Such situation is familiar to many of us: one of our close relations dies, and friends come to express their condolences. They say: we "sorrow", - or "we shall all be there ", - somehow or other we accept death, admitting its finality. The words of Jesus distinguish themselves in a striking way. He speaks about resurrection, about victory on death; He speaks about Himself as being the bearer of life, of which death is not the end. Moreover, He says He can grant such a life to others. And after comes the main question: "do you believe this?" And here, for everyone, to whom this question is given, comes a moment of decisive choice - the choice to believe, in which reason can help in nothing, because it has nothing to do where there is no information, and in which an adventurous character can't help, because both answers have identical risks. This choice can be made only in man's heart, the center of his free will and in the faculties to love and with confidence without any proofs. And right now, this question is given to each of us: "do you believe this?".

Many of us know this situation: someone close to us has died, and friends come to express their condolences. They say, “We grieve with you,” or “We will all end up there,” in one way or another acquiescing to death and accepting its finality. Jesus' words are strikingly different. He speaks of resurrection, of victory over death. He speaks of Himself as the bearer of a life for which death is not the end. More than that, He can give such life to others.

Then comes the most important question: “Believest thou this?” For each person to whom this question is addressed, the moment of decisive choice now arrives—the choice of faith. Reason cannot help, because it has nothing to do where there is no information. An adventurous temperament cannot help, because both answers are equally risky. This choice can be made only by the human heart, the center of a person's free will and his capacity for love and trust without any proof. This question is now put to every one of us: “Believest thou this?”

Today's reading gives us another testimony to the triumph of the Kingdom that Jesus brought into the world. In every age and among all peoples without exception, death's triumph over life has been perceived as something unjust and contrary to what ought to be. Attempts to regard death like a Stoic or a natural philosopher, viewing it with philosophical calm and accepting it as something regular and inevitable, and therefore normal, have generally failed. At the moment of coming face to face with death, it still inspires only horror and revulsion. Other feelings connected with the causes and circumstances of a death are often mixed with these, of course, but those feelings have nothing to do with death itself: their source is precisely those causes and circumstances, not the fact of dying.

The Bible explains this attitude toward death: death entered the world as a consequence of the Fall. It is part of the world's evil, which must inevitably disappear once the world, transformed by God's power, becomes part of the Kingdom. By weeping when He sees those who mourn (vv. 32-36), Jesus confirms that death is not an imagined tragedy of human life but a real one.

This, of course, is not the end: resurrection, Judgment, and the Kingdom lie ahead. In Gospel times every believing Jew knew about the resurrection (vv. 23-24), yet death still remained a state contrary to human nature; it contradicted God's design for human beings and their destiny. The Kingdom therefore proves incompatible with death.

It is no accident that Jesus says He Himself is the resurrection (vv. 25-26): He bears the fullness of the Kingdom within Himself, and death retreats before the Kingdom. Of course, a return to one's former life, not yet transformed by God's power, in the former world, which has not yet become part of the Kingdom, can hardly be considered the end of the journey. This is not yet the resurrection that believing Jews awaited. But death and the Kingdom are incompatible, and so even someone not yet fully transformed finds in the Kingdom the fullness of life available to him.

No one can contain more life than he is able to contain, but in touching the fullness of God's life, each person receives the measure of life available to him. Lazarus had not yet reached complete transformation, but he was entirely capable of living the life that every healthy person lives in our still not fully transformed world. He receives the fullness possible for him as he comes out into God's light from the tomb in which he was buried (vv. 38-44). Then everyone could see plainly that the Kingdom had truly entered the world and, with it, so had the resurrection that until then was thought to lie only in the future.

One might think that so vivid a demonstration would have melted and converted every heart, but apparently nothing of the kind happened. Some truly came to believe (vv. 45-46), while others became even more firmly opposed to Christ and the Kingdom. But the evidence was too plain, and those who rejected the Kingdom were left with no choice, in the logic of their persistent rejection, but to conclude that they had to rid themselves of the One who brought the Kingdom into the world (vv. 47-53). Thus rejection of the Kingdom leads the Savior of the world, sent by God, to the cross.