While working with youth, there were many strange and wondrous events which I planned and ran in hopes of having a good time and praising God. The best idea I had, hands down, was to bury alive one of our youth leaders. I know what you're thinking. Right now either you are thinking A. That's dangerous or B. That's stupid. I will accept either answer, but instead of debating the safety protocol we obviously broke, or discussing who in their right minds would agree to be buried alive, I will simply continue with my story assuming you have decided to continue to read.
Something I think you should know about me is that I have a coffin. I have always believed this to be one of my greater attributes (although, I am not sure it truly is an attribute)and found use for such a toy on many occasions. In fact, my youth became so comfortable with my coffin that they no longer feared it as in the first. For this reason I was pushed into raising the bar. While running an event called "Borne Identity" (yes, based on the movies) one of the stages was to take place in a grave yard...as per usual. The youth were instructed to dig up the casket to find their next clue. Nonchalantly, the fellas (mainly boys that night...can't figure out why?) approached the make shift cemetery knowing that I had buried my old companion in an attempt to shock. The digging began while the boys went on their way talking about other things not related to the task at hand, all the while unaware that Nick, my 250lbs. youth leader was in the coffin with a mask and chain saw waiting to be released from his shallow grave. As the boys reached down to open the lid, Nick jumped out of the coffin and kick started the saw and began his pursuit. I don't care who you are or how tough you appear, when someone jumps out of a coffin you had just dug up, with a chain saw and wearing a hockey mask, you run. These same guy's who tried their best to put up a tough front screamed like little girls and ran for their lives. This was truly a ministry highlight.
In John 11, Jesus tells Martha that He is the resurrection. Martha, like many of us, gave the "yeah, I know" answer. We have become very comfortable with the term; so comfortable that I believe it has lost some of its meaning. When Jesus told Martha that he was the resurrection, he was telling her that he had the power to raise the dead; that he had the power to conquer death and offer eternal life. Martha's approach to Jesus' statement was similar to the boys from my youth. She was comfortable with the concept of resurrecting the dead (if anyone can actually be comfortable with such a thing) even claiming that she knew her brother Lazarus would be raised from the dead at some point. Where she was totally unaware was that Jesus was not talking about someday, he was talking about today.
Scripture does not say, but I can only imagine what effect it would have had on those witnesses who saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. The comfort level would have changed rapidly. Remorse and grieving would have been replaced by fear and confusion. Disgust at the smell of the rotting man may have come to mind. One thing I am sure of, is that the resurrection would never again be trivialized by those who saw it first hand that day. Scripture does say that after Lazarus was raised many put their faith in him. This seems like a perfectly logical statement. I cannot, however, for the life of me understand why it did not say ALL who were there that day placed their faith in Jesus. It only solidifies that fact that if the Word does not change a man's/woman's heart (Luke 16:31) then raising someone from the dead will not change a thing.
Let us live in the power of the one who not only was resurrected, but who is in fact the resurrection Himself.
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