Jump Start # 1437

1 Corinthians 15:57 “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

  There are many things that a person is thankful for. Come November, we set aside one day especially for thanks, we call it Thanksgiving. It has turned into a day of feasting, family and football. The “thanks” part has be limited to a few sentences uttered before we stuff ourselves. But for the soul that is walking with God, there are many things he is thankful for, throughout the day and throughout his life. At first, it seems that our thanking is focused upon the simple and obvious things such as a new day, the food we eat, enjoyable moments. As our faith grows, our reflections, observations and introspections also grow. We become thankful for a mate that loves us. We look around and become thankful for godly friends who have touched our lives. Growing more, we realize that there have been teachable moments that have changed us and molded us and we become thankful for those.

Our verse, concluding a long section about the resurrection and especially the resurrection of Jesus, reminds us of the great spiritual thanks that we owe to God for Jesus. Not only did He save us by forgiving us, our future is changed as we shall all be resurrected on the last day.

I thought about that yesterday. I stood at an open grave. A casket was ready to be lowered into it as soon as we all left. It was a funeral. What a day. Huge crowd. More chairs had to be put out. We had to delay the start because of the long line of people wanting to talk to the family. The singing was amazing. I spoke. I read one of these Jump Starts. We prayed. We laughed. We hugged. We cried. It was a trip down memory lane for me. There were so many people that I had not seen in years, for some, decades. My kids were there. My dad was there. It was something. But then we got into our cars and drove out to that spot in the cemetery where we were going to leave the casket that carried one that we loved so dearly. That moment is always hard. It was here that this passage came to my mind. The grave would be closed, but someday, when the Lord returns, there would be a resurrection.

Have you ever thought about all the resurrections in the Bible? We remember some of them. Lazarus, Jesus’ friend came out when Jesus commanded, “Lazarus, come forth.” The 12 year old daughter of the synagogue official was resurrected before she was even buried. There was an unnamed young man, in a coffin, being carried to the cemetery. Jesus came upon him and stopped the funeral procession. He touched the coffin and the young man was raised. That sure turned that day around.

We might get the impression that someone was raised nearly every day, but that’s not the case. There were just a handful of people, all righteous or children, who were ever raised. And the thought we forget about is that each of those that were raised had to later die again. Their souls, safe on the other side, were brought back to this place of struggle, temptation, disease and sorrow. They had to again go through the things that faced before. Back to working for a living. Back to paying bills. Back to having bad days. Back to trying to make the right decisions again. Back to sin. Back to becoming ill again and dying again. Everyone who was ever raised from the dead had to die again! Can you imagine. I wonder after Jesus left Bethany, and around the table sat Mary, Martha and the newly raised Lazarus, no longer sickly, no longer near death. Back. Alive. Well. The Bible never tells us what he heard, saw or felt. God didn’t want us to know. I just wonder what that private conversation was about. I just wonder if he looked at his sisters and said, “Why did you cry so much? Why did you make such a commotion? I was there. It was wonderful. It’s amazing. I didn’t want to leave. Why did I have to come back?”

Jesus, however was the first to be raised that never died again. This is why He is referred to as the first fruits. He was the first. Raised to never die again. We will follow. Not now. But in time, on resurrection day, we will be raised and never again die. That is the victory Paul is speaking about. Until Jesus, everyone who died, seemed to be locked in a prison of death. Not now. Not because of Jesus. Forgiveness, grace has opened that door. There is something better than this life. There is something still to come. There is something great awaiting us. That powerful hymn, “Up from the grave He arose,” echoes these strong Biblical truths.

The grave closes and a darkness fills our heart. I like cemeteries, especially old ones. My kids have experienced me pulling the car to the side of some country road and seeing dad heading off across the field to go look at some old cemetery on top of a hill. When our kids were learning to drive, we often took them to practice in city cemeteries. There’s little traffic, a lot of narrow roads and turns which would help them and I told them if they crashed, I’d just open the door and roll them out. I’ve been to some small towns where it seems that there were more people buried in the cemetery than were living. Just think, all those graves opening up. Raised to never die again.

This passage tells us that Satan loses. He must have thought that Jesus dying on the cross was his victory. It wasn’t. It wasn’t by his design, but rather God’s design. Raised to never die again.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. We like victories. I check the scoreboard often for my favorite teams. In baseball, the Dodgers are at the top. In football, my Purdue is at the bottom. We like victories. We like them in sports. We cherish them when dealing with cancer. It’s encouraging to hear of someone who has beaten the bottle or has overcome long addictions. But the greatest victory is over Satan. The greatest victory is being raised to never die again. This victory belongs to God but we have a part in it. We must be among the righteous. We must walk daily with our Lord. We must choose to be on the side that wins.

Thanks be to God. Closed graves will one day be opened. Closed by man. Closed by Satan. Opened by God. Opened and never to be closed again!

Roger