Introduction
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live.”
(John 11: 25)
For the last few weeks we have been reminding ourselves of the Easter story. This Sunday let us consider five great resurrections. The first three are recorded in the Gospels – they are resurrections which Jesus performed in his lifetime. On each of these occasions Jesus raised from the dead someone who was close to someone else. His motivation for this was compassion, but in doing so he showed forth the power and glory of God.
Resurrection No 1 – Someone’s daughter ( Mark 5:21-24, 35-43)
Jairus was an important man, the ruler of the synagogue,an influential and wealthy man. He came to Jesus distraught with sorrow and worry.
“My little girl is dying. She’s only twelve years old and she is about to die. Please come and help her. Please lay hands on her and heal her.”
Jesus saw the man’s need and agreed to go with him to his house. But on the way they were delayed - another needy person, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years. She touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and she was healed. There was quite a lot of fuss then, while Jesus spoke to the woman in front of the crowd.
All this time Jairus was waiting for Jesus to come to his house – he was on tenterhooks. He was deeply anxious and he feared that his daughter might already be dead. When they got to the house Jairus’s worst fears were realised. A man came out of the house and said, “Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more?”
Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid: just believe.”
Jesus then went into the house accompanied just by his closest disciples. There was a tremendous commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. Jesus went in and said to them, “The child is not dead, but asleep.” They mocked bitterly at him. Jesus gave an order to clear the house of the weeping and wailing people. Then just with Peter, James and John, and the child’s parents, he went into the room . She was lying there, dead on the bed. Jesus gently took her by the hand and said, “Little one, get up.” Immediately she sat up! She looked around in a puzzled way, then walked about the room. They were all completely astonished, amazed and overjoyed. “Give her something to eat,” Jesus said, “and don’t tell anyone else about this.”
So it was that Jairus and his wife and three of the disciples were the only witnesses of this amazing miracle. The time had not yet come for Jesus to proclaim openly his power to raise the dead.
Resurrection No. 2 – Someone’s son (Luke 7: 11-16)
On another occasion Jesus came to the town of Nain in Galilee. His disciples were with him and a large crowd of people were following him. They had seen some of his miracles and heard his wonderful teaching. As they approached the town they met another crowd coming in the opposite direction. It was a funeral procession on their way out to the cemetery. Tragically the deceased was a young man. It was particularly sad also that he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So now she had no one in the world. The Lord saw her situation and his heart went out to her.
“Don’t cry,” he said. Then he went up and touched the funeral bier, and the pallbearers stood still. They were aghast – this was an act of profanation. To touch a body, or a coffin, or a funeral bier, was to incur ritual pollution. None but a close relative would do that.
Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
And the man who had been dead sat up in the bier and he spoke some words. Jesus gave him back to his mother. The crowd were filled with awe: “a great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people!”
The news was getting out that Jesus was a mighty man of God.
Resurrection No.3 – Someone’s brother (John 11:38-43)
Martha and Mary were two sisters who lived at Bethany. They were friends and disciples of Jesus. So when their brother Lazarus became desperately ill they sent for Jesus to come and heal him. But Jesus waited two days before making the long journey from Galilee to Judea. When they got to Bethany they found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Against the wishes of the sisters Jesus had the tomb opened, and with a mighty word of command brought Lazarus back from the dead.
“Lazarus come forth!”
The people standing around the tomb were transfixed with amazement as they saw a flash of something white at the entrance of the tomb. Next moment, there was Lazarus standing at the mouth of the tomb with his grave-cloths still fluttering around him, and a napkin wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave-clothes and let him go.”
As a result of this miracle many of those who had come to visit Martha and Mary in their sorrow came to believe in Jesus. And the religious authorities, when they heard about this, plotted to kill Jesus.
Now this was definitely a real resurrection. Yes, to the sceptical mind Jairus’s daughter could have just been in a deep coma (and after all Jesus did say she was only sleeping). Likewise, the widow of Nain’s son had only just been declared dead. In those days people were buried as soon as they died. It was just possible that this young man was not actually dead, but in a coma.
Yes, to the sceptical mind I say these things might not seem to be real resurrections. But the raising of Lazarus is a different thing - he had been in the tomb for four days. His body had started to decompose but Jesus reversed the process and brought him back to life. An amazing miracle! No wonder Jesus had said,
“I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11: 25)
Resurrection No. 4 – God’s Son
In the Easter season its not the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, or the widow’s son, or Mary and Martha’s brother we celebrate, but he Resurrection of God’s Son.
All these people Jesus raised were brought back to physical life, only to die a natural death later. (The girl probably married and had a family, the young man was able to support his widowed mother, Lazarus was returned to the bosom of his family but al three of them died later.)
But the Resurrection of Jesus is totally different: he rose with a new, spiritual, glorified body. In his risen form he could appear and disappear at will - even behind locked doors. He could veil his appearance so that people did not recognise him. But he didn’t return as an apparition, a phantom, a ghost. No, he had a solid existence. He was there in the body. People walked with him on the road, they sat at his feet, they ate and drank with him. On one occasion he sat by a campfire on the lakeside and served them fish and bread cooked on the hot coals. Imagine: a barbecue with the risen Jesus!
At the end of forty days Jesus was taken from their sight to heaven. He is risen and glorified – he will never die again.
Resurrection No. 5 – Our resurrection
This is the bit I’m looking forward to! Jesus raised the three people mentioned in the gospels and he himself was raised from the dead on Easter day. But the good news of Easter is that we shall be raised too!
We too, on the day of Resurrection, will be given wonderful, glorious, Resurrection bodies. Like the Lord we shall no longer be limited by the physical constraints of this material world. And yet we shall not be mere disembodied spirits, insubstantial wraiths. No, we shall be more solid, more real, than we are in this life. We shall have entered the ultimate reality of God’s presence.
Now this is all a great mystery, we can not imagine what it will be like, but the Resurrection of Jesus guarantees it.
The Tomb was empty, the Body was gone - and Jesus appeared to his disciples.
The Lord is risen – he is risen indeed!
