SCRIPTURE: Luke 8:49-56
“Stop crying!” Jesus said. “She is not dead. She is sleeping.”
In the bible, sleep is a euphemism for death (John 11:11, 1 Corinthians 11:30 15:51, Ephesians 5:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:13).
This is not to minimize the curse of death, but to maximize the blessing of hope!
Death is a tragic, unnatural (from a Creation point of view) experience.
Jesus was not heartlessly commanding them to stop crying (even He cried when Lazarus died, John 11:35).
Hear in His tone a gentle, hopeful encouragement, an invitation to hope and not despair.
Jesus was confident God would raise this girl, and that gave Him strength and peace.
We can still weep, but our tears can still leave room for hope.
“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 of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)
Our grief need not be a hopeless despair: we hate suffering and death, yet remain confident in God.
I’ve been with parents who like Jairus pleaded for their child to be restored.
I have not witnessed a resurrection like this, though I too have pleaded and wept!
But through my tears, through my experience of the curse of death, I have not given up hope…
Sleepers will awake!
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
God, I do hate death. I know I will grieve and mourn when someone I love dies. But may the shadow of death never bring me to a place where I despair without hope. May hope always shine through the tears.