Death
and Resurrection
“Soon
afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a
large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a
dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and
she was a widow...When Jesus saw her, his heart went out to her and
he said, 'Don't cry.' Then he 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.”
Luke
7:11-14
How
many times have you been called back to life? I'll be honest with
you, the first thought that came to my distorted mind when I read
this passage was, “I wonder how many people were actually buried
alive in Jesus' day!” I mean, they didn't know anything about human
anatomy at that point, so a person in a coma may well have been
mistaken for dead. I'm just saying... But then I remembered two
things—that Jesus was/is tremendously charismatic and the energy that channeled through him might have been as potent as those paddles they use
in an Emergency Room to restart a heart that has stopped beating. And
secondly, at least once in a lifetime, everyone thinks they are
done-for only to be called back to life by the kindness, and patience
and love of others. I've lost count of the number of times in my own life.
I
met a woman yesterday I haven't seen in more than twenty years.
We talked a while and recounted the events of our lives since then.
Our children have grown up, our husbands have gone away, and we are
now on a ship neither of us intended to sail. By virtue of time, I am
farther along in the recovery process than she, but after almost
thirty years of marriage, the last thing she expected to be was
single. Divorce is a form of death. Sometimes we don't know whether
we'll come back from it. Most of the time, we do. People who love us,
who aren't willing to give up on us, call us back.
One
of my neighbors has a new baby boy with a terrible kidney dysfunction.
She carried him for nine months with high expectations of him being a
normal, healthy, happy baby. Now, only a few months old, the child is
on the kidney transplant list. Remembering those fragile months after
my own babies were born, I can't imagine what a daily struggle it is
for this young woman. Will he live? Will he die? How can a mother's
heart bear that?
In
the course of a lifetime, we will die and be resurrected many times.
We will want to give up, but others won't allow it. We will know for certain
that our own power is not sufficient for the task, but somehow, it
is. With every death and resurrection, new life will bloom—a
different person, one honed by fire, strong as steel, will stand in
the place of the one who could not cope. Then we will realize that love
and compassion are far more powerful than any death life can deal us.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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