Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.  You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.  Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?'  The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains.  I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God.

Lazarus is raised.  The fish spews out Jonah.  For “deliverance belongs to the Lord.”  It is not by our own strength or merits that we are delivered but by the merciful hand of God.

These two passages teach the same thing which can be thought of two different ways.  First, through Christ all are raised to new life.  Christ is the sole judge, the only one through whom we have new life by virtue of his mercy and obedience to the Father in his passion, death and resurrection.

Second, when we fall into personal sin it is by his Blood that we are forgiven and raised once again to life in the Spirit.

Jonah: “Deliverance belongs to the Lord”

John: “I am the resurrection and the life”