Thursday, June 6, 2013
Luke 7:14-15 Jesus went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
FAITH IN THE FACE OF DEATH
How often has Jesus done this? How often has He returned a son or daughter who's died to his/her parents? If you are mentally adding to this young man of Nain the daughter Jairus (Luke 8), you are only beginning to scratch the surface. The final count will not be in until the last day.
"In the face of death" is an expression we use to describe that situation in which a person has to deal with the reality of death. How a person responds is then no longer a matter of stating one's philosophy or beliefs in the abstract. For a parent this is never harder than in the death of a child, especially a young child.
Perhaps this is why two of the three recorded resurrections performed by Jesus in the New Testament involve restoring a child to his/her parent(s). Here is help. Real help for real grief. And our help is not in the form of a theory or a premise, but in the person of Christ our Lord. Jesus himself stands at our side at such times of terrible grief. He speaks to us as he spoke to Jairus: "Don't be afraid. Just believe" (Luke 8:50).
And for us the returning of a son or daughter from death to life by the voice of Jesus will not be a temporary restoration that death will later sunder anew, for as Jesus reassures us, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3).
No need to "put on a happy face" when you have a happy heart because your help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth -- and came to earth, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:14-15).
