Matthew 9:18-19 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
Matthew 9:23-26 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.
But they laughed at him (Jesus); the world is still laughing. The Greeks in Athens were willing to listen to the theological aspects of Paul’s religion, even the idea that the Unknown God that Paul was talking about made everything in the world and that all humans came from one man. They were willing to hear about the philosophical point that all of their existence was in this God and that all living things moved and lived in this Unknown God, but when Paul talked about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, their interactions with Paul came to a breaking point. Some terminated their listening with ridicule and sneers. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. (Acts 17:32) This was a bridge too far; they knew death—they knew what death entailed: an everlasting exodus from the living. In Jesus’ world, most people could accept him as the good teacher, the philosopher, the wise man, the loving rabbi, even a quaint healer of some sort, but not the Son of God with power over life itself. As Jesus’ name for himself, The Son of Man, connotes, a superior man, yes, but not the Son of God who has power over life and death. Such an idea was too much for the people and especially the religious elite. If life somehow comes after death on this earth, another explanation must be made to explain such a phenomena, as was said about Jesus’ resurrection. These people at the scene of the dead girl were upset with Jesus. He was interrupting their wake, their ceremony of mourning, playing pipes. He was violating their traditions of how to express sadness over the lost. To them, Jesus had the audacity to step into this scene of mourning, breaking into customs that had existed for centuries and tell them, The girl is not dead but asleep. Some of the people present probably thought, how uninformed can this man be, even though others may have respected him as a divine healer. Yet, they knew their rabbi, a synagogue leader, respected Jesus greatly. Out of desperation for his child, he had called Jesus to the side of his dead daughter. My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live. But dead is dead thought those in attendance! They knew what death was, and they knew what sleep was. This girl was definitely dead, not any longer part of the living of their world. But God had other plans for this girl; He had other plans for this synagogue leader. Through Jesus’ words, God would reveal Jesus as his Son with power over life and death. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. Death had been defeated, a girl lived again, a testimony to the power of the words that came from the mouth of Jesus. The Living Word was with them: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 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 all mankind. (John 1:1-4)
What Jesus was revealing that day is what Paul was talking about to the Greeks: the resurrection from the dead is a reality and cannot be denied. As Jesus said, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” (Luke 24:46) Because Jesus rose again, people who die in Christ will be resurrected to a new life that will never end. However, this message for many people is one to ridicule and to laugh at, a false idea invented by those who cannot face death and the oblivion awaiting them. But for Christians, the gift of God is eternal life. As the Bible says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) What separates us from all other life is the Holy Spirit’s resident power in us, planted in us by our faith in the Word of God: Jesus Christ. Humans are capable of possessing the Spirit of God when their souls have been cleansed by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The millions of animals in the Old Testament that were sacrificed were but a precursor of this need to be right with God. A penalty for sin had to be paid. The animals in the Old Testament paid this price as a temporary sacrifice, and in the New Covenant, Jesus paid the price permanently, once and for all. All life on Earth has God’s Spirit of life, but the abiding, renewing presence of God is with those who possess born-again containers. The Spirit of God in all things is grand, reveals the nature of God in its beauty, grandeur and variety, but the presence of God in Christians is an eternal communion with God. In and through Christ, we can express immediate gratitude to God for his love and care for us. This is a constant active communication. Nature as God’s creation has a picturesque beauty, but somewhat static in its loveliness, but the new-man in Christ interacts intimately with God the Father in many ways: praising him, honoring him, loving him, and the like. The resurrection is all about this new life of eternal bliss with God. Our souls at death exit a sinful world into the presence of a holy God. The Greeks were willing to contemplate that all life on Earth might exist within some sort of God or extraterrestrial power, but for man to be resurrected was another thing. But Paul was talking about men and women having the opportunity to become eternal children of God by being born anew, possessing the eternal Spirit of God within their souls. Jesus demonstrates this resurrecting power by taking hold of the child’s hand: he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. Someday each of us will feel God’s hand and rise up to life forevermore. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The world rejects the Good News of eternal life. This is the gift of life that we celebrate at Christmas. A child was born to Mary—actually, New Life was born that day. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:8-12) A Savior for what? A Savior for new life. The gift of God is eternal life for all who put their trust in this Messiah. As the angel said this is news that will cause great joy for all the people, not just the Jews, but for all people. Jesus came as the resurrected Lord for all people. We are no longer bound to this world of flesh and sin; we are no longer bound to finite lives, but the Good News is that Jesus came to give life for all who would believe in his words and works. He came to fulfill the image of God in us, making us acceptable to a holy Creator, his Father. We become the complete man or the perfect man because we accept THE PERFECT MAN, the Son of God. We become not only imprinted by his image when we accept him by faith, we become as He is. He is known as the Son of God: we will be known as the children of God. No one can enter into this intimate relationship without being completely sinless, holy, without fault. Of course, the flesh cannot hold that responsibility because it is sinful. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) Consequently, the flesh must die so that the resurrection will happen for each of us so that we might go to God in the image and complete likeness of Jesus Christ our Savior. The little girl in this story was dead, possessing no life in her, but Jesus the giver of life was by her bedside. His hand possessed resurrected life in it. When He touched her, her soul became activated. Once again, she was operating in her flesh. Eternal life did not come to her that day, only life in the fleshly container. Neither did eternal life come to Lazarus when he was raised from the dead. He lived the rest of his life in an earthly container, not the born-again container. But these resurrections were to reveal that Jesus had power over death itself. He could restore life in the flesh, but something much greater was going to happen to Jesus and to us. When Jesus died, He was raised by the Spirit of God. He became alive to God, not to the flesh. He exited this world on the day of his ascension to be with his Father. His resurrection was not for a temporary stay on this earth. No, He went to be with God his Father. Our resurrection will not be for a stay on this earth, but the Spirit of God will take us by his hand and raise us to be with the Father, our Abba Father. There, in his presence, we will shout of our redemption. We will know that Good News has come to us and forever we will dwell in the house of our God who loved us so much that He sent Jesus to us to release us from the bondage of sin. Praise God forever dear breakfast companions. It is finished! The battle is over! There will be no more war!
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