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Faith

What if it’s true?

SurpriseSome months ago, I heard the news that an old friend had died. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was attending a conference when I saw in the distance a person who looked remarkably like the same person. Perhaps my imagination was playing tricks on me. I decided not to go up to the person because I was sure it couldn’t be my old friend. However, he came up to me and started talking about old times. I’m not sure what the explanation is, but I’m fairly sure that there has been no resurrection here.

Mark chapter 16 describes how three women went to visit Jesus’s tomb early on the first Sunday morning after he had been executed. When the arrived, they found the tomb empty. A young man in a white robe said to them, “Don’t be shocked. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. You can see the place where they laid him! 16:7 Now go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him, as he promised you.’”

The question is, if you had seen someone die, then heard that they had come back to life again – as they themselves had promised to do – would you believe it? It takes a pretty big leap of faith, but you can’t be a true follower of Jesus unless you can take that leap of faith. If God was able to make the whole universe, then surely it is only a small step for him to bring back to life someone who was dead.