Heart Tracks - The Funeral Wrecker

"Then He walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. 'Young man,' He said, 'get up.' Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk to those around him. And Jesus gave him back to his mother." Luke 7:14-15...."Did you know that Jesus ruined every funeral He ever attended?" Randy Asburry

I think it was Beth Moore who said that Jesus never attended a funeral where the person stayed dead. This is seen in the above Scripture from Luke and the widow of Nain and her son. It is seen in Mark 5, with the synagogue official Jairus, and his daughter, and then, most famously of all, with Lazarus, dead three days in his tomb. It makes me wonder what "funerals" in my life, and yours, have we been holding, are holding now, that desperately need a visit from Jesus Christ?

The power of Jesus Christ can and still does raise the dead, and there are reports of these resurrections from all over the world. Most of them seem to come from cultures far less sophisticated and what we would call "enlightened," than ours. The people have not been taught to believe such miracles cannot take place. They simply trust Him and believe. Yet it is not a physical death that I want to write of today. There is another type of death that afflicts us, torments us, and leaves us in despair. This is the death of our dreams, our hopes, our futures. Dead, at least from our viewpoint, and likely the view of many around us as well. Nothing new in that. Jesus came upon the widow of Nain in the midst of a funeral procession. They saw the death of the boy as final. Likewise all the mourners at the home of Jairus. His daughter was beyond the reach of hope. Worst of all was Lazarus, dead for three days, beyond what Jewish law stated was the limit for a body to brought back to life. Such can be our outlook on our own lives and circumstances. Our relationships, marriage, ministries. We may have been filled with hope once, but that was long ago. Too much time has passed and the dream has died, the vision has vanished, the chance has been missed. It's over. All has been lost. It's all dead now, and will be so tomorrow as well...and beyond. Dare we.....dare you, to believe that He longs to be invited to your funeral, to enter into your funeral procession? To come and bring life out of death, joy out of sorrow, hope from despair, beauty from ashes?

Jesus Christ is King....and He has authority over all things....including death....including what we consider beyond resurrection. He is the funeral wrecker. He has always been such....He always will be. Yes, death, divorce, failure, loss, these are all real. But their affect upon us needn't be final. If He is invited to our funeral, they won't be. He does and will turn mourning into dancing. He does make a way where there is none. He does make mountains disappear.....and quiets the fiercest of storms. He walks on the very waters that we are sure will drown us. He comes and touches the "coffin" into which we have placed all that we have lost, coffins that for all intensive purposes contain ourselves as well.... and makes them, us, live again. As He gave her son back to his mother, He gives life, hope, joy, abundance, back to us again.

Are you caught up in a funeral procession? Jesus approaches you. Will you bid Him welcome? Or, do you allow Him to pass by? And the funeral goes on.

Blessings,
Pastor O