Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” John 11: 25
In reflecting on Jesus’ statement, I realize that I have heard it as if Jesus is saying something more like “I will be the resurrection and the life.” Knowing how the story unfolds, I tend to think of his words as more prophetic and forward-looking than what Jesus actually says.
He speaks of what is, not what will be. “I am” he says. Right then, in front of Martha. He doesn’t become the life because he is resurrected, nor does he become the resurrection because he comes out of the tomb. He is, and always has been, and can be none other, than resurrection and life.
If Jesus is the resurrection and is the life eternal, at that moment when speaking to Martha, then Easter changes nothing about Jesus, but instead reveals everything about him. On Easter we finally see who Jesus has always been, which means his resurrection from the tomb is revelation, or if you will, apocalypse, which means uncovering.
I realize more and more that I need to get out of my predominately chronological reading of the gospels, seeing them primarily as a sequence of events. Instead, I need to read the gospel accounts as revelation, which indeed occurred through a sequence of events, but was the unveiling of the eternal and unchanging God.
In the things which took place, as they occur and as given to us by the gospel writers, an unchanging reality is successively revealed. But some had seen that reality long before. We call them the Old Testament prophets.
Perhaps we should not think of the prophets seeing the future, as in a crystal ball, but glimpsing what is real and true through the darkness which obscures reality. The veil parted and they were witnesses to the real truth of things. This they spoke about, and how that reality, which was the Christ then, would become apparent in the future.
Jesus did not die because the prophets spoke about it, but they spoke about it because he did it. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.20.8
Irenaeus (130-202) reverses how we tend to think of Jesus fulfilling prophecy. We might imagine Jesus using what the prophets said as a guide and roadmap for his own journey. It is as if he consulted them to find out what he needed to do, consciously making sure he did everything as predicted.
But Irenaeus seems to say the exact opposite. He claims that the things were done by Jesus apart form what the prophets said, and the they spoke about what they saw he had done. For Irenaeus, the works of Jesus are eternally accomplished before they were revealed on earth when he did them.
The prophets witnessed beforehand the reality which would be revealed to others later. They saw the Son as the crucified One before he went to the cross, and the resurrected Lord before he even was laid in the tomb. His earthly life was the revelation of who God has always been, and will be forever.
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