John 11

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”  Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” vv.23-24

Read chapter 11

"Lazarus is dead" Jesus said flat out in verse fourteen.  He wasn't just asleep as the disciples thought.  At this death Jesus wept.  He wept at death. The sting of sin is death.  There's death because of the fallen world we live in.  Death isn't a happy thing for anyone, including Jesus. Martha didn't think her brother was in heaven.  We see with her words not that "he's in a better place now" but that "he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."  She believed in the resurrection, not of Jesus yet for He hadn't died and resurrected, but the resurrection of all the dead in (not 'at') the last day.  The last day isn't a 24 hour day but a period of time of the greatest day- the Kingdom.  So where did the idea you go to heaven when you die come from?  Wouldn't you think then that Martha, a Jew, would've known from the scriptures about resurrection life after death or that Jesus would've corrected her if she was wrong?  What better comforting words that she could've heard from Jesus and that we can hear and say to when someone has died trusting in the Lord, "______ will rise again."