Signs: The Resurrection Has Come!


I hate death.  It seems God does too.  The Bible has nothing good to say about death.

"If you had been here, my brother would not have died."  These words from Martha in John 11 reflect much of the anguish we feel about death.  Is God present when death occurs?  What has he done or what will he do about death?

Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were Jesus' close friends.  He had been their guest in their home.  Yet when he got the word that Lazarus was gravely ill, he lingered where he was a couple of days. 

When he finally arrived in Bethany, Martha went out to meet him, and made the statement above.  Then she said, "But I know that even now God will do what you ask."  When Jesus said that her brother would rise again, Martha said in resignation, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."  But what about now?  She missed her brother!

Jesus stunned her by saying, "I am the resurrection and the life."  Though this statement leaps out at us, John has been building up to it for some time.  In the first chapter, John said that Jesus had life in him.  In the fifth chapter, Jesus said that he was calling people from spiritual death to life in the present, and in the future would call people from physical death to life.

Jesus didn't just bring the resurrection and life.  He was the resurrection and life.  Just as God had life in himself, God had given Christ life in himself. 

Martha went and told her sister Mary that Jesus had arrived.  Mary and the crowd of mourners that had gathered at her house went to Jesus.  Mary fell at Jesus' feet, weeping, and said the same thing Martha had said. 

The scene moved Jesus' deeply.  Then he wept.  In that moment, he joined into human suffering and death.  He felt our grief and loss.

But then he gave the sign that God was doing something about death.  He raised Lazarus!  God sent Jesus to the world so that those who put their faith in him would never really die.  Today, Jesus' voice calls to us to rise spiritually to eternal life that begins now and never ends!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Dynamite: The Battle Within

Image
"It was on fire when I lay down on it."  Robert Fulghum wrote about reading this statement in a small town newspaper.   Smoke was billowing from a second story window.  The Fire Department arrived, broke down the front door, ran up a set of stairs, and pulled a man off a burning bed.  Later, when they asked him how he got in that predicament, he said, "It was on fire when I lay down on it." Why on earth did he do that?  We don't know, but his story reveals a human truth.  We often do self-destructive things.  We testify, "People told me not to do it, but I did it anyway."  "I knew it was wrong, but I did it." The apostle Paul wrote about our human propensity to sin and self-destructive behavior in Romans 7:14-25.  Verse 15 sums up his point, "I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do and what I hate I do."   He describes an intense inner battle.  On one side is the "flesh," his
Read more

God's Dynamite:Being in Your Right Mind

Image
What's your frame of mind today?  In this time of pandemic and shutdown, you may be worried or bored or pessimistic or lonely or depressed. Or all the above! What determines your frame of mind?  Is it your circumstances? Your will? Is your frame of mind molded by what's going on at the moment, or can you reshape it? The apostle Paul talked about our minds in Romans 8:1ff.  He said that can determine what we set our minds to.  We can focus our minds on following our lower natures or the Holy Spirit who lives inside us.   A fact that should help our frame of mind is that we're God's children.  In a sense, everyone is God's child.  God made all of us.  But in a spiritual sense, we fully become God's children when we put our faith in Christ and follow him.   We're not his children because we're better than others.  We're his children because we've put our faith in Christ and followed him.   As his children, we have status.  H
Read more

God's Dynamite: Resurrection Transformation

Image
Easter is about more than you going to heaven.  That's part of it, but not near all!  It's about your death and resurrection. In Romans 6, Paul was answering opponents.  Those opponents said that if salvation is by God's grace through faith, then you have no motivation for righteous living and good works.  Why not sin more to get more grace? Paul answered by using the image of baptism.  He said when the pastor plunged you under water, he symbolized your death in Christ.  Through faith you died on the cross with Jesus.  Your old self was a slave to sin and rebellion against God.   Paul said when the pastor raised you up from the water, he symbolized your resurrection in Christ.  Not just in the future but in the present.  In faith, you identify with Jesus' death and his resurrection.  You're raised to a new life, free from slavery to sin. So Easter is about more than personal salvation.  It's about transformation: dying to an old life and ris
Read more