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Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to him, “I know that….”

Jesus said to her, “I AM….” (Jn. 11:23-25).

We know.

He will.

Someday.

We create little intellectual categories. God is the one who gives calm in the storm, gives kingdom growth, gives healing, does miracles, gives provision, gives transformation, gives renewal of the mind, gives help in the crisis.

But God says I AM the Storm Calmer, Kingdom Builder, Church Grower, Healer, Miracle Worker, Provider, Transformer, Renewer of Minds, Saver of the Crisis.

Martha looks to her understanding, her content, this can happen. Great faith, yes! But Jesus points to himself, “I AM.”

I AM—echo of the burning bush revelation: Who are you Lord? I AM WHO I AM. Yahweh. The Hebrew is a verb. A continuous, unending, dynamic verb. One pastor translated it: I WILL BE WHO YOU WILL NEED ME TO BE at all times. The Continuous Sufficient One for our ever present need (Ps. 46:1).

And Martha? You know? Was she wrong? If you had stepped into that situation, would you have exhorted her to just believe more? Slide in a snide about her little faith? But—isn’t that where I am often?

I have my Lazaruses--suffering, crisis, doubt, death of dreams, failure, questions, those whys to the Lord that ring through the years still, the aches of the what is, and Lord couldn't you haves. You have your Lazarus.

But it is here Jesus shows up. Beyond knowing. 

And Jesus—no rebuke. Just pointing to him. HIM. “I AM. I AM what you need right now, the Resurrection and the Life. The God present in your weeping. I see your faith, the measure of faith you have that you are using (Rom. 12:3). And I will give you a greater revelation—me. I AM. Myself. Martha, I commend. I reward. More of me.”

“Lord, I know.” Beyond our knowing—

“And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19).

“And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).

“But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

Beyond our knowing—I AM. The God who wants to be known more. The God who wants to blow our minds, blow our little knowledge boxes. I don’t think Jesus’ words to Martha were believe harder, step up your faith, step up your game, but wait, hope, expect, open your mind to allow God to be all who God is and all who he will be. Open your eyes to let him reveal himself to you in a new way. “I AM more than you ask or imagine.”

And this could be scary—a god who blows our mind, so big we can’t imagine, who does more than we ask or imagine, a god of power—if it was not the God of the cross, the God who came to the tomb and wept with Mary and Martha.
But we see Jesus.
And may we see him more.

Beyond knowing--but a God who wants to be known.
Wants to be known in our Lazaruses.
Wants to be known beyond our knowledge categories.
Wants to be known NOW.
Not "I know you will. Someday." But now.
Now, in our Lazaruses, our pain and suffering and questions and whys and where were you and where are yous.
I AM. NOW.
The Beyond God in flesh with us, in Spirit in us.

"Until the Spirit is poured out on high and the wilderness [our Lazarus, questions] becomes a fruitful field [more than we expect], and the fruitful field is deemed a forest [above and beyond the more than we expect in abundant, gracious giving]" (Isa. 32:15).