During Holy Week, we think a lot about life from the dead.
Jesus opens the topic so as to prepare his disciples for the cross. At Caesarea Philippi, he begins with a question: “Who do they say I am?” The disciples list John the Baptist, Elijah, “one of the prophets” (Mark 8: 27-28 NKJV)). Then Jesus turns the question on them: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8: 29).
The Hebrew word Peter probably uses here is “Messiah,” as we write it in our letters, not in the Hebrew. The Greek word Christos, again in our letters not the Greek, is an exact translation of the Hebrew word. We say Christ. In Matthew’s account, Jesus credits Peter with having this knowledge not from a human source but from the Father (Matt 16: 17).
Jesus uses this powerful moment to begin preparing those closest to him for things to come: “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again” (Mark 8: 31).
On a mountain soon after, Jesus is gloriously transformed before Peter, James, and John (Mark 9: 2-11)—again, a powerful moment and another time Jesus prepares his own for what will happen to him: “he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt” (Mark 9: 12).
Jesus then casts an unclean spirit out of a boy, and another powerful moment is followed by a time of preparation. He says: “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after he is killed, he will rise the third day” (Mark 9: 31).
These are descriptions of suffering, but the bottom line is life from the dead. One who called himself the Son of Man would walk out of a grave after dying a shameful, tortured death. It would be the turning point in human history—life from the dead, and it would include us. The cross is a symbol for Christianity because a Roman instrument of execution was where all this began—the place where the holy blood was shed, where one John the Baptist identified as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” was sacrificed, even as the Passover Lamb saved from death every Hebrew firstborn safe behind a door sprinkled with its blood.
Life from the dead. In the West, where Christianity is still a cultural, if not a religious norm, we seem to take the thought for granted. We say of the dead, he or she is “in a better place.” We speak of seeing our departed loved ones again. We pay our respects by attending a funeral and think of heaven—life from the dead. We speak of the “afterlife.” For the eleven faithful disciples, being told that “after he is killed, he will rise the third day” wasn’t news so easily tossed around. It was puzzling, shocking. Peter even felt called upon to rebuke Jesus for his words (Mark 8: 31-33). When Peter and John found the tomb empty, shock was the immediate response. They struggled to connect what they saw with what Jesus had said. “We’ve come a long way,” people say. May be, but how is it that we’ve lost touch with this stunning proposition—life from the dead?
It is the core of Christian belief.
Paul, like the Eleven, falls in the shocked and amazed category. Life from the dead is a favorite topic in his letters, and Paul’s tone isn’t business as usual. But then Paul met the Son of Man, the one who went to lengths to prepare those he loved for what would come. Writing to the Romans, Paul broadens the scope—all of time, the whole world of Jews and Gentiles: “For if their being cast away is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Rom 11: 15).
Is it time for you to meet the Son of Man? He brings life from the dead.
from The Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in SC
April 17, 2019
Photo credits: red and black butterfly by ana martinuzzi, white butterfly by Yuval Levy, lamb by Luke Stackpoole. All from unsplash.com
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