I Am the Resurrection and the Life

What follows is a transcript of Pastor Gina’s message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

by Pastor Gina Johnson

So happy Easter, my family, my flock, my teachers. It's so beautiful to be here today in this celebration of truth and life.

And so my question for you is why are you here today? Because it's easy to go out to the store and pick out some new Easter attire or maybe, you know, sometimes that is a little challenging. And it's easy to say, oh, you know, this is something that's tradition. It's just one of those days that you come to church for.

And afterwards we're going to have family brunch because it's connection. It's expectation. It's a sense of something that you're supposed to be doing.

And so we get out the clothes, we make the travel, we plan for the meals in the morning or afterwards, and maybe it's because it's a habit. And someone's always told us that that's what you're supposed to do. If you're not going to make it to church any other day, you better make it on Christmas and Easter because those ones count just a little more for some made-up reason or another.

The thing about it is maybe for some of you, there was a quieter reason. Maybe, yes, it was habit. And yes, family is coming to town.

And yes, you did go get a new garment for Easter. But maybe something inside of you was drawing you. Maybe something told you that this Easter is going to be a little different and it had you curious.

Maybe something told you this morning that I just can't stay away. And so here you are. And all of those reasons are real and none of them are wrong, but it's not the whole reason we come here on this morning.

See, because a lot of times on Easter morning, we come stepping into a story. And if we take it seriously, we know that Easter doesn't just ask us a question. It asks us beyond, did it happen? It asks us a question that says, what does this mean for me right now? Because we can sit there and say, wait, was the stone rolled away? Was the veil torn? Did Jesus really ever die or was it all staged? Or we can say, what does this mean to me? This is where Jesus's words really matter.

The statement that we even have right there. I am the resurrection and the life. He did not say I will be or I represent it.

He said, I am the resurrection and the life. And that language doesn't point us out there. It doesn't point us forward.

It points us inward. It moves us into the place where we find the nature of what is real. So before I try to explain it, I want to step into the moment where it was spoken.

It was a moment of grief. Mary and Martha were standing in a moment that felt final. And so if we turn in John to chapter 11, beginning in verse 21:

Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. 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.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? See, when Jesus was there, he didn't dismiss her. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. And then he does something unexpected.

He walks over to the tomb where the stone is still there and the grief is still present. And he tells them to move the stone away. He tells them to take the stone away, which doesn't make sense because the story is already over.

But it's not. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.

Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believe you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus looked upward and said, Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here so that they may believe that you sent me. When he said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to him, unbind him and let him go.

We thought the story was finished there and it wasn't.

What was finished felt finished. And I want you to hold on to that because just days later, days later, after the demonstration of what Jesus did, we arrive at another morning. A quiet and early morning that doesn't feel very triumphant because Mary walks to the tomb and is expecting to find her Lord and Savior.

And instead the tomb is empty. When we turn to John chapter 20 verses one and two it reads:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.

Then Peter and the other disciples set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciples outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

But then Simon Peter came following him and went in the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth that had been on Jesus's head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who reached the tomb also went in and he saw and believed.

For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must have risen from the dead, and then they returned to their homes. 

It's interesting because they didn't actually understand what was taking place in that moment. They didn't understand that Jesus had risen from the dead.

There was a part of them that had received that teaching over and over again, but in parables, and not the most easiest way to understand because they didn't have the awareness to understand. And so here came this demonstration and Peter saw and he did not understand. He did not yet recognize it, and so he left.

And he left and went back with the other disciples, but Mary remained there. She remained in the garden and she was crying. She was wondering where was her Lord? Where was her rabbi? And as other women were there in this time of mourning, one appeared to them and said, why do you look for the living among the dead? Why do we look for life in the world? Why do we look to find life and meaning in the I am presence that we are outside of ourselves? Why do we look to find things that will give us life, that will give us authority and power, grace and mercy, love and provision in things outside of us? Mary, why are you looking for the living among the dead? Joanna, Mary, the other women that were with him, what is it you're seeking in something final? It's in that moment of her grief that Jesus steps forward and she doesn't recognize that it is him that's been there all along.

And when she hears her name called Mary, she looks to him and says, rabbi, and she knows. And he says to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended. Go and tell the others.

And so here is my question. How many times have you heard him call your name? How many times has he called you as his beloved son or daughter? How many times has he shown you through your own experience in life that death is not final, that life is eternal? He wasn't going to prove he could come back from the dead. This wasn't about a parlor trick to get everyone to bow down and worship him and walk around the world feeling unworthy unless our savior has died for us.

That was the distortion that came out of this. He was not only revealing that he was triumphing death. He was saying, I am the resurrection and the life.

This is not a language of something that's to come. This is a language of identity. He's not saying to you, I will restore life.

He's saying, life cannot end. Life cannot be removed. And this is where the truth deepens because we've been taught that life comes and goes.

You better work really hard. You better follow all the check boxes of growing up in the perfect home, get your education, get married, start a family, save for retirement. And yes, you're going to start to feel those aches and pains around this age.

And that's only if you take good care of yourself. Because if you don't, if you get caught up in sin and things that are harmful, then life will be even shorter. How many of us know that, walk through that thinking, check, this is the next stage of life.

Check, this is the next stage of life. And then as you get into those later years, and you realize, maybe I didn't have the perfect childhood or the perfect family. Oh, I didn't quite make it to the marriage thing.

Or maybe the marriage thing didn't work. Or perhaps you never did have children. Perhaps you didn't get to save as much for retirement.

Or perhaps you have tons saved, enough for you, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, and two houses to spare. What does any of that matter if we are still subscribing to the idea that death has the final word? Jesus was demonstrating something else.

In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting?” Death does not have the authority that we thought it did, and maybe some of us still think it does. And if that's true, if death does not have the final word, if its sting is gone, then what does that say to us? It says to us that the resurrection is not just about Jesus. Baptism is not just about Jesus.

Eternal life is not something that we receive from bowing down and receiving our perfection from the example of Jesus. It's all about us, with the I am and the presence of Jesus living within us. Baptism is our emergence into the death of Christ to rise again with him.

And today, on the celebration of his resurrection, it's not just about Jesus. It's about us. It's about the great I Am Presence that dwells in us and among us and that we are called to bring and share with others.

He says, don't cling to me. Go and get the others. I called your name. Now don't just cling to me. Don't just question what am I doing here. Don't fall back into doubt and fear and failure. Stand up and go and tell the others the good news. I am the resurrection and the life.

Life is not distant. It is present. It becomes more personal when the resurrection stops being something we celebrate once a year on Easter and perhaps on Sundays have a moment of admiration when we decide to stop and actually pay attention in church instead of all the other things going through our mind, right? If we just stop making it something we check off on Sunday or with our morning devotion or something we hope that's happening because my body is frail, something we hope that's happening because things haven't been going well, so I hope this resurrection thing is real. Well, as long as you're still hoping that way, then you still haven't received the message.

I am the resurrection and the life. You are the resurrection and the life. Death is not final.

It becomes something we live from. It shows up in how you think, in what you hold on to, in what you're willing to release. Everything changes when you're living life to its fullest, knowing not that each day might be your last day, knowing that your last day isn't coming, so live each day as the I Am Presence, loving and serving and giving grace to everyone.

It doesn't matter what your finances are telling you, what your body may be trying to fool you with, what the relationships around you may be dooming you to. It's not any of that. It's the truth that no matter what this world brings forth, death has lost its sting.

He says, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus isn't calling you to be strong so you can navigate this life and then come and party up in heaven because you know heaven is something separate that if you played your cards right, I'll see you guys there. No, heaven and earth were never meant to be apart.

They are not apart and we can experience heaven here now. What's it take to have heaven? Heaven seeing each other fully as the I Am Presence, loving each other, always seeing the highest self in the person you're talking to, giving generously, living without fear, accepting someone regardless of where they've been, where they're going, what they look like, who their partner is, no matter what their history says, no matter how many skeletons are in their closet, no matter what diagnosis they just learned about, is it being able to sit there in front of them and say, I see you, I love you, you are the resurrection and the life. So whether your days in this earthly experience are numbered and few or whether you're going to prove Jesus right and live into a glorious time, how about you just start living in it now? Jesus came to reveal that life is eternal.

This is not out of our reach. This is not symbolic. This is the I Am saying, I Am the I Am and that is who you are.

It's something you wake up to. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? This is the first scripture I read every time I do no, not a funeral, but a celebration of life. Because even as we are there in that time of what seems as if it's grieving and final, it is a time of resurrection.

It is a time to remember. So I'm calling you now. Are you going to wake up to the fact that life has not left you and can't? To the fact that what is true in you can never be diminished, no matter what stories, no matter what illusions, no matter what the world is telling you.

Are you ready to wake up to the fact that you are not as limited as you have believed yourself to be? You talk about freedom. We want freedom in our country. This is where true freedom begins.

It's not when everything changes. It's when we stop agreeing with what is not true. This is not just a celebration today.

This is a call to fully embody the I Am that you are. And if you can't find it, well stop looking in this, stop looking out here, stop looking to that, and look for the I am within. He says the kingdom is not here or there, it is within.

If you want to find the I Am and stand in the resurrection that you are in, then look within.

Please pray with me. Our most gracious and loving God, perhaps this is the moment where we need no words.

You are the resurrection and the life. You so love the world that you gave your only begotten son that whoever shall believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And Lord, now we know that that belief is not limited to going to church and praying our prayers, but it's you calling us to stand in the truth that which we are.

I am the I am. And so God, in this day of celebration of all that is true, of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, of baptism, of shared praise and adoration, we say thank you. We say thank you for demonstrating yourself being the great I am that we too can walk in the resurrection of the I am.

It's in the most beautiful, most humble, most honorable name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.