THE STORY OF JESUS: Luke 8:49-56
“‘Stop wailing,’ Jesus said. ‘She is not dead but asleep.'” (Luke 8:52)
I remember seeing the movie The Matrix for the first time.
The idea behind the plot is that the world we know isn’t real, it is an illusion.
A computer-generated illusion that keeps us slaves, powering the machine.
But the world we know seems so real, so… undeniable.
Jesus challenges the world as we see it: death is not death but sleep.
Death is not the end, it only seems that way.
And Satan uses the fear of death to energize his kingdom (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Death is real, but it is not ultimate reality.
God created us for life and is working through Jesus to fully restore life.
We grieve, but not without hope, for we know life is greater than death.
When someone dies, it is not the end but a doorway to a new stage of life.
The real death is living in this world as if this is all there is.
We are caught within this matrix of death, but Jesus is ‘the One’!
He can wake us from our ‘sleep’, and replace our ‘wailing’ with real life!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, its hard not to be discouraged by death. It seems so final. Open our eyes to see beyond the matrix of death to the kingdom of life.