Today, so much of the world, so many people, laugh at Jesus’ claims. Those of us who have taken the time to develop a relationship with Jesus know different. Yet….we also, at times, are looked upon with humor and laughter inside, “how can someone have a relationship with someone you can’t see, someone who is dead?” The truth is: death is not the final answer……there is something even deeper than life on this earth….there is a life beyond death. Until we embrace life everlasting…we will never understand life on this earth.
Mark 5:37-40 (TNIV)
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.
Jesus redefined death…..he called it sleep. We may mourn the people that we love that have gone into the deep sleep of death…..however; the separation from this life is not necessarily forever. Jesus brought a true hope to this world. There IS an eternity with the Father, there is a reunion with all those who have gone before us and there a true peace. Trust in His promise and tell others about it!
It’s important to recognize that those that belittle or laugh at you because of you faith in Jesus can’t see beyond their own skin and bones. They don’t see with the Spiritual eyes of God, indeed Jesus. The important thing to know and remember is that what God, indeed Jesus, thinks about you is much more important than what all these other people think and that in a relationship with Jesus…there is truth and there is hope……more than you can ever imagine!
The apostle Paul said it best in describing the breadth and the depth of life:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (TNIV)
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.