Besides Jesus resurrection there are three other accounts in the New Testament gospels of people being raised back to life. All of them were instigated by Jesus himself. The first we find in Luke chapter 7. Jesus is walking into the village of Nain and it says that, along with his disciples there is a large crowd with him. Upon entering the village they are confronted by a funeral procession walking out of the village to the burial site. The ceremony is for a young boy of a widowed woman. The Message translation retells the account like this...

"As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession...a woman's only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, "Don't cry." Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, "Young man, I tell you: Get up." The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother. They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful - and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, "God is back, looking to the needs of his people!" The news of Jesus spread all through the country." - Luke 7:12-17 (the message)

So this event becomes a talking point at all the local joints in this village and the surrounding area. You can just picture all the guys standing around debating the theological implications of what happened and all the women discussing the virtues of what Jesus did. This was no longer just some magic trick like his whole water-to-wine thin. This was intense and an entire gathering of people saw first hand what Jesus did.

The very next chapter we come across the story of the Jarius. Jesus returns from a little boat trip and is immediately met by this well-to-do man of the town. Jarius' twelve year old daughter has become incredibly ill and so he has sought out Jesus to come and heal his daughter...the same as Jesus has done for so many other people. Jesus agrees but on the way to the household he is compelled to stop because of an interaction with a woman in the crowd. During this time Jarius receives word that his daughter has died. He is preparing to leave Jesus and go begin the mourning process when Jesus says, "what are you doing? she's not dead." So they keep on their way to the home and this is what happens...

"Going into the house, he wouldn't let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child's parents. Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, "Don't cry. She didn't die; she's sleeping." They laughed at him. They knew she was dead. Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, "My dear child, get up." She was up in an instant, up and breathing again! He told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were ecstatic, but Jesus warned them to keep quiet." - Luke 8:51-56 (the message)

Here is what is so interesting to me in this story. Everyone who was walking with Jesus heard the messenger tell Jarius his had passed away. They then saw Jesus and the parents go into the house. They more than likely saw Jesus and the disciples leave. I can only imagine the amount of questions circulating around the crowd. So did the little girl just stay inside for the rest of her life??? I mean...it's not like Jesus is going to be able to hide the fact that he brought the little girl back to life. Eventually people are going to know what he did. The point is that people were going to soon enough know that Jesus had healed her.

The final account is found in John 11. This death is one that actually really affects Jesus, simply because it is one of his closest friends, Lazarus. Now, Jesus is several days of travel away from where Lazarus is when he told that his friend has become ill. He then waits a few days before finally departing to where Lazarus and his family lives. When he does eventually arrive there, Lazarus has been dead for 4 days already. That's long enough in the middle east for a body to have begun decomposing quite rapidly. The Bible also relates how Lazarus' village was not far from Jerusalem and so several friends of the family had traveled there and were still present mourning his death when Jesus arrived. Again...we've got a large crowd on hand to witness what happens next.

"Now Jesus wept. The Jews said, "Look how deeply he loved him." Others among them said, "Well, if he loved him so much, why didn't he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man." Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, "Remove the stone." The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, "Master, by this time there's a stench. He's been dead four days!" Jesus looked her in the eye. "Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" Then, to the others, "Go ahead, take away the stone." I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I've spoken so that they might believe that you sent me." Then he shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him loose." That was a turnaround for many of the Jews who were with Mary. They saw what Jesus did, and believed in him." - John 11:35-45 (the message)

Ok. So we have three different times when Jesus brings someone back to life. Three different occasions when a large group of people saw for themselves these miracles. Here is my question. Was the mortality rate in the first century only 3? I mean seriously...were Lazarus, the little girl, and the widow's boy the only people who kicked the can during Jesus life? Which leads to the next question...why didn't Jesus do this more? I mean if I was in the crowd and just saw what he did I would be like, "Jesus, bro...homie...my Uncle Frank just had a heart attack last week...you totally need to bring him back...I mean his wife is really struggling right now and his boys are just running wild too...can you do that for me?" Right? We all would. We all have people that have passed on too soon and if we knew of somebody who could do what Jesus was doing...we would be all over that...trying to persuade him to resurrect the dead. And I would bet money people did ask him. (...as my old professor P. Long would say...I'm not willing to take a bullet for that...but I'm fairly confident in that assumption based upon my limited knowledge of humanity and their interaction with life and death.)

Then there is this story in Mark. Right in the very first chapter Jesus casts out a demon, heals Simon's mother-in-law, and then that evening is healing and casting out demons on Simon's doorstep. The next morning he takes off super early and is praying when his disciples find him and say that the village is already back with more sick and crazies waiting for him to heal them. This is what Jesus says...

"They found him and said, "Everybody's looking for you." Jesus said, "Let's go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. This is why I've come."" - Mark 1:37&38 (the message)

WHAT? Jesus was just informed of a whole entire group of people who were in desperate need of help and he bails!!! He takes off. I know some of you are going to be like..."but look...he's going to preach the good news to other people." Whatever. He still left a complete cluster of broken people behind.

Jesus said no.

Why? Why did he do it? Why would the Son of God...the flannel-graph Jesus I grew up learning about...the one I just assumed made everyone better...why would he say no? Why would he just up and leave people high and dry. How devastated were these people when they found out Jesus had just jumped shipped and headed out to another village? I mean...what does that say about these people? Did they feel slighted? Did they feel like they were no longer good enough (...or screwed-up enough) for Jesus to heal? Maybe. But I would argue that Jesus was very intentional about this and for one very specific reason.

I believe Jesus said no, because we are suppose to say yes. Jesus wasn't supposed to be the one doing all the healing. We are. I wonder if a significant part of Jesus' life was simply an example of what we should have been doing all along. Like this story from Acts...

"One day at three o'clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Look here." He looked up, expecting to get something from them. Peter said, "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God." - Acts 3:1-9 (the message)

Ok...so this crippled guy has been placed in the temple door everyday for however many years. Who was one significant figure that had healing power and also was always in the temple when visiting Jerusalem? That's right class...Sunday School answer...it was Jesus. So Jesus passed this guy and never healed him. Peter and John did. I think this is because Jesus wasn't expected to be the ones loving on humanity and creation. We are.

I have this friend Chris. Chris is awesome...he is a little taller than me and much skinner than me. Which means that we should probably be scientifically studying his body to determine how one person can be that scrawny!!! When I first met Chris he was 18 or 19 and total crust-punk kid who loved grindcore and loved to hate Christians. Which meant that Chris and I shared mutual interests making him somebody I love. He was part of this band called Sadistic Slaughter that had a song called "Atheist" and at the end of the song Chris would scream at the top of his lungs "FUCK YOUR GOD!" So I just started loving on Chris and then one night about three months later I'm sitting having dinner with him and he says this...

"Jaymes I'm scared...I'm scared that I can't deny God anymore."

JKLFDKJLDAAJDSF!!!! That's about how I felt internally when I heard that. So we talked for a couple hours about some stuff and afterwards I proceeded to go directly to Mirf, who also knew Chris, and related all the events of that evening. He looked at me and inquired again if it was actually "Crusty Chris" and I said yes.

Mirf - "Annette and I have been praying for that kid for three years."

THREE YEARS!!! Mirf and his wife Annette had faithfully been praying for Chris...talking to him. Just loving on him. Because they had a deep love and passion for people like Chris, but more than that they knew that Jesus was expecting them to show up in the lives of these kids in our Grand Rapids music scene.

I just recently lurked Chris' myspace to find that under religion he has listed "Christian/Other." Now I'm not trying to take credit away from what I do believe is ultimately God's work on Chris' life...but at the same time, Chris was dramatically impacted by a couple of Christians who walked up to him and showed him love. During the "can't deny God" conversation, I asked Chris why he couldn't deny God anymore and one of his reasons was that myself, Mirf and Topher were the first Christians he knew that didn't condemn him for wearing all black, looking crazy and being a vulgar atheist. A few people who were simply faithful to practice the type of love Jesus showed us has had an impact in the life of someone who is now having an impact in other people's lives.

The time when Jesus said that anybody was weary and tired and heavy burdened could come to him and receive rest I think is too often personalized and never utilized. I think that we've forgotten that as followers of Jesus once we've received that type of love we are suppose to turn around and look at the world surrounding us and say, "hey...are you burned out? Are you hurting? Come to us...let us show you love and rest and peace...the same kind our Savior showed us."

much love.