“Whoever believes in me shall live.”
John 11:17-27, 43-44.
By Rev. Richard Choy
As we, Christian believers, recently anticipated Easter Sunday, I was thinking about what would be an effective way to talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we celebrated on that day, just as we do today. I came across a documentary entitled “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever” (Netflix). It is a documentary about Bryan Johnson, a man. The documentary is the story of Johnson’s ongoing journey to extend his life, to turn back the hands of time and its physical effects on his body. While most of us age and naturally develop wrinkles with each passing year, Johnson has adopted a rigorous diet, exercise regimen, supplements, and lifestyle to slow down the physical signs of aging. During the documentary, Johnson was reportedly 46 years old. However, his physician indicated that he possesses the physical condition typically associated with someone significantly younger.
The documentary demonstrates that maintaining one’s body is a full-time job. The attention and work required to remain youthful and slow the aging process consume all of Johnson’s time. At this point in his life, he has the financial means to do this. While in his twenties, he was a highly successful entrepreneur and amassed a substantial fortune. He was the mastermind behind an electronic payment platform that, although not the first nor the largest, has become widely used and remains popular worldwide. However, as Johnson achieved wealth and success, he increasingly realized that his accomplishments were coming at the cost of his health. He was eating poorly, not getting enough sleep, and constantly feeling exhausted. Moreover, he had insufficient time for the people he cared about. While he was living a life that seemed conducive to success and accumulating material riches, all these activities were harming his body and making him miserable, pushing him to the brink of death. He concluded that his mind, which controlled his choices, had been brainwashed by the demands of life. As a result, he decided to let his body take over. Instead of allowing his mind to dictate his life choices—often driven by societal pressure to get ahead—he would focus on what his body truly needed. He resolved to prioritize his physical health.
During this time, he discovered Blueprint, a lifestyle program developed by a scientist aimed at prolonging life and reversing the biological clock. This regimen is designed to optimize various aspects of health, including exercise, nutrition, sleep, and life-prolonging procedures such as gene therapies. These activities promote balance, optimal sunlight exposure, and a range of supplements intended to enhance overall well-being. The physical difference between Johnson when he was making his millions and the Johnson of today is remarkable. In the past, he appeared weary, out of shape, and anxious. Now, he looks fit, lean, well-proportioned, and seems genuinely happy with his physical condition. However, it’s important to note that his days are now devoted to maintaining his physical youth and slowing the natural aging process. One scene in a documentary showcases the extensive array of supplements he takes daily. I can imagine that taking all those supplements requires as much time as it would take for you or me to enjoy a regular dinner. Ultimately, Johnson is engaged in a comprehensive effort to stave off death. He is doing everything he can to maintain his health and extend his life.
Earlier in his life, Johnson recognized that his lifestyle was detrimental and would likely lead to an early grave. Now, he has gone to great lengths to change direction—doing all he can to preserve his health, even attempting to reverse the aging process, so that he can prolong his life, or at least live as long as possible. As the documentary makes clear, achieving this requires significant effort, time, money, discipline, perseverance, and focus. It seems that Johnson is working very hard not to die.
Critics of Johnson have said that he has simply traded one kind of unbalanced life for another, and is deluded if he thinks he can stay youthful forever. I am not here to pass judgment on what Bryan Johnson is doing. Certainly, his lifestyle serves as a reminder of how we can each take better care of our bodies. Yet in his human endeavour to extend life, Johnson has unintentionally provided a spiritual message. We are not meant to die. When God created human beings, he did not intend for us to die.
The pervasive fear of death among human beings tells us that things are not as they should be. Something within compels us to do something, and to keep trying harder, so that we do not have to die. Death is the last enemy that we are desperately working to defeat. Allow me to draw your attention to the passage of scripture about Jesus’ interaction with a woman named Martha, whose brother Lazarus had died and whose body had been in the tomb for four days.
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” John 11:17-27 (ESV).
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:43-44 (ESV).
This passage contains famous words, “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25). The context is that Lazarus had died. Jesus had heard a few days earlier that his friend was sick, but he didn’t come right away. Instead, in John 11:6, we are told that “he stayed two days longer in the place where he was” (John 11:6). Jesus gave a reason for taking his time. He said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). And it was Jesus himself who informed his disciples that Lazarus was dead, saying, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” (John 11:11).
Martha met Jesus outside Bethany and expressed her faith in his ability to heal the sick, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Jesus assured Martha that her brother would rise again.
Again, Martha expresses her faith: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24). Then we have Jesus’ famous words to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Then Jesus issues a call to faith in him with a promise of life: “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25,26)
“I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus claimed to be the resurrection.
He also claimed to be life. There is no resurrection apart from Christ, and there is no eternal life apart from Christ. The “I am” in his words is also meant to reveal his divine nature. Jesus does not merely give life; He is life. Because this is true, death has no ultimate power over Him. Jesus pours out this spiritual life on those who believe in Him, so that they share His victory over death, just as we are told elsewhere in 1 John 5:11-12: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life”. 1 John 5: 1–12 (ESV). Believers in Jesus Christ will experience resurrection because, having the life Jesus gives, it is impossible for death to defeat them (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:53-57).
In her grief, Martha wished that Jesus had arrived earlier so he could have healed her brother. And when Jesus spoke of resurrection, Martha assumed He was speaking of “the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). Martha had great faith in Jesus, as a healer of the sick and as the one who will ultimately overcome death – yet she was resigned to each of these things happening at a time over which even Jesus had no say.
Jesus demonstrates that he can overcome death and transcend the boundaries of time as well. At the tomb, “he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out.” (John 11:43,44). Jesus proved he was the resurrection and the life by raising Lazarus from the dead, even though he had been in the tomb for four days. Death is no obstacle and has no hold over Jesus, who is Life itself, and this account shows that death also has no hold over those who are in Christ.
Nowadays, on Easter, which we also call Resurrection Sunday, we read this account from the perspective of those who know and celebrate a risen and living Christ, our Saviour from sin, who likewise raises us from death to new life in him. Because Jesus lives, we live. Because Jesus is the life, we have life eternally.
When Jesus said that He is the resurrection and the life, He clarified several actual truths. (1) Martha believed that the resurrection is an event; Jesus showed her and us that the resurrection is a Person. (2) Martha’s knowledge of eternal life was an idea that makes life hopeful; Jesus declared that knowledge of eternal life is a personal relationship, just as Jesus would say later, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” John 17:3 (ESV). (3) Martha thought victory over death was something that would happen on a distant day; Jesus changed her understanding, showing that victory is a present reality.
After declaring himself to be the resurrection and the life, Jesus asks Martha the key question: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26). Martha gives the answer that must be our answer as well: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:27).
Going back to Bryan Johnson, whose life is one of working very hard to fend off death. Daily, he takes pounds of supplements, exercises for hours, sleeps a perfect number of hours nightly, which is more hours than most of us, eats just enough healthy yet rather tasteless nourishment which sadly leaves him always hungry, and is continually undergoing various therapies and procedures, poked and prodded for the life of staying young. All of it to defeat death. Yet we all know that he cannot defeat death. Johnson may be able to prolong his own life for a time, perhaps even by a significant number of years, but he will, like every human being, die.
Dear readers, there is one man who has defeated death with finality. Death, the unavoidable consequence of sin, has been trampled underfoot and conquered by him, for He, Jesus Christ, died and rose again. Through his resurrection, Jesus accomplished what no one else could have done. He brought heaven and earth back together again, reunited body with soul, and reconciled estranged people with God, their Creator. The account of Jesus with Martha and the raising of Lazarus tells us that to live truly, we must believe in Him, know Him, and become part of His body. We must relinquish our attempts to control our own lives and acknowledge that He, Jesus, is life itself; we must also acknowledge that He, Jesus, is the Resurrection. This recognition, of course, is often the big stumbling block for each one of us.
It is so difficult to let go of that which is most precious to you – yourself and what you think you can do for yourself. But it is also so easy to do – you do not have to take a bucketful of supplements every day, or spend hours flexing, doing cardio, or eating only just enough non-age inducing food and feel hungry all the time – you don’t have to work hard or even work at all so that you will live and never die. You can enjoy life sensibly today and gloriously into eternity if you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus has conquered sin and death by his death on the cross for you, in your place – his blameless, perfect life given for you, a sinner who has tried so hard to attain life everlasting. Jesus has changed the stakes for you and me by rising from the dead.
If we are not careful, we risk, like Johnson, wearing ourselves out with endless effort to stay young, only to discover we have no control over life and death. The good news and the empowering truth are that we don’t have to do any work; Jesus has completed it all on our behalf. All we need to do is repent of sin and put our faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Jesus has power over death. He can bring life even to those who have been dead for days. This is the hope we have in Jesus, the hope of resurrection and eternal life. Embrace the good news of Jesus today! He is the resurrection and the life!
Writer Reference:
Richard Choy is grateful to God for His grace in serving as the Lead Pastor to the English-speaking Congregation at North York Chinese Baptist Church in Toronto for 39 years. He and his wife live in Thornhill, Ontario. They are blessed with three children and their growing families.