Categories: god, forty-blogs-of-lent
Date: 30 March 2013 07:35:51
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it [in] clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed. Matthew 27: 57-60The problem we have here is that death is the end. There's nothing you can do about it. Physical resurrection is a posibility, Elijah and Elisha both raised someone from the dead. Jesus himself raised three. But the dead were always raised by someone else, Lasarus did not raise himself from the dead, Jesus raised him. And now Jesus is dead, God incarnate is dead, and the dead do not rise from the dead. Who can raise him. Fortunately we have the value of hindsight. The Bible says that God raised him up. The God in heaven, Jesus father, raised him from the dead. How this could happen, How God could be both the God in Heaven and God incarnate on Earth is something I do not understand. I am just grateful it happened. God raised him up. The writers of the Scriptures say this, they use pasive language: God raised him up, Jesus was raised. Not for them the language we are more familiar with: Jesus rose, as if he somehow had th power to raise himself. He didn't. Dead men have no power. But Jesus was raised. God raised him up. Physically. Tomorrow we will be celebrating the fact