anything. He was in the presence of perfect peace, without a care in the world.
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). In A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 83). University of Chicago Press.
[2] Zodhiates, Spiros, (1982). Conquering the Fear of Death (AMG Publishers), 116.
[3] Ibid, 116.