resurrection's happened...thanks be to god!

“When Lazarus was raised, Jesus wept, and I’m betting Lazarus wept too.”                              Charles Stanley

Healing is happening all the time, yet we barely bat an eye.  We’re pre-wired to see what’s wrong in the world, in our bodies, in our family and friends, but slow to recognize what’s right.  When Jesus cleansed ten lepers in Luke 17, only one went back to thank him. Jesus said to him, “Your faith has made you well.”  (verse 19).  But weren’t all ten made well?  And if that one had been healed before he thanked Jesus, what was the healing that he received by faith?

I think it was the healing of his heart, for gratitude is the cleansing, healing faith of the heart.  Our bodies, our situations may be healed, but that healing is temporary and incomplete.   In every tangible healing there is the seed of future discord and disease.  Lazarus rose to die again, after all.  Jesus knew that.  So did Lazarus.  Weeping would be a natural response to such futility.  For “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”  (1 Corinthians 15:17) 

But when the heart is healed, when we see that Jesus died for the futility and rose to give us freedom and a permanent healing, then we have hope.  We may feel the futility again and again and again, but we know where to turn to revive hope.  “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”  (Romans 6: 9)  When that knowledge penetrates to our cores, our tears become tears of joy. 

Love, Liz

“Without Jesus’ resurrection there is no hope.  But the resurrection should make us fearless!”         Brannin Pitre

Photo by Gretchen Bayer