Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

Becki and I got in a walk/jog. We had reason to harass Dandy again as he left his ball on the side of the road way back behind us…and wouldn’t go get it. At least he recovered it when we went back down the hill.

We’re kind of sitting on some pins and needles—waiting to hear today what the verdict is on Thano’s truck engine. We discerned that things may not be as bad as previously thought. But starting it today after installing a new timing chain will tell the story.

Have a good and blessed day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Is there any truth of greater importance to be gleaned from all of Biblical revelation than this?—JESUS IS GOD. That truth comes through loud and clear in my own processing of this passage.

When Jesus entered the house where the dead girl lay and said what He did in the FOCUS VERSE above, there was an understandable adverse reaction from the mourners—“They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead” (v. 53). That was also the message received by Jairus while leading Jesus to his home—“Your daughter is dead” (v. 49). I have no reason to doubt their diagnosis. So it’s all over for her. Finished. Stone cold dead. But just a minute! Is God engaged in this story? Or is Jesus, like some like to believe, just a nice man who says and does some neat stuff on behalf of God? Jesus, in no uncertain terms, opposes the natural conclusion they draw, and says, “She is not dead but asleep.” What? Suddenly it occurs to me that in the mind and vocabulary of omniscient omnipotence, DEATH and SLEEP are like synonyms. I mean, if Jesus really is THE BEGINNING AND THE END, THE ALPHA AND OMEGA—and if it can be believed that “He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:2-5)—how could those states of human experience be in conflict? Furthermore, if He was able to assemble atoms and molecules so as to commence human life in the first place, why would it be any more difficult for Him to reassemble them in resurrection?

Now the words of Jesus to Martha flash in my mind with pulsating light—“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 11:25-26). Wow! If that’s not a crystal clear claim to deity, I don’t know what it is. But that’s not all Jesus said to Martha in that encounter. He adds a very penetrating question for Martha to answer—one I think He wants us to answer as well—“Do you believe this?”