A Living Faith
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. – Matthew 28:1-8 NKJV.
People do sometimes come back to life and many have had what is called “near death experiences.” Velusamy an 80-year-old man in India was thought to have died of old age. His sister-in-law tried to wake him for supper and found him to be lying on the floor “like wood.” She received no response to her frantic yells or when sprinkling his face with water. However, when Velusamy was bathed with cold water prior to his body being burned, he woke up! He said, “It’s very cold” and got up from the ground. His family rejoiced at having, “got back grandpa, back from the other world.”
Performing a search on Google for “back to life” found 897,000 references for the phrase. A vast multitude of things are said to be brought “back to life” including books, programs, furniture, machines, radios, stocks, lakes, frozen lobsters, Inca canals, schools, bands, and nations. There were a few instances of people like Velusamy who were thought to be dead, being brought “back to life.” However, the reality is that Velusamy will eventually die, and not be brought back again to physical life. We as human beings can restore usefulness to inanimate objects, and through science restore, sustain usefulness for human beings to a certain extent. There is, however, no way by scientific methods to bring a person back to life that is actually dead. When person has been dead and buried for a year or so there is no record of such a body being raised to physical life.
Easter is not just a holiday or a time to have fun with our family and friends. Easter is important, because what happened 2000 years ago represents our only true hope for eternal life after death. Easter is important and mind boggling, because it represents God Himself intervening in the course of human events at great cost to provide us a way of salvation. Easter means that we have a living faith, and not a dead faith. We do not worship a dead god. We worship a God who is alive, and has proven that He has the power over death. God has proven that He has the ability to give life!
This Easter let us rejoice that He has indeed risen! Let us rejoice that we have a living faith in the living God who loves us so much that He died for us!
(Our only true hope for life after death is through Jesus Christ.)