Resurrection, Life, & Hope
I have been at the bedside of a number of dying family and friends, watching, waiting, and praying when they take their last breath. I have attended and/or officiated more funerals than I care to remember. I buried my parents and grandparents. I have watched the grief of young parents with stillborn infants. I have seen the shock, anger, and sadness of suicide. I have watched chronic illness slowly but inevitably take lives. I have seen men and women live to ripe old ages and die with family around them, mixed with conflicting joy and sadness. I have preached the funerals of people with hope and people with no hope, the latter of whom were wailing desperately and trying to crawl into the coffin. In all of this, I have seen that what you believe determines how you will face death, your own and those you love.
In John 11, Jesus attends a funeral, a funeral that, according to the man’s sisters, could have been avoided if Jesus had been there (Jn 11:20, 32). Two sisters saying the same thing at different times provide a double witness to what they believe was Jesus’ failure. There seems to be an angry edge to their statements. That is not surprising. Anger is part of the grieving process, and it is ultimately directed toward God, who could have changed the fate but didn’t.
Even in their anger, both sisters had hope. That hope was confessed by Martha and was common among the Jews: her brother, Lazarus, would rise again on the last day (Jn 11:24). From the beginning of creation, resurrection was inscribed on everything. When the land from which man was created emerged from the primordial waters on the third day, culminating in rest on the seventh day, it was an image of resurrection. When Adam went into a death-like sleep and awoke glorified, that was an image of resurrection. Sin entered the world and would have halted the process of moving from glory to glory through death and resurrection were it not for God’s grace. But full and final resurrection was always God’s plan.
God’s plan is that the resurrection would come in two parts: a first resurrection and a final resurrection. These resurrections would occur on the third day (the day the land emerged from the waters) and the last day (the seventh day, the day of enthronement rest). These resurrections were typified and enacted in the third and seventh day baptisms recorded in Numbers 19. Anyone who had contracted death by touching a dead body had to be “resurrected” through the ashes of the red heifer, cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet, and running water. The first baptism was on the third day of the week, and the final baptism was on the seventh day of the week. Two baptisms. Two resurrections.
Martha knew all this. God promised resurrection from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end. The patriarchs and prophets all declared it. Every seed that was ever planted proclaimed it as it had to die in order to bear fruit (cf. Jn 12:24). Lazarus, a faithful man, would rise again on the last day.
Jesus declares to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). Jesus is the I AM, Yahweh, God of Israel, who delivers his people from slavery, not merely the slavery of the Pharaohs of the world, but from that which empowers the Pharaohs of the world: sin and its death. United to Jesus by faith, though you may die physically, you will not experience the second death, a life in hell (Rev 20:6). Death will serve you, leading to greater glory (cf. 1 Cor 3:21-23).
Our resurrection is still in two stages: baptism and final resurrection. When you are baptized into Christ, you participate in the third-day, first resurrection (cf. Rom 6). Your baptism anticipates a “seventh-day” resurrection, our resurrection on the last day (1 Cor 15). As you participate in Christ’s first resurrection, trusting him, you have hope for the final resurrection. Death is not your master but your servant.
Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe it when you face your own mortality or the illness and death of loved ones? Do you believe this when it looks as if the enemy is winning and you are distressed? Do you believe this? What you believe … or better, in whom you believe … will determine if you face death in the comfort of hope or in the emptiness of hopelessness
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I have been dealing with pain everyday for over a decade. The pain required mental training to endure. After so much time and habits formed through practice, my mind became so strong, that it grew not in size, but in capacity. Reading is a great source of increasing the capacity of the mind, but using the mind as we read is what drives me. I am around many people who only use the basic functions of their mind and never push themselves hard each day to better their own minds. Bettering our minds could better our hearts, so long as we are following the path of Christ. We are all at war with the world, the flesh and the devil. So I have been a solider of heaven since I was born. I do not conform to the luxury of this world as much as others do. I spend legal tender for only what is needed except for that which I consume and pool league. That legal tender has an interest rate that cannot be paid off in the end. All the money, so called property people believe they own and will pass to their generations isn't part of the common law jurisdiction where we enforce God's laws. It is part of a statutory jurisdiction in which everything is property of the government and they give privileges to use them. People wish to speak about truth everyday, even in church? Okay then. I am first a citizen of heaven if anything. Then I am a citizen of the state of Illinois, which makes me an Illinoisan. I am NOT a United States Citizen. It was created in 1868 under the 14th amendment. We have rights and duties as citizens. Why am I only one of the few exercising my duty as a citizen to correct those who are exceeding their jurisdictions and therefore gaining power to get our consent. I have known for over 20 years. I assert my rights everyday. Our constitution. not theirs, is an instrument for common law procedure. Yet no one know in Carbondale except for me is enforcing it. We are left with 2 ultimate choices. Fear or Love.