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Thursday-Better Resurrection

Writer's picture: Chet GladkowskiChet Gladkowski

 

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

 

Hebrews 11:35

 

We’ve all seen pain and death up close and personal. Sometimes it comes in an instant, like it did for my brother. He arrived at work one Monday morning and walked into his office. A little while later, his assistant called out to him. There was a strange silence because my brother was a very outgoing and talkative person. She walked in and found my dear brother dead on the floor. No warning. No suffering. No time to think about it.

 

His wife was beyond crushed. Not just because her loving husband was dead, but because she didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. To tell him how much he meant to her. To thank him for their time together. For the next 20 months, she always broke down and wept whenever I called.

 

And then there was my father-in-law. Even though they worked hard at controlling his diabetes, it was slowly damaging his kidneys. Month after month, year after year, he was gently being poisoned by the buildup of waste normally filtered out by our healthy kidneys.

 

The whole world knew what was going on. He got weaker and weaker. Nothing could return him to health or strength. Even with the best care and technology possible, all we could do was sit and watch the slow weakening of a once bright and friendly man.

 

Even though these two deaths are so wildly different, they had something in common. At both memorial services, we took great comfort and strength from the truth of God’s promised resurrection. They both had received God’s forgiveness paid in full through Jesus, so there was no doubt about where they’d be spending eternity.

 

Which is exactly why the writer talks about God’s better resurrection. These Hebrews were going through persecution. Not the kind of persecution that most of us think of or experience. This wasn’t someone complaining that we were talking about religion. Or that we had a bumper sticker on our car.

 

Not on your life. This was real persecution. The kind of persecution where people throw stones at you. Where your home and all your stuff is taken away. Where you’re driven out of the city where you live. Where you’re arrested. Where you’re executed.

 

These Hebrews need encouragement. They need reminding that God hasn’t forgotten them. That he’s still God. That he’s still on the throne. That nothing happens without his knowledge. Without him allowing it to happen.

 

We find this really strange. How can our good and all-powerful God allow something so bad to happen to us? If he doesn’t stop it, then he can’t be all that powerful. If he could have stopped it, then he’s not all that good?

 

So, the writer reaches back into the history of the Hebrews and reminds them of how even death can’t stop God. He’s thinking of at least these three women and the death of their children.

 

  • Widow at Zarephath. Elijah lays on the dead body of this woman and he’s raised back to life[1].

  • Woman at Shunem. Elisha does the same thing for this son and life returns to him also[2].

 

And while these miracles make us want to shout, they are only a temporary fix. Eventually, these two boys are going to die. There’s no sure-fire way to avoid death. As one writer put it, “Father Time remains undefeated.[3]

 

There’s another story from the Hebrews past about how Antiochus Epiphanes, a wicked invading tyrant, tried to get a mother and her seven sons to go against God’s laws. He was going to get them choose against God by eating pork or be tortured and executed. One after another, they choose to look forward to a better resurrection [4]. They chose to follow God rather than the king, or anyone else[5].

 

Every time I read this story[6], I get chills up and down my spine. Their faith and bravery while they watched unimaginable pain thrown onto their loved ones makes me hang my head in shame. I think about how I hesitate to name the name of Jesus. Or just avoid the conversation all together.

 

How could they go through this incredible experience and not give in? The answer is in the truth of their better resurrection. Even if they survived, they eventually were going to die. But God’s powerful promise of a better resurrection gave them someone to hold onto. It gave strength to these Hebrews and gives us strength too. God has paid for our better resurrection through Jesus. Our job is to hold onto him and his promise.

 

Noodling Questions

 

  • How could there be a better resurrection than being raised from the dead?

  • Describe someone you know that went through a long, slow, painful decline.

  • How can we encourage one another to remain faithful through pain?


[1] 1 Kings 17:17-24

[2] 2 Kings 4:18-36

[3] The El Camino, by Car F. Romero

[4] 2 Maccabees 7:1-24, The Apocrypha

[5] Acts 5:29

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