NOTES for Joh 11:1-57

Death puts many things in their proper place. It cannot be deceived or laughed off; everyone is equal before it, and no one can escape it. It is therefore unsurprising that people compare the most serious and important things with death in their power—and it is a fitting comparison: “Love is strong as death” (Song 8:6). Religious faith, as the most serious content of many people's lives, has often been set alongside death: thousands of martyrs chose to die rather than renounce their faith. Death, then, is a kind of boundary at which faith undergoes its final test. It need not be one's own death: Lazarus's sisters faced this trial just as he did. They preserved their faith, but not completely. The resurrection of the dead will happen, but not now, Martha thinks. This is why the words addressed to her sound strange: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” And victory over death takes place even before the final triumph of Easter and before we ourselves can learn from experience that love is stronger than death.