Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Numbers 33-36
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 7:13-14
As soon as the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her.
Jesus: Don’t weep.
Then He came to the stretcher, and those carrying it stood still.
Jesus: Young man, listen! Get up!
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Can you imagine what that funeral was like? The town follows a poor grieving widow as she walks behind the bier of her only son. She couldn’t afford professional wailers, but many of them felt sorry for her and accompanied her anyway. She’s on her way out to the cemetery with the somber group and the people she meets on the road bow their heads in respect and grieve with her.
But then Jesus meets the small party of mourners as He comes into town. He doesn’t bow His head like the others on the road. He stops the procession. He lifts her face, looks in her eyes, and tells her, “Don’t cry.”
What a thing for a stranger to tell a grieving widow. You just lost your only son. You just lost your only means of support. You just became totally dependant on the kindness of others for your survival. Don’t cry. Sounds pretty harsh to say those things at a funeral, doesn’t it.
Of course we know the rest of the story. He went to the stretcher, and talked to the young man. Those around Him must have thought He was crazy talking to a dead man. But nonetheless, Jesus said, “Young man! Get up!” And to everyone’s surprise, except Jesus’, the young man sat up and looked around. Got up off the stretcher and went home with his mother.
There are two important points to this story. First, it shows Jesus has power over death. He showed it by raising the young man. Just by telling him to get up off the stretcher on his way to his grave, Jesus shows his spoken word brings life to the lifeless. He conquers death in hopeless situations. This event and a few other stories like it in the gospels showed His disciples before the resurrection He had power to heal even at the point of death. It should have been little surprise when as He told them He would rise from the dead, that He would. He had the power to do it.
Second, death was not part of God’s plan from the beginning. It came as a result of our disobedience. Death entered the world because of Adam’s sin and affected all creation ever since. We all die because death made its entrance and until Jesus returns and the new heaven and earth come into being, death remains a part of the curse of that first sin.
Jesus recognized the flaws created by that first sin in our world. He saw death for what it was a penalty that must be paid for the sins of man, but one that God never wanted us to have to pay. He wanted us to live. He wanted us to enjoy this world and all that is in it. But we corrupted it with our selfish desires and disobedience to Him. We brought death into the world and He is the only one who can remove it. So He showed us in this one event what He wanted for all of us. Life.
So how should we live knowing that God wants life for us and not death? How should we approach every day if we understand that God intended death never to be part of what we experience, yet we face it every day just the same? Is God unjust because death is here even though He didn’t want it to be? Should we blame God for the predicament we’re in having to face death?
Certainly, we can’t blame God for something that is our fault. We brought sin into the picture. It is our self-centeredness that is at the heart of every sin. We want what we want instead of what God wants and that’s the beginning of every sin. So when God tells us what the outcome will be when we don’t make Him first in our life, can we blame Him for the result when we don’t put Him first? I don’t think so. He tells us the rules and even shows great mercy and grace and forgiveness when we ask.
And the question of how should we live? That depends on whether He is Lord of your life. If God is not Lord of your life, death is real and continues. The cessation of this physical life means eternal separation from God and eternal punishment for the sins you’ve committed. Real death begins. If He is, death holds no power over you. You have the assurance that the cessation of heartbeats and breath just passes you from this physical world into the presence of God, but life goes on. It is in a different place, a different body, a different environment that we cannot yet understand, but life continues with God eternally. We cannot understand or imagine what it will be like. But life continues.
Jesus knew what the Father intended and showed us by raising the young man to life again. His hope is that all of us will choose life, which means choosing Him as Lord. It’s the best way to live both now and forever.
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