Wednesday January 29 The Resurrection and the Life In a world where death always has the final word, at least for now, what great hope is found in these verses? Luke 7:11–17, Mark 5:21–43, John 11:37–44. ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Politicians, entertainers, and athletes must necessarily offer something to generate a following. Politicians utilize hypnotic rhetoric and incredible promises. Entertainers use their abilities to generate emotion and audience identification. Athletes amaze throngs with their physical skills. Envious onlookers follow, wishing they possessed such prowess. What does Jesus offer? Reduced unemployment? Fatter paychecks? Amazing ball-handling skills? Incredible vocal range? Tear-jerking performances? Instead, Jesus offers something no one else in the world can: eternal life in a new world. In contrast to that, what else matters? While television shopping networks insult our intelligence with their too-good-to-be-true offers, Jesus seemingly exceeds their excesses with His deal of a lifetime: eternal life offered freely with absolutely no shipping and handling charges! Skeptics would doubtless scoff about such an unprecedented offer. Competitors would manufacture cheap imitations (such as Satan’s immortal-soul concept). Potential buyers would cautiously investigate the claims. So, Jesus provided three known demonstrations to counter the skeptics, expose imitations, and satisfy genuine seekers. Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son, and, finally, Lazarus proved that this too-good-to-be-true offer was authentic. Disease and accidents might initially prevail, but eternal life would ultimately conquer. Healing would not happen every time it was requested, but everlasting life was guaranteed to all who made Jesus their Savior. It’s the same with us today. As we know, many times the healing we want just simply does not come in the way that we want it. People linger and suffer for years from debilitating and painful diseases that, far from being healed, sometimes get worse. Others die from disease, despite anointing and prayer. We have no answers as to why, in some cases, healing comes now, and in others it doesn’t. What we do have, though, is something so much better than even a miraculous healing, and that is the promise of the resurrection to eternal life at the end of the age, when Jesus will come and “the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Dan. 7:18, NKJV). Why is this promise—the promise of eternal life—so crucial and so important to us? Where would we be without it? What hope would you have for anything, anything at all, without it?
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 06:04:58 +0000
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